In this epsiode of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser I share my recent essay ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/opinion-and-analysis/2022-08-09-eusebius-mckaiser-searching-for-the-meaning-of-life-in-your-grey-hair/ ) about the meaning of life. Searching for meaning need not be dreary. I draw on existentialism to reflect on the quandary of making sense of our existence
Do you also, wittingly or otherwise, change languages or accents or vocabulary between different spaces (for all sorts of reasons)? [Many of us do so at school, in lecture rooms or at work] In a country like ours, with so much diversity, and skewed cultural and economic power distributions, sometimes you have to code-switch in order to survive, to be accepted, to fit in, in order to THRIVE/EARN... It can be funny, innocent, silly. It can also, at other times, be costly, and even toxic and oppres...
Based on an essay I recently wrote ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/opinion-and-analysis/2022-08-02-eusebius-mckaiser-outrage-about-rape-must-be-accompanied-by-action-heres-what-we-might-do/?device=feature_phone ) about rape culture, in response to the gang-rapes that had happened in Krugersdorp here in South Africa, I narrate the content of my essay. It focused on several aspects of our responses to incidents of rape when they are reported: a) an inappropriate grading of rape an...
Brilliant historian Vashna Jagarnath is back!! We have decided to show James Baldwin lots of love in August, with three or four podcast episodes dedicated to the life & times of Baldwin. If you secretly don't know anything about Baldwin but have been too embarrassed to say so, we will bring you up to speed, and you'll know what the fuss is about. Hopefully it will inspire you to read him, and seek out audio and visual materials featuring him too. There is plenty of primary sources and even m...
Theuns du Toit was found guilty of violating various clauses of Stellenbosch University's disciplinary code for students and amended residence rules. The findings were deemed sufficiently serious to justify expulsion. Is Theuns du Toit a drunk who lacked control of his bodily functions and urinated on a fellow student’s property? Or is he a white student who intentionally urinated on a black student’s property, motivated by racial superiority? The answers, yet to be settled with finality in vari...
I know many of you will be shocked that I agree with SOMETHING said by former president Thabo Mbeki. But an ad hominem response to his speech at the memorial service held in honour of the late ANC leader Jessie Duarte would not be useful. In this episode of In The Ring, I tell you what Mbeki said about Ramaphosa, explain why I agree and tell you the irresistible conclusion that follows from all this. Have a listen!
Ida B Wells was a brilliant anti-colonialist activist, journalist, writer, teacher and a leader within the human rights movement of her time. Born on 16 July 1862, she grew up during a time when the legal end of slavery did not translate into an anti-racist United States of America. Lynchings, for example, which is a dominant theme of her work, was one mechanism used by white supremacists to continue instilling fear within Black people, and to continue social and economic oppression through that...
Police minister Bheki Cele shouted at some guy called Ian Cameron (from an outfit called Action Society) at a community safety event in Gugulethu, Cape Town. It is one of the most horrendous acts of public bullying from a politician I have seen. In this edition of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser I analyse the issues: what might have triggered the minister's response? Is there any explanation for his shouting? How should we (properly) characterise it? Are there factors that should make us soft...
A debate that's never been settled- and perhaps never will- is whether or not president Cyril Ramaphosa is liable for the deaths of 34 mineworkers in August 2012. He was a director of Lonmin, the mining company the workers worked for. In a series of emails with other leaders of the company, Ramaphosa described the mineworkers strike action as "dastardly criminal" and he promised to convey that sentiment to the security cluster within government so that "concomitant action" could be taken. A cour...
I asked you to send me any questions, without fear of being shamed or lashed, that you have about homosexuality/queer people/"the queer community" etc. There were too many! We'll do another round in future. For now, in this episode of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser, I offered answers or thoughts (where clear answers evaded me) in response to the following ten sets of questions/comments: Question 1 Where do you stand on the recent ruling that trans women can't participate in professional swim...
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://...
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 - rath...
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 gifte...
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, ...
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...
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...
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 sh...
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.times...
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 ...
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 p...
Haji Mohamed Dawjee has written a fantastic second essay collection, Here's The Thing, as a follow-up on her well-received first collection, Sorry, Not Sorry. I invited her to chat to me about her latest book. It spans many themes, from parenting to mental health, cancel culture and online mob attacks, complex relationships with our parents, suicidality, and much more. I have written a review of the latest book ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/opinion-and-analysis/2022-04-25-book...
It is weird to write about brilliant actor Jamie Bartlett in the past tense. He was a larger than life human, and an astounding actor. I profiled him a few times over the years, and we had many conversations offline, sometimes clubbing in Melville. In this podcast, I share some of his reflections, in his own distinctive voice, on so many topics from the burden of fame, dealing with PTSD, his love of David Bowie, parenting, and so much more. RIP Jamie. You'll never be forgotten....
I invited Daily Maverick's Mark Heywood (himself an author, and also a well-known activist who has spent decades fighting for justice) to join me to talk about Young Mungo, the second novel written by brilliant Douglas Stuart. Stuart won the Booker Prize for his stunning debut, Shuggie Bain. I couldn't ask for a better guest than Mark. He has a deep love of literature and of reading - he really remains a student of literature - and he found the evocative writing of Stuart in both of his novels t...
The law only allows three exceptions to the use of symbols of hate such as the old SA flag. These exceptions include the usage of the symbol for purposes of bona fide artistic ends, academic endeavour or journalism. The gratuitous display of the old SA flag, for these reasons, has been declared as constituting hate speech. AfriForum is hoping to persuade the supreme court of appeal that general free speech rights are impermissibly restricted by such a declaration. The Nelson Mandela Foundation a...
We often bitch and moan about the state of our politics. Justifiably so. There are glaring weaknesses in all of our main political parties- from the governing African National Congress to the two biggest opposition parties, Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters. Many smaller parties emerged in recent years, some doing well during the recent local government elections, but even they come with downsides such as populism and xenophobic sloganeering from their leaders. This raises an obv...
Afriforum is hiding behind free speech rights in order to justify their nostalgia for apartheid. In this episode of In The Ring With Eusebius McKaiser I explain why the legal debate is less important than the political and moral debates. I explain why we should be concerned about anyone who desires to cling on to symbols of hate, symbols of trampling on black people's dignity. There are issues here that the law cannot settle. I frame these for public discussion. The legal issues are less clear c...
I asked University of Cape Town's Jacques Rousseau (lecturer in critical thinking and ethics) to help me puzzle through the latest instantiation of the free speech debate. It's been sparked by the news that Elon Musk, who describes himself as a free speech absolutist (whatever that means), is buying Twitter. The difficulties are several: at a theoretical or principled level, what kinds of speech acts (if any) should be barred? And, related, how feasible is online policing of content anyway (assu...
In this edition of In The Ring, I explain two ways in which you should NOT try to tackle racism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression in the workplace and elsewhere. There is a tendency to look for 'quick fixes', and I give examples of what these mistakes are. I outline, as an alternative, a different strategic pathway for companies to embark on, if they are genuinely committed to transforming the workplace - or any institution and any space - into a genuinely socially just environment that ...
Professor Sarojini Nadar (University of Western Cape) responded( https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times-daily/opinion-and-analysis/2022-04-16-god-grief-and-good-friday-a-response-to-eusebius-mckaiser/?fbclid=IwAR0SioBDrOuKohEuxvKf2-i51Uvrtz2ow9V8X43wWBwzCero5zZ-1P8p3iI ) to an article in which I had argued that the God I was taught about in Catholiism does not exist ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2022-04-15-eusebius-mckaiser-i-was-taught-god-exists-that-is-a-lie-heres-why/ ). I argued tha...
Some people are upset by a recent article I wrote ( https://www.timeslive.co.za/ideas/2022-04-15-eusebius-mckaiser-i-was-taught-god-exists-that-is-a-lie-heres-why/ ) in which I had argued that evil is imcompatible with God's alleged omnisience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence. Many of the responses to me were sheer bile, and one of them appealed to 'free will' as an explanation of why God cannot interfere in natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. In this edition of In The Ring With Euseb...
