INTERNATIONAL & MULTICULTURAL ISSUE - Odwyerpr.com

EDITORIALTales of sexual hijinks smirch IMF’s “austerity” imageThe Washington, D.C.-based International Monetary Fund is supposed to be an organizationof strait-laced numbers-crunching economists dedicated to restoring sanity tothe globe’s financial system. That nose-to-the-grindstone image was forever shatteredlast month when news broke that IMF Chief, Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, wasarrested in the first class cabin of an Air France plane at New York’s JFK Airport forallegedly attempting to rape a chambermaid at his $3,000 a-night suite. He 62-year-oldStrauss-Kahnwas humiliated via a “perp walk” and then unceremoniously tossed in jail atthe notorious Riker’s Island lock-up. New York tabloids rightly feasted on the misfortunateof the haughty Frenchman. Photographers snapped unflattering pictures of the unshavedStrauss-Kahn, which sent shudders down the spine of the chattering classes of France, agroup that long tolerated the womanizing ways of their perhaps future president. The pixalso did the IMF no good.The sordid mess opened a nasty can of worms. The WallStreet Journal huffed that there was little new in the matterbecause insiders knew of the frat-house culture that ruled theIMF. While the arrest of the now former IMF chief is themost recent “black mark,” the Fund “chose to overlook”Strauss-Kahn’s previous sexual adventures, reported theWSJ. In 2007, it gave Strauss-Kahn a “wrist slap” after adumped husband blew the whistle on an affair the then newlyminted managing director was having with his wife. TheFund’s board determined that Strauss-Kahn committed aserious of judgment errors. In contrast, the Journal pointedout that IMF’s sister organization — the World Bank — gaveits then-President Paul Wolfowitz the boot after news brokeDominique Strauss-Kahnthat he helped get a raise for his girlfriend.Strauss-Kahn’s legal team informally reached out toWashington-based TD International for counsel, according toa report from Reuters. William Green, a former U.S. diplomatposted in Geneva and Paris, founded TDI in 1999 to provide discreet and strategic crisismanagement expertise to companies, non-governmental organizations and wealthyindividuals. Before TDI, Green served as President of Parvus International, a businessintelligence outfit.TDI has a history with DSK. He hired the firm in 2007 as his U.S. communicationsresource to help guide the former French government official’s quest for the top spot at theIMF.Lousy damage controlThe IMF attempted to sweep the latest Strauss-Kahn embarrassment under the rug. Itissued a skimpy 46-word statement on May 15 about the arrest of its leader to assure theworld that it “remains fully functioning and operational.” That business-as-usual attitudewas torn to shreds by a New York Times (May 20) article with the headline “At IMF, Menon Prowl and Women on Guard.” It depicted the IMF as an institution run by “alpha males”where women are subject to sexual harassment. The Times reported that the IMF’s ownrules seem to encourage managers to pursue women who work for them. “Intimate personalrelationships between supervisors and subordinates do not, in themselves, constituteharassment,” says an IMF provision. The Fund tried to regroup following the NYT reportto deny its frat house image. “Harassment is not tolerated in this institution,” said a statementfrom Spokesman William Murray. A new standard of conflict requires that close personalrelationships between a supervisor and subordinate must be reported. The IMF effortwas too little and way too late.The Fund’s global role is supposed to be all work and no play. Boring is good. The IMFgoverns the economic lives of 187 nations that depend on it to keep the global financialsystem operating in an orderly fashion. Lately, the IMF is pushing harsh austerity measuresto punish the so-called economic free-wheeling activities that it believes went on inplaces like Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The IMF calls for pain, not pleasure. Excesses areto be squeezed, not celebrated.IMF staffers are expected to be hard-nosed arbiters, not a pack of lecherous skirtchasers.Tough going awaits the IMF. Embarrassing revelations about the financial bodyare bound to be revealed during the trial of Strauss-Kahn. It will take more than just a newbroom for the IMF to regain respectability. — Kevin McCauleyEDITOR-IN-CHIEFJack O’Dwyerjack@odwyerpr.comASSOCIATE PUBLISHERKevin McCauleykevin@odwyerpr.comEDITORJon Gingerichjon@odwyerpr.comSENIOR EDITORGreg Hazleygreg@odwyerpr.comCONTRIBUTING EDITORSJohn O’DwyerFraser SeitelRichard GoldsteinADVERTISING SALESJohn O’DwyerAdvertising Sales Managerjohn@odwyerpr.comJack FogartyNational Advertising Representativejfogarty@odwyerpr.comO’Dwyer’s is published monthly for $60.00a year ($7.00 for a single issue) by theJ.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc.,271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016.(212) 679-2471Fax (212) 683-2750.© Copyright 2011J.R. 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