Dominique Strauss Kahn: High Risks High Stakes in Sex Escapades

Beyond Breaking News

By Kul Bhushan, Osho World News 

When the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss Kahn, was allegedly caught literally with his pants down, the media went ballistic, as this ‘scandal’ became the hottest global news in May 2011 as he made front-page headlines on newspapers and TV channels.Such was the public indignation at this episode that the media dug up his past sex escapades, tried him and convicted him before the due process of law. A satirical comment was that perhaps the IMF boss thought that the services of the chambermaid were part of the $3,000 he was paying for his suite per night. Such has been the media frenzy that the basic premise of the justice – a person should be considered innocent until it can be proved that he/she is guilty – has been thrown overboard.

But this is not the first – or the last – time that a sex scandal has erupted to shock the American public. In 2007, the former World Bank boss Paul Wolfowitz was forced to resign for similar sexual escapades with his Iranian mistress whom he promoted beyond her grade. The World Bank boss thought that he could bring over his mistress from the US Defence Department and promote her over other colleagues as part of his official duties.

The sex scandals reach right to the top of the American power pyramid right up to the Presidents. John F Kennedy and his secret trysts with the hottest Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe are part of modern lore. Closer to our times are the exploits of Bill Clinton with the intern Monica Lewinsky that almost got him impeached. Celebrity sportsmen like Mike Tyson and Tiger Woods also belong to this list while the parade of showbiz celebrities and the art fraternity in this activity is daunting.

In all this hullaballoo over men on the prowl, it is pertinent to note that women in positions of power are equally predatory. The Hollywood hit of 1994 ‘Disclosure’ was pretty close to reality. Its storyline: a computer specialist is sued for sexual harassment by a former lover turned boss who initiated the act forcefully, which threatens both his career and his personal life. Yes, it happens all the time.

Why do all of them appear to have uncontrollable libidos and indulge in risky and shocking behaviour? Is high testosterone the culprit? Sex specialist Dr Prakash Kothari says, “High testosterone does not necessarily lead to this type of risky behaviour. Desire by itself doesn’t lead to immediate arousal. A heady sense of power and opportunity along with a base of desire can lead to destructive, almost psychopathic behaviour, which leads to forcible sex. This compulsive desire is different from a man having numerous affairs – that’s done with consent. But interestingly, both types could have the same levels of testosterone.”

No, it’s much more than this. Deep-seated mental conditionings on suppressed and repressed sex are responsible as the enlightened master Osho points out. Osho says, “The attraction for sex is the attraction to let-go. There is nothing wrong in it; it is the beginning of the search for God. And of course the beginning can begin where you are. You ARE in the body. So only in the body can the search start. It should not remain there, that’s true, but it cannot start anywhere else. You have to go rung by rung, step by step. The higher you move, the more meaningless the lower starts becoming. Not that you are against it, but because you are gaining higher ecstasies — who bothers about the lower?

“The man who is against sex is below sex. He has fallen below sex, he is obsessed with sex. His twenty-four hours will be full of sexual thoughts, fantasies. And you can watch, he will show his fantasy, his repression everywhere. You can see him walking on the road — he will not be able to walk naturally. A beautiful woman passes by, then what do you do if you are carrying great repression? Trembling comes in him. He starts looking the other way, or he escapes into a small street to avoid her. He cannot look at the woman. By looking he is showing where his interest is. But by not looking he is also showing his interest.” (I Say Unto You. Vol-3).

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Lady Di Lives! Only in Newsweek

It’s amazing how an imaginative magazine cover can make global news instantly with 1,047 items on the web.

In the 4 July issue of Newsweek, a computer-generated image of Princess Diana is shown with Kate Middleton, the recently married wife of Prince William, on the cover. Diana was killed in a car accident in 1997 and would have turned 50 on Friday. In April, Middleton married Prince William, the oldest son of Diana and Prince Charles. Newsweek brought them together in a news-making, controversial cover.

Inside the magazine, Tina Brown created a Facebook page for Lady Di and wrote an article imagining how she would have lived had she not died in the car crash in Paris in 1997. A Facebook page was created for Diana showing her current friends, Interests, Movies, TV shows, Status, What’s on your mind? and even her Tweets!

Another computer-generated photo shows Lady Di in a TV discussion with other celebrities. Absolutely brilliant! The cover and the story – ‘After Diana’s Death’ — has been warmly appreciated and roundly criticised. That’s how Tina using her imagination and freedom revived a couple of major US magazines. Now it seems that the time is up for TIME.

Tina Brown took over as the editor of Newsweek last November and has jazzed up the weekly after her brilliant career as an editor in which she revived three top magazines – Vanity Fair and New Yorker; founded a top site ‘The Daily Beast’ and written the bestseller on Princess Diana. Wife of Sir Harold Evans, the former Editor of The Times of London, she has transformed Newsweek with new ideas, attractive graphics, stunning two-page photos and top writers. When Evans came to Delhi a couple of years ago, Tina accompanied him and it was a rare treat to listen to both of them.

News from FORBES online:

Tina Brown plays pretend on
Princess Diana Newsweek cover

Forbes No. 34 Most Powerful Woman in the World Tina Brown is taking major criticism over the latest cover of her recently inherited Newsweek – and I’ve heard she’s pleased as punch.

The special issue, meant to celebrate what would have been the 50^th birthday of the deceased Princess of Wales on Friday, imagines a world in which Diana actively social networks (she’s “Friends” with Camilla Parker Bowles on Facebook, guys!), chooses iPhone over Blackberry (um, duh) and considers Botox for what Newsweek surmises might be an ungracefully aging chin.

If that’s not enough, they’ve used the magic of Photoshop to digitally age Princess Diana and plopped her on the cover walking alongside Kate Middleton.

@E!News called it the “Creepiest Magazine Cover Ever!”

But Tina Brown’s no idiot. A Newsweek staffer tells me the powers that be couldn’t be happier with all the buzz. When summer magazine sales are slow, she’s stirred up conversation—and given herself the liberty to write a fanciful piece of name-dropping fiction sure to sell at the newsstand—all while plugging her 2007 book, The Diana Chronicles.

“In the world disasters of the last few years—9/11, the tsunamis, the Pakistan earthquake, Hurricane Katrina —you know Diana would have been first at the scene in a hard hat with a camera crew (and, by now, 10 million followers on Twitter).”

* Published in print edition on 8 July 2011