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Folha, Brazil

DSK: Would You Vote for a Sexual Predator?

 

"I'm not saying that in the United States everyone is equal before the law. The 'do you know who you're talking to' is a universal practice. But here, would an accusation from a 32-year-old Guinean hotel maid and mother of two, against the all-powerful chief of a large organization, be taken seriously?"

 

By Clovis Rossi

                           

 

Translated By Cristiane Teston

 

May 16, 2011

 

Brazil - Folha - Original Article (Portuguese)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn looking tense at his bail hearing at New York State Supreme Court, May 19. After putting up $1 million in bail, a $5 million insurance policy promising that he wouldn't flee, and agreeing to video surviellance, electronic surviellance and an armed guard outside his door, he won release.

BBC NEWS VIDEO: IMF to choose new managing director, May 19, 00:01:09RealVideo

I suppose everyone knows who the title of this "headline" is about. Obviously, it refers to the the IMF's Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Khan, imprisoned in New York and accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper at the Sofitel Hotel in the center of Times Square.

 

[Editor's Note: Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned as executive director of the IMF to concentrate on defending himself from the charges against him. After putting up $1 million in bail, a $5 million insurance policy promising that he wouldn't flee, and agreeing to video surviellance, electronic surviellance and an armed guard outside his door, he has won release].

 

Before you even ask me, I am answering: no, I would not vote for such a person. Sexual abuse reveals a serious lack of character, and from my point of view, someone with a character deficit that doesn't deserve my vote, even if the person is absolutely brilliant at everything else.

 

But I have no right to let my opinion overshadow the fact that sexual predators can be good at governing. There are famous cases, those of presidents John Kennedy and Bill Clinton, both in the United States. In France, there's the example of François Mitterrand, who held power in the Élysée Palace for 14 years, despite living a double love life, which was only revealed after his death. 

 

OK, I accept that there are important differences between consensual sex (cases Kennedy, Clinton and Mitterrand) and forced (case Strauss-Kahn - if he's found guilty). But the fact that the first three are all-powerful men, always led us to assume that their partners gave in more due to their influence than to the men themselves.

 

Indeed, the case of Strauss-Kahn would fall into this category. In 2008, he became involved with a subordinate named Piroska Nagy (like him, married). But an investigation found that he didn’t abuse his position and that the affair was consensual.

 

He was even acquitted by his wife, journalist Anne Sinclair, who said at the time: "These things happen in the history of any couple."

 

Clinton, too, was acquitted by his wife Hillary, probably based on the same argument.

 

Indeed, these things happen. But couples whose professional careers depend on public voting face different consequences. Hence the question about voting for a sexual predator: Strauss-Kahn is (or was) the favorite to become the Socialist Party candidate for president of France in next year’s election. Every newspaper I read yesterday declared his candidacy dead - as well as his management of the IMF.

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Der Standard, Austria: Europeans Must Act Quickly or Lose IMF
Jornal De Negocios, Portugal: DSK Would Have Been Right at Home at Elysee
Liberation, France: Sex, Power and French Journalistic Principles
Der Western, Germany: DSK and Schwarzenegger: Reprehensible 'Breaches of Contract'
Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, France: Strauss-Kahn: He's 'Nothing But a Man'
The Australian, Australia: French 'Code of Silence' Protected Strauss-Kahn
Financial Times, U.K.: VIDEO: After Strauss-Kahn, Will IMF Look East?
Der Spiegel, Germany: French 'Aghast' at Arrest of IMF Chief Strauss-Kahn
Der Spiegel, Germany: Fall of Strauss-Kahn, the Global Economy's Top Steward
Le Monde, France: Infidelity: An American Social and Political Obsession
Nachrichten, Switzerland: Spitzer's Fall: A Tale That 'Never Gets Old'
Folha, Brazil: Spitzer's Fall and America's Archaic Laws About Sex …
Der Spiegel, Germany: Fall of Strauss-Kahn, the Global Economy's Top Steward

The Daily Sun, Nigeria: Explaining Tiger Woods' 'Lust for White Women'  

Rue 89, France: Tiger Woods' Fall from Grace: Only in America

De Volkskrant, The Netherlands: Tiger Woods: Fallen Star for a Public Age

The Times, U.K.: Tiger Woods 'Blackened' By All-White Trophy Cupboard

The Telegraph, U.K.: Tiger's Birdies Make Golf So 'Rock'n'Roll'

Le Journal de Montreal, Canada: Bonds Tiger Sought to Save Weren't of Marriage

 

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The New York Times, for example, wrote: "There is a general recognition that whatever the outcome - unless the police made a terrible mistake - the arrest of Strauss-Kahn has exploded the political hopes of Strauss-Kahn, unsettled the French political scene and abruptly ended his career at the IMF, which is in the midst of critical negotiations on loans given to struggling nations of the European Union [translated quote]."

 

Some even hint that the likely departure of the managing director will interfere with bailout plans for Portugal, Greece etc. I don’t think so. Strauss-Khan, as any managing director, doesn't own the IMF, whose policies are dictated by an executive board made up of 24 members representing the countries that comprise the Fund. In practice, until already approved reforms are implemented and emerging countries gain more of a voice and a vote, the United States and major European countries determine what the Fund can or cannot do.

 

And the episode brings to mind another question: what if it happened here?

 

No, I'm not saying that in the United States everyone is equal before the law. The “do you know who you're talking to” is a universal practice. But here, would an accusation from a 32-year-old Guinean hotel maid and mother of two, against the all-powerful chief of a large organization, be taken seriously?    

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

Oh, before I forget, the characteristics of the episode reminded me of a previous discussion that, to simplify, revolves around the following question: can one be genuinely socialist and yet live the life the rich? Strauss-Khan was seen last week climbing into the Porsche of an aide. Then, staying in a $3,000 a day suite, he was arrested in the first class cabin of an Air France aircraft.

 

I can't answer the question, and in any case, it doesn’t even seem relevant. From my point of view, what's relevant is the fact that the IMF gives its senior officials and some not so senior unfair advantages (I bet both the hotel suite and the first class flight were paid by the Fund). The bureaucracy of the IMF grants such benefits to its officials while imposing harsh austerity on developing countries.

 

Put another way, the IMF style rankles more than the style of Strauss-Kahn.

 

Clovis Rossi is a special correspondent and member of the Folha editorial board, is a winner of the Maria Moors Cabot award (USA) and is a member of the Foundation for a New Ibero-American Journalism. His column appears on Thursdays and Sundays on page 2 and on Saturdays in the World Notebook section. He is the author, among other works, of Special Envoy: 25 Years Around the World and What is Journalism?

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E-mail: crossi@uol.com.br

 

CLICK HERE FOR PORTUGUESE VERSION

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US May 22, 2:39pm]

 

 







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