I’m not sure what that says about the Kyiv Post or the differences in reaction between the sexes, but it’s interesting to me as an American, where I would have expected the opposite reaction between the sexes back home.
Granted, we’d have to hear the evidence before properly deciding his guilt or innocence. And it should be kept in mind that our discussions about Strauss-Kahn were just part of the usual newsroom banter on any given work day.
Nonetheless, many of us men (including myself) are quick to believe the unnamed Sofitel Hotel maid in New York who told police that a nude Strauss-Kahn attacked and sexually assaulted her after she entered to clean his room.
“I don’t trust this guy at all,” said one of our male staff members. “A lot of people in power think they can do anything to anybody. The IMF is the most important organization in the world these days, so this guy probably thinks he’s the most important person in the world.”
On the other hand, many women on the Kyiv Post staff found the alleged victim’s account highly suspicious and found sympathy with the notion that the powerful and high-profile politician, who had been tipped for election as French president in 2012, may have been the victim of a setup. The tawdry allegations are certainly humiliating and potentially career killing.
Of course, I have no idea what happened. But from the stories I read about Strauss-Kahn, I find it believable that he may be capable of doing what is alleged. While I regard him to be an attractive and articulate man, who knows a lot about the world, his past escapades and his present arrogant demeanor are troubling.
This is the same guy, after all, who admitted to cheating on his wife with an IMF subordinate. Neither he nor his wife nor the IMF seemed particularly bothered by this admission. Still, many of us can and should forgive human weaknesses, for many of us have them.
But the clear-cut crime of sexual assault is not excusable and the fact that the New York Police Department found probable cause to stop his plane on the runway and arrest him speaks to the credibility of the accuser. He did seem to leave that hotel in a big hurry, stressed out and nervous, according to accounts in The New York Times.
Strauss-Kahn is nicknamed “The Great Seducer” back home in France, is on his third marriage and is said to exhibit predatory – or at least overly attentive — behavior around women, according to press accounts. In short, the portrait emerges of a person who is full of himself.
“I don’t trust this guy at all. A lot of people in power think they can do anything to anybody. The IMF is the most important organization in the world these days, so this guy probably thinks he’s the most important person in the world.”
– one of male staff members of the Kyiv Post.
He is also a high-flyer, helping shape the economic fate of troubled nations with hundreds of billions of dollars in loans. Ukraine is on this list of needy nations. Maybe all Strauss-Kahn’s jet-setting on first-class flights in expensively tailored suits and hobnobbing with friends who own $150,000 Porsches have gone to his 62-year-old head.
What he was doing in New York over the weekend is not clear from the early press reports, but he was staying in a $3,000 a night luxury suite. That alone should get taxpayers, the ones Strauss-Kahn ostensibly serves, steamed up.
He probably has stopovers in nations where no woman would dare complain about his behavior, or where many women would find the attentions of such a powerful figure irresistible.
But it seems to me that, even if Strauss-Kahn did not commit the crime of sexual violence, he had fallen victim to an insatiable lust for power and money. It happens to so many people like him: They take over big institutions, businesses or governments, are waited on hand-and-foot by large staffs and travel the world at other people’s expense. They are paid well – millions for chief executive officers of big companies, while “only” $500,000 a year for Strauss-Kahn. They probably have temptation all around and their appetites grow.
Sooner or later, too many of them start believing that they are entitled to everything and everybody they want.
Brian Bonner is senior editor of the Kyiv Post.
