A Literary Vice: Me Too Enthusiasm and Junot Díaz
It all happened at breakneck speed. Before the dust settled, Junot Díaz was on a plane from Sydney back to the United States. The Sydney […]
Articles by Dr Binoy Kampmark
Universities, Branding and Saudi Arabia
The modern university is a tertiary colonising institution. Like the old mercantilist bodies – the Dutch East India Company and its equivalents – the educational […]
Donald Trump, Summits and Cancellations
It was the sort of party you would be reluctant to turn up to, and its cancellation would have caused a sigh of relief. But […]
States of Cruelty: The Dead Refugees of Manus
In those seemingly interminable refugee debates being held in various countries, cruelty is pure theatre. It is directed, stage managed, the victims treated as mere […]
Eternal Disappearance: MH370 and the Hangar Gossipers
It has fuelled enough speculation to fill libraries and populate databases at catchy speed. The disappearance of MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing […]
Australia’s China Syndrome
Syndromes can make for cringe-worthy, nervous laughter. To see the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, struggle with reconciling China the bully of influence with China […]
Tom Wolfe, the Parajournalist
As is the nature of his creepy totality, President Donald Trump has a habit of suffusing the obituaries of the famous and pampered. Tom Wolfe, […]
Unsettling the Summits: John Bolton’s Libya Solution
The inevitable stop, start and stuttering of the Korean peace process was bound to manifest itself soon after the hugs, expansive smiles and sympathetic back […]
The Decency of Violence: Massacre in Gaza
It has the makings of another Intifada: appalling timing in terms of commemoration (the founding of the state of Israel; the opening of the US […]
Remembering ‘Big Dead Place’
The image of Antarctica in common circulation is environmental and utopian. The scientist of valour, the investigator thirsting for discovery in a litmus test environment […]
The Commercial Heavens: The New Australian Space Agency
Politicians have been clambering to the top extolling something that has yet to exist. Scientists are claiming a job boom that has yet to transpire. […]
The Spectre of Torture: The Gina Haspel Hearings
“I’m not going to sit here with the benefit of hindsight and judge the very good people who made hard decisions who were running the […]
Revisiting ‘Love Serenade’
Australian life can seem defiantly absorbed, the defiance induced by insularity and isolation. The characters that inhabit the continent are mere specks of life before […]
Nobel Nonsense: Nominating Donald Trump for the Peace Prize
It seems like rich nonsense, but should peace be attained on the Korean peninsula, with arrangements entrenched to ensure durability as opposed to unconvincing window […]
Irresistible Urges: Surveilling Australia’s Citizens
The authoritarian misfits in the Turnbull government have again rumbled and uttered suspicions long held: Australian residents and citizens are not to be trusted, and […]