Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Spending More On Nukes: STRATCOM’s Nuclear Death Wish

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 11, 2021

Being sufficiently able at your job is a good thing. But beware the trappings of zeal. When it comes to the business of retaining an inventory for humanity’s annihilation, the zealous should be kept away. But there Admiral Charles Richard was in April this year, with his siren calls, urging the US Senate to consider a […]

Crashing Out in Hartlepool: Labour Ills and Teflon Boris

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 10, 2021

By-election results make poor predictors. The government of the day can often count on a swing against it by irritated voters keen to remind it they exist. It’s an opportunity to mete out mild punishment. But the loss of the seat in Hartlepool by the British Labour party is ominous for party apparatchiks. For the […]

Going to Court: The EU Sues AstraZeneca

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 09, 2021

It has been a relationship of characterised by bitterness and misunderstanding. It began with a poorly negotiated agreement – poor, that is, from the European Union perspective – between Brussels and AstraZeneca for the supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses. Less rigorous in terms of penalties and consequences than the UK-AstraZeneca deal, the EU version was […]

Quibbling Over Cruelties: Human Rights Watch, Israel and Apartheid

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 07, 2021

Criticism of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians has always induced a defensive rage from its defenders and advocates. A Threshold Crossed, a report by Human Rights Watch, lit several fires of rage and disapproval. Israel, according to the authors, is responsible for apartheid policies. The word, and the application of its meaning, is immemorially nasty. This […]

Forgetting Citizenship: Australia Suspends Flights from India

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 07, 2021

As India is being devastated by COVID-19 cases that have now passed a daily rate of 400,000, affluent and callous Australia has taken the decision to suspend all flights coming into the country till mid-month. The decision was reached by the Morrison government with the blessing of the State Premiers and the Labor opposition. Not […]

A Very British Case: Postmasters and Miscarriages of Justice

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 06, 2021

British justice is a splendidly odd animal. Its miscarriage is one of those wonders of institutional repetition. When textbooks are written on the subject, one will feature prominently. On April 23 this year, the convictions of 39 former sub-postmasters were quashed by the criminal division of the Court of Appeal. They had been accused, and […]

Mike Pezzullo and Giving War a Chance

Dr. Binoy Kampmark May 01, 2021

Those madly titillated by conflict have become bolder of late in the corridors of the isolated Australian capital. In such spaces, insanity can be nurtured with a sickening attention to detail, much of it fictitious. One of the most powerful bureaucrats of the Australian Public Service has made a contribution to a war dance he […]

Joe Biden, Recognition and the Armenian Genocide

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Apr 29, 2021

Attributing names to the brutal acts humans are capable of inflicting upon each other is never without problems. There are gradations of terror, hierarchies of atrocity and cruelty. In these, the pedants reign. Disputes splutter and rage over whether a “massacre” can best be described as a crime against humanity or a counter-measure waged with […]

Ethnic Engineering: Denmark’s Ghetto Policy

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Apr 27, 2021

The very word is chilling, but has become normalised political currency in Denmark. Since 2010, the Danish government has resorted to generating “ghetto lists” marking out areas as socially problematic for the state. In 2018, the country’s parliament passed “ghetto” laws to further regulate the lives of individuals inhabiting various city areas focusing on their […]

Virtual Bunny Hugging: Boasting About Climate Change Goals

Dr. Binoy Kampmark Apr 25, 2021

He seemed frustrated. While Scott Morrison’s international colleagues at the Leaders Summit on Climate were boastful in what their countries would do in decarbonising the global economy, Australia’s feeble contribution was put on offer. Unable to meet his own vaccination targets, the Australian prime minister has decided to confine the word “target” in other areas […]