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The IMF Chief’s Rape Charge: Metaphor for the IMF’s Abuse of Power
I don’t like using the word rape as a metaphor, but the charge against the head of the International Monetary Fund is almost a perfect metaphor for the IMF’s role in the world.
IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is accused of attempted rape against an African maid in a luxury hotel in New York City.
And while the truth of this allegation remains for the legal system to sort out, screwing helpless people over in the Third World (and Eastern Europe: see Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”) is what the IMF is all about.
For decades now, the International Monetary Fund — this instrument of the U.S. Treasury and global capitalism — has required developing countries that are in financial trouble to devalue their currency, slash employment in the public sector, and slash government subsidies for such essentials as food and fuel.
If the countries refuse to follow this advice, they don’t get the IMF’s bailout money and their economies continue to go down the drain.
This is coercion of the worst sort.
It results in drastic cuts in the living standards of millions of people literally overnight. It leads to mass unemployment— and often to food riots.
And while the IMF twists the arms of these developing countries, it also demands that they open up their economies to multinational corporations and banks, which imperils their sovereignty.
The IMF abuses power to get its way.
And that’s what the IMF’s chief is accused of doing, too.
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19 Comments so far
Show All" Screwing helpless people over in the third world ( and Eastern Europe: see Naomi Klein's " the Shock Doctrine " ) is what the IMF is all about". Very true! Whether the allegations are true or not, the fact that Kahn was staying in a $3,000.00 a night suite is also a metaphor for the corruption and abuse of power of the IMF.
Michael Whitney has a different take on this at
http://counterpunch.org/whitney05162011.html
I saw that article too. A must read.
Excellent article. Thanks for posting. From the beginning (and my first exposure to this incident was on BBC World News radio) I felt there was something more to it than what we were being told.
I condemn rape and I don't like the IMF but, that that having been said, there have recently been a few folk who ran afoul of the power elite who have been sucked into "honey traps" that stopped them in their tracks. Strauss-Kahn recently downgraded the credit rating of the United States. His fate seems somewhat similar to, say, Fetzer, Spitzer, Assange and Ritter. I smell a rat.
Tony Vodvarka
One of the big problems with charges of rape that seems to have arisen in the last couple of decades is that, in a she-says, he-says situation, no physical injury or evidence of contact, no wittnesses, the burden of proof often falls on the male to prove something did not occur, quite in opposition to habeus corpus. This is precisely why the "honey trap" has proven to be such an effective tool of political assassination. It is easy to set up and almost imposssible for the victim to defend himself. Julian Assange's present predicament, under arrest for months and held until futher charges can be trumped up, all based on the most preposterous interpretation of rape, is an obvious example of this. I apologize for an error in my post above, Fetzer is incorrect, I meant Ruppert.
Tony Vodvarka
However, if there is no actual sexual contact, DNA testing is of no use. I believe Ritter is being accused of some sort of long-distance rape by means of telephone.
Our man Matthew Rothschild at the Progressive is on the job and telling it like it is-- sexual abuse as a metaphor for what the IMF is doing to so many countries with their version of the "Shock Doctrine." Naomi Klein told us the truth as well on so much of this. It's sickening!
As other readers have pointed out, Strauss-Kahn was reversing some of the worst policies of the IMF and he had enermies. Accusations of sexual misbehavior seems to be the favorite character assassination tool of the elite.
Assange who was exposing the lies of the elite, Spitzer who had the banksters in his sights before they destroyed the economy.
The trial by press that is taking place is highly suspicious.
Any 32 year old woman that can't outrun an elderly, overweight, barefooted man may not be really trying?
"Any 32 year old woman that can't outrun an elderly, overweight, barefooted man may not be really trying?
.."
So. let's accept this argument for the moment. Let's say she wasn't really trying to get away, she wanted him to catch her, so she could set him up. So, your argument is that it was fine then? If she says no, but could not get away, because in your opinion, she wasn't trying hard enough to get away, sexual assault is fine then? If I beat you into a bloody smear on the street, it is your fault, because maybe, you weren't trying hard enough to prevent me from beating you into a bloody smear? You are placing the burden of the crime onto the alleged victim, instead of on the alleged perpetrator.
Also, she DID outrun him in the end.
As for the trial by press, he's the head of the IMF. Not some ordinary guy. Of course there will be press coverage. It would be highly suspicious if there was no, or little, press coverage.
We do not know what happened, cadawa and I agree with the suspicions in your post except for the last sentence. We do not know the facts, but you have to take into account that there is an element of surprise, an element of social inequality, a fear of losing a job, a fear of messing up the citizenship process and other things that can blunt a woman's response.
TSA groping minors at public airports, OK
UN ambassador Susan Rice accuses libyan troops of viagra fueled rape, exposed. she keeps her job. OK
Military rape rampant. some estimates 1/3 female soldiers raped. OK
military contractor rape, OK
saddam used viagra. saddam sons rape parties. OK
OBL watching porn in mtn villa. not OK
Assange raping CIA plants in Sweden. not OK
Jessica Lynch rape story. blown. OK
Fox reporters rape victim attire slutty. OK
any furious pastors (terry jones, pat robertson) posting comments today. OK
Another socialist spending other peoples money in a $3000.00 per night hotel in New York, you got to love that.