Human back

• Any examination of Pahad’s full political record will take you back to the heroic phases of South Africa’s liberation history, when prospects for a democratic South African government seemed very remote.
• As a teenager in the 1950s he was busy in the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress.
• This was the equivalent of the youth league of the liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), for Indian South Africans.
• In my own research on the South African Communist Party’s history, groups like the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress were game-changers.

The early years

• Pahad employed ANC leader Walter Sisulu, supporting his efforts to become an estate agent.
• Both Essop and his younger brother Aziz did well enough to obtain entry to the University of the Witwatersrand.
• The Transvaal Indian Youth Congress was led by party members and its political affiliations were very evident in its journal, New Youth.
• Mbeki was then staying in Johannesburg, completing his A-levels through correspondence after expulsion from Lovedale College for leading a class boycott.

Exile years

• Pahad would complete an MA and a doctorate at Sussex between 1965 and 1971, producing a workmanlike dissertation about the South African Indian Congresses.
• Pahad’s most conspicuous activity during his exile was his deployment in Prague at the World Marxist Review; acknowledgement by the Communist Party of his status as a reliable theoretician.
• He and Meg lived in Prague between 1975 and 1985, and their two daughters were born there, attending Czech schools.

Right-hand man

• At that time Mbeki’s future succession to the presidency was uncertain and the party was one key constituency.
• But it is true that Pahad’s subsequent political career would be defined by his status as Mbeki’s trusted friend, his best man as it were, a function he actually performed at Mbeki’s wedding in 1974.
• So, during the presidency of Nelson Mandela (10 May 1994-16 June 1999) he served as Mbeki’s “parliamentary counsellor”.

Diligent

• He surprised even his critics with the diligence with which he supported the offices placed under his authority as minister, for example urging municipalities to “mainstream” disability rights.
• He had invited Ajay Gupta to join the International Marketing Council in 2000, an appointment that he subsequently regretted.

• For some, Barbie is the ultimate “girlboss” – she’s glamourous, successful and owns her own DreamHouse.
• For others, Barbie represents an outdated female stereotype – a “blonde bimbo girl in a fantasy world”, according to Aqua’s 1997 hit song Barbie Girl.
• Just ask the man with the megaphone stood outside the press screening of the new Barbie film that I attended in Leicester Square.
• Vehemently protesting the film, he insisted that Barbie is a bad role model and a danger to young women.

Barbie in the real world

• In the real world, Barbie is shocked to find that things are a little different than in Barbieland.
• While Barbie says she feels “ill at ease” in these situations, Ken (Ryan Gosling) feels “admired”.
• Like real women, Barbie is faced with objectification and criticism.

Ken’s rights

• It is not long before Ken’s endearing innocence is tainted by a concept that is novel where he comes from: patriarchy.
• Ken becomes intoxicated by male dominance and the film takes every opportunity to lampoon it.
• In other words, the many faces of radical misogyny in modern society, from men’s rights activists to incels.
• Much like the men who are indoctrinated into these radical groups, the Kens are led to believe that their rights are being eclipsed by women’s and find themselves conforming to toxic male stereotypes to regain a sense of control.
• Barbie makes a point that Leicester Square-megaphone-man really needs to hear: it’s not a Barbie doll that threatens women’s rights, opportunities and safety – it’s the patriarchy.

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