Comment du Jour

DSK—Champagne Socialist


The sordid saga of Dominique Strauss Kahn disgraced chief of the International Monetary Fund continues. Allegations that the high-flying money man and presumed heir apparent of the French Socialist Party, sexually assaulted a chambermaid at the posh Sofitel in New York, sadly may be true. Prosecutors have allowed DSK to move from a maximum security facility at Rikers Island, to a decidedly more comfortable house arrest setting in the city’s trendy Tribeca district.

Thus in the course of two weeks, DSK went from the heights of a $3,000 per night suite at the Sofitel, to the depths of Dante’s inferno for the criminal classes, and now to a $50,000 per month Manhattan townhouse.

DSK was the likely standard bearer of the French Socialist Party in next year’s Presidential elections, opposing Nicolas Sarkozy. Now on the fractious Socialist Party side, the field is wide open and the game is about to begin.

In the meantime DSK, the Champagne Socialist, remains under house arrest in his gilded cage of a multi-million dollar townhouse, awaiting trial in New York.

Comment du Jour

Human Rights Council Merry- go-Round


United Nations—It’s one of the traditional Rites of Spring at the United Nations, the election of new members to the Human Rights Council, the 47 member deliberative body viewing and monitoring the pulse of civil and political rights the world over. The full 192 member General Assembly votes for new members within regional groups to serve three year terms. As in the past, most slates presented candidates who went unopposed

Ironically given the composition of some of the Geneva-based Council membership, with countries like China, Cuba, Russia and Saudi Arabia sitting in judgment of global human rights issues is like having Tony Soprano sit on a Senate sub-committee on organized crime.

Balloting for the Asian Group, though uncontested, saw India, followed by Indonesia, Philippines and Kuwait. Again good for multi-ethnic India, a working sectarian democracy, which despite the still terrible undertow of poverty, has been able to keep its democratic structures.

Originally Syria was going to run for the Asian Group. Yet political backlash to the current crackdown on civilian protesters put the Assad regime out of the running.

The United States, and European countries such as France, Germany and the Netherlands strongly lobbied against Syria’s bid for the council seat.
The prospect of electing Syria, a serial persecutor of its own people, was a political bridge too far even for the majority of the UN General Assembly’s voting members.

In the Eastern European state category, competition became more interesting as three countries ran for two seats. The Czech Republic handily won with 148 votes while Romania gained 131. Georgia however lost with 89 votes, largely due to Russian vigorously lobbying against her candidacy.

For the Western European state category, the two seats were unchallenged and handedly won by Austria and Italy. Bravo, both are good choices as Austria and Italy remain sterling democracies and positive examples of human rights .

The Latin American and Caribbean state selection saw four countries contesting three seats. Chile, Costa Rica and Peru were elected. Nicaragua lost its bid. Given the eroding human rights situation in that country, this poses no great loss.

The newly elected Council members will serve for three years.

In fact, fewer than half of the 47 member council can be characterized as democracies. They nonetheless present another flawed reflection of the world.

Comment du Jour

DSK—Beyond Bizarre

How the mighty have fallen! In what could only be called a bizarre sequence of events, Dominique Strauss Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been arrested in New York, accused of the attempted rape of a hotel maid.

DSK, as he is know universally in France, was one of those global high rollers, the kind of person who was jet setting around the world going to global finance meetings and was slated to be the Socialist candidate in next year’s French Presidential election. Instead DSK has slipped from a $3,000 a night, 28th floor suite in the Sofitel to a holding cell on Rikers Island. Strauss-Kahn originally denied the chambermaid’s allegation, but has since said she agreed to consensual sex.

DSK has, should we say, a well-known reputation for being a womanizer but his recent action has landed the IMF lothario amid New York’s most hardened criminals. While many French are hardly surprised about his recent foibles, most are equally aghast over his high profile handcuffing, sans VIP treatment, and transfer to a tiny cell in one of the USA’s toughest prisons.

Humiliation aside, it’s not clear why this high-profile alleged perpetuator had to be sent to Rikers Island when he could be put under secure house arrest with an ankle bracelet and all the trappings. Sending him to Rikers among the lowest levels of Dante’s inferno for the criminal classes, will only sour Franco/American relations and in the end achieve little.

No matter what the outcome of this sordid case, it’s obvious DSK will not be the Socialist Party’s standard bearer against Nicolas Sarkozy, nor will he be running the IMF.

Beyond DSK's blatant stupidity, criminal malice, and moral-slobbery, there’s a man whose arrogance is yet to be deflated.


**Update
As of Friday 20 May, DSK posted $1 million in bail and was allowed to leave Rikers Island and move into house arrest in a Manhattan apartment where he shall have an ankle bracelet and security. This arrangement evokes the Bernie Madoff melodrama where the financial fraudster was allowed to remain in his Upper East Side apartment awaiting trial.

Comment du Jour

First Man in Space 1961-2011





PHOTO: Spacesuit of Cosmonaut A Leonov circ 1970's and Soviet posters at Bonhams


Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Terrestrial for that matter!
Lost among the surge in media stories covering earth-shattering events from the Arab Spring in the Middle East, to the earthquake/Tsunami hitting Japan, to the terrible floods sweeping parts of the USA, there’s the almost forgotten commemoration of an event, really a saga, which changed the world.

Manned space flight began fifty years ago this Spring. In April 1961, Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to fly into outer space. Shortly thereafter, Astronaut Alan Shepard lifted off in a Mercury Redstone Rocket the morning of 5 May 1961 to become the first American in space. Contrary to popular lore and legend, Shepard, a New Hampshire native, was first to fly into orbit before the more high-profile flight by John Glenn almost a year later.

As a way to politically decompress from a high stress and pressurized news cycle, I visited New York’s Bonhams Auction Gallery on Madison Avenue to view a fascinating selection of American and Soviet Space related material relating to the Project Mercury and Vostok programs, Project Gemini, and Apollo 11, the flight which brought Americans to the Moon.

A plethora of orbital photography, signed crew photos, trajectory charts and maps, and NASA memorabilia graced the small but focused presentation, brought the writer back to the halcyon days to space travel, from the 1960’s Space Race with the Russians to the 1970’s space cooperation with the Soviets.

Names like Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra came back to memory along with the more familiar Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Pete Conrad, and Buzz Aldrin.

Other Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and Mir artifacts recalled the extraterrestrial détente between the USA and the Soviet Union in the 1970’s. An actual spacesuit from Cosmonaut Alexi Leonov was on display as well as a number of old Soviet propaganda posters exclaiming “Glory to Cosmonaut Gagarin” and one 1959 poster extolling the success of Sputnik and vaingloriously proclaiming the USSR as the New “Tenth Planet.”

One Earth Orbit Chart from the storied Apollo 11 mission in July 1969, has notations written on the map; sheet one shows the launch site in Florida; sheet two plots an entire earth orbit with the critical “Go or No Go?” inscribed by Buzz Aldrin, and the third sheet shows the earth orbit with the critical command decision, inscribed and signed, “Go for TLI! Buzz Aldrin.”

These Astronauts certainly had the Right Stuff!


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Comment du Jour

Royal Wedding—Why the World Cares

Why shall Americans across the fruited plain rise in the wee hours of Friday Morning to watch a Royal Wedding in London to see a British family which has thankfully not ruled America for 228 years? Why moreover are Americans, with strong republican (small r ) sentiments as we mostly are, so willingly enchanted and enthralled by the marriage of Prince William (second in line to the Throne) and Kate Middleton?

In a few words: tradition, pomp, ceremony. Let’s face it, the regal portrayal of Britain’s classy monarchical grandeur is still something with near global appeal. The House of Windsor (originally the House of Hanover and later Saxe-Coburg) re-branded with a more John Bull British theme in 1917 during WWI, embodies an enduring legacy of excellence, stability, and tradition.

While naysayers, including a strong a vocal minority in the United Kingdom itself, complain about the Monarchy’s cost, let’s face it, the Windsor Brand is wonderful for tourism, the tabloids, and a kind of national euphoric symbolism.

In a world of often crude showbiz and screen idols, where vulgar ostentatious wealth passes for class, and tawdry bling-bling values dominate the social scene, there’s something very reassuring about the elegance and continuity of the British monarchy.

Ask the obvious question. When Kansas school kids visit London what will be among their first stops? Buckingham Palace to view witness the changing of the guard along with other royal regalia.

Royalty does have a certain gilded “attraction,” even though the British monarchy is subject to strict constitutional constraints and does not have actual power to rule. Perhaps Queen Elizabeth II’s stoic sense of duty and commitment to tradition has reinforced the role of the Royal Family.

The attraction of a Royal Wedding is that of pageantry, history and pure glam; this is nothing new really, and in fact may hit a high water mark as the 24/7 media presents William and Kate’s marriage to well over a billion people worldwide, most of them from Republics.

To be sure there are a number of venerable European monarchies; Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden. For example, in Holland, the Royal Palace in the Hague is understated and decidedly low key. But the British Monarchy has managed to control the golden rule of publicity, despite past princely scandals (great for the London tabloids), and faux pas and still present the message as magna magisterial.

Royal Weddings have always been popular. The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana became a global media sensation in 1981, with 750 million TV viewers. The Wedding of Prince Andrew and Sara, Duchess of York in 1986 equally made headlines.

The subject has always captivated Americans at the box office too. In 1951 the movie Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire a big hit. A few years back, the movie The Queen, a portrayal of current Queen Elizabeth II, facing the tragedy of the untimely death of Princess Diana, offered a poignant inside look at the personal side of the Royal Family. Recently the film The King’s Speech presented a very sympathetic portrayal of George VI, the wartime King who was also father of Elizabeth.

But despite being able to choreograph the pomp and ceremony on demand, today’s Britain is a vastly changed and different country that that which George VI inherited at his Coronation in May 1937. Then Britain ruled one quarter of the world’s people including much of Africa, all of India, Burma, Malaya, and the West Indies. That is long past. Among the few reminders remain Bermuda and Gibraltar.

A memorable scene in The King’s Speech shows his Address to the Empire where BBC studios (I presume Portland Place in London) are ready to broadcast to Canada, Kenya, Jamaica, Malaya, etc. Today the BBC through a series of foolish and penny-wise cutbacks have trimmed most of the overseas shortwave services, including important language services to China, former Portuguese Africa, and Russia.

Despite a conservative government (very small c), Prime Minister David Cameron presides over a British economy in the doldrums as the undertow of a social welfare state has crippled the nation and moreover private initiative.

So in a year a trauma, tragedy, tsunami and conflict, the Royal Wedding offers a glimpse of fairy tale majesty, if only for a day.

Comment du Jour

NATO’s Transatlantic Divide Over Libya

As NATO warplanes blast targets throughout Col. Gaddafi’s Libya and enforce a “No Fly Zone” over the North African desert, much of the collateral damage appears to be diplomatic; especially between the USA and the French/British alliance flying most of the missions, as well as much of the Libyan opposition who complains that NATO air strikes are often too little, too late.

The Obama Administration, after indecisive diplomatic dithering, only signed onto the Libyan operation late in the game. The humanitarian compass pointed to protecting civilians in freed eastern Libya from the dictator more than the strategic aim of toppling the longtime tyrant. When the USA joined Britain and France in UN Security Council resolution #1973 passed on St. Patrick’s Day, the balance initially favored the rebels and the imminent overthrow of Gaddafi. A month later, there’s a stalemate on the military game board.

Initially the United States Air Force pounded Libyan air defenses and radar as a prelude to enforce the “No Fly Zone.” Then Washington shifted gears, and turned the operation over to NATO.

While six NATO countries (out of 28 in the Atlantic Alliance) among them the USA, Britain, Belgium, Canada, France, Denmark and Norway are flying sorties over Gaddafi- land, key NATO members Germany and Turkey sit on the sidelines and are politically sniping away. Thus there are divides inside NATO and across the Atlantic too over an unfocused operation in what has become a civil war.

NATO’s leaders call for “a few more aircraft” to fly ramped-up attacks on Gaddafi’s tanks and troops. Everybody is nervous about “boots on the ground,” namely sending in troops, supplies , and advisors, to help the rag-tag Libyan opposition fight more seriously.

It may well come to boots on the ground—and may I make a suggestion? France who is one of the few countries to diplomatically recognize the rebels in Benghazi holds the ultimate card. Beyond a very lethal Air Force, what about the vaunted and legendary French Foreign Legion?

These are troops specifically suited for this terrain, mission, and overall operation. A few battalions of the La Legion Etrangere, will bring a real meaning of “Boots on the ground” and will vanquish Colonel Gaddafi’s fourth-rate army.

Moreover, is this mission really just to protect civilians from Gaddafi or oust the Libyan dictator? NATO needs to be clear on both objectives.

Comment du Jour

Dutch Treat at the Frick

A hauntingly beautiful and important series of Rembrandt drawings are presently on exhibit at New York’s Frick Collection. While many people usually think of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) as the master artist whose oil paintings grace the world’s preeminent galleries, collections, and museums, the Dutch artist was equally admired for his drawings.

Sixty-five works on paper, among them Rembrandt’s drawings and etchings are on exhibit. The works are masterpieces of unparallel precision and form and relate the life and personalities of 17th century Holland. Equally the works of the Rembrandt School, artists such as Samuel van Hoogstraten and Nicolaes Maes, are among the sketches.

Among the most interesting drawings are self portraits of the Master, sketches which gaze at the viewer from the era of Holland’s Golden Age, 350 years ago, and into the present.

Naturally the Frick is known for its wonderful Rembrandt oil paintings—extraordinary pieces collected by American industrialist and philanthropist Henry Clay Frick a century ago. The famed Self-Portrait of 1658, (purchased in 1907 for $225,000), remains among one of the most famous pictures of the Master Rembrandt.

The exhibit Rembrandt and His School is on exhibit at the Frick (1 East 70th Street, New York),until 15 May. The exhibit is supported, among others, by the Netherlands Foundation.