{"id":38855,"date":"2011-05-19T13:32:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T18:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=38855"},"modified":"2011-09-24T16:52:18","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T20:52:18","slug":"no-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/fe-911-2\/no-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"No Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Fe Bongolan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Taking\u00a0a look at the full scope of, for lack of a better name, the “Strauss-Kahn scandal,” one can’t help but acknowledge what a strange legal, social, cultural and political minefield the entire situation is. The accused is a rich, powerful and afflicted man from Europe, while the victim is\u00a0a poor African immigrant widow with a child. The American legal system\u00a0through which Strauss-Kahn is being charged has a history\u00a0of vilifying the rape victim. Then there are the\u00a0conflicting values and attitudes of French and American societies towards\u00a0what is regarded as consensual sex. Finally there is the atmosphere where men of power like Strauss-Kahn are forgiven their “indiscretions” because their\u00a0worldly achievements far exceed their human faults.<\/p>\n

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Under those circumstances, men of power like Strauss-Kahn are perceived like Michael Jackson was here in America — as ‘sacred monsters’ —\u00a0terrible, yet inviolate because of their importance on the world stage.\u00a0On\u00a0websites and editorials from various European news agencies and political blogs, the events\u00a0leading up to\u00a0Strauss-Kahn’s arrest are frequently described using the words “set-up” and “sting operation.”<\/p>\n

Since the news broke, Europe’s leftists and Socialists (there is actually a Socialist party, of which Strauss-Kahn is part) have been up in arms. Strauss-Kahn was the first head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)\u00a0whose leadership had actually helped<\/em> stabilize vulnerable member nations of the IMF during the global financial meltdown that started in September 2008, specifically countries in the eurozone: Greece, Portugal and Ireland. As a potential candidate for the Socialist Party of France, he looked\u00a0like the serious contender to unseat current President Nikolas Sarkozy, a member of France’s Conservative\u00a0Party and product of the Neocon movement.<\/p>\n

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For those of us who need to know\u00a0about the IMF and why Strauss-Kahn was important, let’s break this down. There are two major financial institutions governing the world’s economy: the World Bank and the IMF.<\/p>\n

Both formed in 1945, these two institutions were charged with the responsibility to stabilize, rebuild and develop nations decimated by World War II. Wikipedia’s editors write: “While both the IMF and World Bank<\/a> loan to depressed and developing countries, their loans are intended to address different problems. The International Monetary Fund mainly lends to countries that have balance of payment problems (they can not pay their international debts), while the World Bank offers loans to fund particular development projects.”<\/p>\n

The IMF’s principal responsibility\u00a0has been\u00a0to provide loans to help finance struggling nations, stabilize exchange rates and “assist the reconstruction of the world\u2019s international payment system.”\u00a0Yet, it has had a checkered past involving its Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), and\u00a0was involved in the privatization of water in Bolivia,\u00a0killing subsistence farming in rural areas in the developing world\u00a0and making water accessible primarily to larger agribusinesses. As of 2010, under Strauss-Kahn, the IMF described itself as an organization of 187 countries, working “to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.\u201d The loss of\u00a0Strauss-Kahn’s leadership, particularly at this fragile\u00a0moment in global economic recovery,\u00a0leaves many in Europe uncertain as to the future of the eurozone’s finances, and for that matter the state of finances in the world.<\/p>\n

By the time Dominique Strauss-Kahn enters court for a bail hearing, we will have heard more speculation\u00a0from both sides of the Atlantic\u00a0about the incidents leading up to his arrest and arraignment in New York than maybe is fair — for both him and the victim. Strauss-Kahn’s legal team is headed by Benjamin Brafman, an attorney with the reputation of being very successful in getting high-profile clients\u00a0such as Sean Combs, Jay-Z and,\u00a0oddly enough, Michael Jackson out of trouble.<\/p>\n

Mr. Strauss-Kahn joins a community of other flawed and powerful men who\u00a0are successfully functional in vaunted halls of power,\u00a0yet have private lives\u00a0that are a personal hell for themselves and others, and who suffer in silence and secrecy because of it. Yet, regardless of how flawed the men, the arenas of power they exist in allow them a zone of ‘No Rules’. The roles they play require freedom of movement to make decisions necessary\u00a0for millions of lives,\u00a0billions of dollars and the state of the world and all that spins in it. This is neither right nor just, but is what it is.<\/p>\n

Had\u00a0Dominique Strauss-Kahn been a simple private citizen, would having to live under rules that govern behavior made a difference in his demeanor? Would it have forced him to seek help because his behavior was intolerable? If he was not a brilliant economist would\u00a0society go easy on him?<\/p>\n

With all these forces coming to bear, it’s no wonder the victim is terrified. It’s not just the legal circus that she will have to endure because of her accusation, but the\u00a0world of power\u00a0that is about to pound mercilessly at her front door. Ironically, it\u00a0was Strauss-Kahn who said “At the end of the day, the poorest\u00a0— as always\u00a0— pay the most.”<\/p>\n

Both she and Strauss-Kahn are symbols and victims of the institutions and societies\u00a0and their\u00a0lack of\u00a0rules which protect one group at the expense of the other. Cynical as we can all be about Strauss-Kahn’s circumstances, and given our jadedness about financial and judicial institutions and what they do particularly to the poor,\u00a0if it goes to trial,\u00a0this case is very much\u00a0about who and what we value and why. Are we ready to look at both defendant and plaintiff in the eye and be ready to judge?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fe Bongolan Taking\u00a0a look at the full scope of, for lack of a better name, the “Strauss-Kahn scandal,” one can’t help but acknowledge what a strange legal, social, cultural and political minefield the entire situation is. The accused is a rich, powerful and afflicted man from Europe, while the victim is\u00a0a poor African immigrant … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1740],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}