By Kim Heung-sook
I believe in the power of love, whether amorous or platonic. For friends, I would choose men and women who fall in love and live through the consequences rather than those who settle safely in the land of no love. Of all the people in love, adulterous couples are the most exciting to watch ― their efforts to hide and their failures to do so. It's true you can't conceal love and smoke.
A few years back, I became an involuntary observer of a middle-aged affair. I didn't mind the fact that he was married and she, separated. The man was her superior, so what? That was my reaction until things turned ugly as the couple began to mix the personal and official matters. She would often stay in the office until late in the evening for few justifiable reasons and would file for a huge overtime pay. He happened to be the one on top of the administrative ladder to sign approval and people began to talk.
When I decided to leave the workplace for good, their love was one of the elements that quickened my decision. Later, I heard through the grapevine that the affair cost him his job and marriage. She left for a better job owing to a recommendation her lover wrote for her before he lost his position. Judging apparently from the aftermaths, my ex-coworkers said the love had been one-sided. But who knows?
Affairs are as varied as diseases and some are quite famous. Paul Dundes Wolfowitz reluctantly resigned as World Bank president 16 months ago due to ``a protracted and tumultuous battle over his stewardship, sparked by a promotion he arranged for his companion,'' as Wikipedia states. Now, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is under scrutiny for similar charges. He has publicly apologized for ``an error of judgment'' in his relationship with a colleague.
``I apologized and said that I very much regret this incident,'' the 59-year-old former French finance minister said in an email message to his staff; his wife, a television interviewer; and the other woman, who quit IMF in August and is currently working for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. ``While this incident constituted an error of judgment on my part, for which I take full responsibility, I firmly believe that I have not abused my position.''
A law firm is investigating the case following an order from IMF's 24 board member countries, and the world will know before long if Strauss-Kahn is telling the truth or his affair has been deliberately played up, as some observers allege, to undermine the French lead in reorganizing the world financial system in the wake of the global financial crisis.
U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto announced earlier this week that he was setting up a high-level task force, chaired by American Nobel Laureate in economics, Joseph Stiglitz, to review the global financial system, including such organizations as IMF and the World Bank.
The French government seems to view Strauss-Kahn's affair as a setback, but I wonder if the French people agree. They may think the timing was good: The world needed some other news than the crisis. If that's the case, the news of the affair served its purpose quite well.
I hope Strauss-Kahn didn't use his power inappropriately for his companion. I hope he will return to his endeavor to save the world from the worst-ever crisis since the 1930s. I hope he and his wife, who said she and her husband ``had put the affair behind them,'' will listen to ``A Lover's Concerto'' together.
If he is found guilty and leave the scene of politics, he may want to go back to teaching. An economist with a Ph.D., he taught at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and as a visiting professor at Stanford University in 2000 and 2001.
This time, he may better find a position in the Washington, D.C., area, preferably the American Enterprise Institute, where Wolfowitz is a visiting scholar. The two men could talk about the difficulties of running international bodies and managing love affairs, while listening to ``A Lover's Concerto'' together. The song is soothing in affaire d'amour and beyond.