In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser

IS BALENCIAGA'S 'DISTRESSED' R30 000 SNEAKER ART OR EXPENSIVE TRASH?

I hosted an energetic debate about a controversial limited-edition sneaker released by Balenciaga. The 'distressed' design, looking like very dirty, well-worn shoes that only persons under conditions of extreme poverty may be reluctantly compelled to wear, not having alternative choices, retails at some $ 1,850.

Mikhail Brown, who writes on the politics of fashion, framed a fascinating debate in Sunday Times recently (https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/fashion-and-beauty/2022-06-19-would-you-pay-r30k-for-dirty-broken-sneakers/ ) on whether these dirty broken sneakers could be considered art. He excavated the biography of the designer to make sense of what the motivations were behind this work.

In this episode of In The Ring, gender activist Vanita Daniels ( Director of Rise Up Against Gender Based Violence) joined Brown as fellow guests to discuss a myriad of issues.

Just some of the questions we explored included the following: Is the design ugly? Can a sneaker be a work of art? Is functional value an exclusionary criterion in determining what counts as art? Does a motif that draws on the experiences of the poor, or those of oppressed and vulnerable groups like homeless people and refugees, count as unethical appropriation of their stories? Is it wrong for a work of art to be priced exorbitantly when it draws on struggle narrative? Is fashion necessary political? Or, can I dress as I want without engaging issues of sustainability and ethics? 

Enjoy!

I LOVED LOVED LOOOOOVED reading Into Dark Water - A Police Memoir by Jeremy Vearey. It is so much more than a police memoir. It is a memoir about his life as a political activist, and how that life segues from there into the role of career cop after returning from Robben Island, and following a stint as a Nelson Mandela bodyguard. But Jeremy is an activist, teacher, poet, intellectual, and so this book does not simply chronicle policing experiences - that alone would have been fascinating - rather, the book locates his police work within the social and political milieu of Cape Town, the Western Cape and indeed, and necessarily so, South Africa as such.

I apologise, dear listener, that once or twice the sound quality meanders, because darn Eskom, our useless electricity supplier, cut off the power supply while I was working. But it should not spoil your enjoyment of the episode, overall. At any rate, PLEASE buy and read the book also. 

Enjoy! 

Historian Dr Vashna Jaganarth joined me to explain why Juneteenth matters. We inevitably hear her brilliant narration of many complex aspects to the historical (formal) end to slavery in 1865. Along the way, she talks about the gaps between legal declarations of freedom, and forms of enslavement that continue thereafter. Unsurprisingly, who can access legal justice becomes a matter of class politics. 

Vashna spends a lot of delicious time on food, and what the lives of enslaved peoples have gifted us, and hence why we have certain typical foods on the Juneteenth table. This begins a discussion about the importance of humanising slaves. They did not merely endure, suffer and survive slavery. They also had humanity within the enslaved conditions (itself a form of resistance) - dance, music, food, love, etcetera. Vashna explains why, historically, white supremacy wanted the full humanity for slaves to be suppresed in the descprtions of 'slaves'. This, in turn, means that when emancipatory politics sets out to achieve full justice for the oppressed, it is important to not perpetuate the brittle view of enslaved persons. Vashan explains in this episode what this means and requires. 

We ended the episode by discussing what the modern project of justice for slavery entails, beyond breaking bread. 

Enjoy! 

In this episode of In The Ring, I simply voice an article I had recently written - Pride Month - Mind the gaps in the rainbow - which reflects on aspects of our experiences as queer people within a heternormative and patriachal world. I acknowledge, reference and affirm the importance of legal rights victories. But, these legal victories do not always translate into changes in our social realities. 

Also, within "the queer community", there are many communities, and minorities within minorities, such that "the queer community" needs to be problematicsed. I do so by disentangling some of the issues within "the queer community" that are often obscured when we focus narrowly on the legal wins (important as these are). 

Lastly, this episode also critiques poor corporate allyship, explaining why and how we should guard against gimmicks during Pride Month on the part of companies weaponising our struggles for capitalist ends.  

 

The 2020 Booker Prize winner, Douglas Stuart, spoke to me about his sensational second novel, Young Mungo. Stuart became an international writing sensation after his debut novel, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker, and gained him countless readers and fans in the literary world. In this episode, we explored the story of Mungo in great detail.

As I summated in a review recently ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/opinion-and-analysis/2022-05-19-book-review-the-quiet-violence-of-young-mungo/ ), "Young Mungo is set in Glasgow and tells the story of Mungo and his family. They are a working-class Protestant family, with plenty of trials and tribulations. His mom, Maureen, is an alcoholic. His brother, Hamish, several years older, is addicted to violence, and his sister Jodie, desperate to escape the horror of their circumstances, is forced to play mother to her younger brother Mungo because Maureen is never around."

Stuart started off reading from a scene in which a neighbour, Mrs Campbell, appears to defend her husband who had beaten her up, resisting the moral criticism of him from young Jodie. We discussed, in some detail, the complexities of this scene, and the issues they surface, including the brutalising effect that working on the ships and in the mines had on many men in working-class communities. Without excusing domestic violence, Young Mungo examines the class fissures in 1980s and 1990s Glasgow and Britain that led to some of the social ills that are illuminated throughout the novel including alcholism, religious bigotry, domestic violence, etcetera. 

The whole episode is riveting. Have a listen!

EFF MPs disrupted parliament on Thursday, trying to prevent President Cyril Ramaphosa from delivering the presidency budget speech. It all turned into chaos, and with EFF MPs being ejected. The delivery of the president's speech was delayed by over an hour.

I think the EFF made a strategic error. And that is putting it lightly. Listen to this latest edition of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser to understand the details of why I think the trick employed by EFF should be criticised. The trick did not work for the party nor for entrenching accountability. In the accompanying audio, I explain why I say so.

I was joined by two of your favourite guests of mine on this podcast, Lance Claasen (who is now full-time back in radio as GM of Rise FM) & Thabo Shole-Mashao (former journalist with massive news experience, and now working as a sought after strategist in public relations, media management and training, etc). We debated whether or not the claims by former spy boss Arthur Fraser that president Cyril Ramaphosa is implicated in criminality, should be taken seriously. Or, is this a story that should not get the kind of attention we are giving it (ourselves included in the media)? It was an energetic exchange of agreements and disagreements, but you can make up your own mind about these issues, hopefully finding the framing of them, useful if not interesting also. Enjoy! 

Here's a summary of what well-respected analyst and author Songezo Zibi's new book, Manifesto: A New Vision for South Africa, is about.

You want to buy it. Definitely. And, more importantly, you want to engage it actively, and debate the main contours of his manifesto  with your peers.

Have a listen to my comments in this podcast, explaining why I recommend this book, and doing so strongly. 

For those who want more, here is a link also to the written review published on TimesLIVE

https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2022-06-03-dear-professional-class-songezo-zibi-wants-to-talk-to-you/

I asked former finance minister Trevor Manuel to join me, to chat about a defamation case he has initiated against broadcaster JJ Tabane.

It .... was ... lit. The tone wasn't lit, but listen carefully to every word. I think there will be some explosive debate and discussion about what Manuel said to me in this interview. 

For once, I'm not gonna summarise the essence of his claims.

CLICK IMMEDIATELY & LISTEN! Do share it. [And remember to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode because subscribers get pinged when a new one drops.]

Enjoy

My goodness. Thando Pato has been through A LOT, and she has left it all on the pages of her 'sober lit' memoir, On The Rocks: Memoir of a High-Functioning Alcoholic. 

I invited her to come and share her multiple journeys, from her toxic relationship with alcohol, battling to accept she is an alcoholic because of the shame and self-shame attached to the word; to her diagnosis of breast cancer, quite apart from anxiety and depression, and an addiction to sugar, and so much more...

Many of us who project and perform success and functionality will see ourselves in parts of her story and her journey.

You really should buy the book but in the meantime enjoy - not that that is the right word - this candid, generous and authentic conversation she had with me.