Reuters describes Guineans as divided over what is being called a “sex scandal” in a sub-headline:
Residents of the West African state of Guinea were bemused to find their small country thrust into the spotlight by a sex scandal at the top of the International Monetary Fund — and divided over how to react.
Excuse me, but since when has rape been demoted to the status of “a sex scandal”?
I mean, can anyone imagine the outcry if the Duke La Crosse incident had been reported that way? The usual standard in these cases is supposed to be that women are assumed to be telling the truth, right? And men — especially white men — are assumed to be lying. Especially when their accusers are other than white. Unless the standard to be applied in the case of the IMF chief is not the same, I’m not getting it. Have the anti-IMF anarchist rioters somehow failed to weigh in?
Or is analysis now dependent on competing conspiracy theories?
“From what we’ve seen in the media, she’s a Guinean from the Labe region,” said Conakry resident Souleymane Bah of the woman, whose name is not being published for legal reasons.
“We don’t understand why the Guinean authorities have not yet taken a position on this case.”
Guinea’s forays into the world headlines in the past have typically centered around its own frequent upheavals since independence from France in 1960, or around big mining deals aimed at bringing its bauxite and iron ore deposits to market.
But on Thursday the bars and cafes of Conakry, the crumbling seaside capital of the country of 10 million, were abuzz with competing views on whether Strauss-Kahn’s accuser was a victim, or part of a plot to wreck his French presidential ambitions to the benefit of the sitting head of state, Nicolas Sarkozy.
“It is a strategy to smear the man because Sarkozy saw him gaining ground,” Sene Djaboula, a taxi driver, theorized.
“Guineans shouldn’t interpret this in any other way.”
Others disagreed — the dividing line between rival theories often seemed to follow the country’s ethnic divisions. Those from the woman’s ethnic group, the Peul, who are a major group across the region, tended to accept her allegations as true.
What fascinates me is that whether the allegations are true seems to depend more on what people want to be true than analysis of the facts. In the case of a poor country, perhaps money has something to do with it.
Sad.
My own opinion is that the man should be treated as innocent until proven guilty, and if he is convicted, sent to prison like any other convicted rapist.