My 'Eh' Moment

Did you know that dark energy makes up about 74% of the Universe, dark matter 22% while gas, stars, galaxies and planets, including our little Earth home make up just 4% of the cosmos? We know this because scientists have confirmed it using cutting-edge technology. Soon the mysterious workings of the Universe will be revealed to us.

What continues to remain a mystery however, at least for me, is the workings of the human mind. While we know that the Universe is continually expanding and what will eventually happen to our planetary star, a lot of the time, however, things that some people do or get up to in this world leave me perplexed. They present me with what I would call my ‘eh?’ moment, where I would have absolutely no clue how to react to them or understand why they happened.

Take for example, the case of the now former Managing Director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn or DSK as he is referred to amongst the global elite that manages the world’s money. Recently I was privileged enough to attend the World Bank/IMF annual Spring Meetings in Washington DC, an important event where international bankers and economists meet to discuss the activities for the year and determine where the money go to in the global world. It was all pretty serious stuff, held in the hallowed headquarters of the World Bank and the IMF, in the US capital and under super tight security and covered by all the major news agencies and broadcasters. For this was no less than the meeting of the world’s top financiers and economists to sort out the world’s financial and economic health. Decisions about countries‘ debts, bail-outs and other financial woes and monetary problems were discussed in these meeting.

DSK came at the top of these global movers and shakers and, as a Journalist, I was desirous to interview him. This was not easy. DSK was a very important person and being the head honcho of the IMF, a very busy person. But I was keen to get more than just a handful of quotable statistics about global growth and the world’s financial health. A face to face interview would deepen my understanding about how the IMF itself works and how decisions are made.

I was lucky enough to be granted a one-on-one interview while others had to make do with attending a non-exclusive press conference. There is nothing like plucking wisdom from the horse’s mouth itself and I felt quite chuffed at managing to procure this unique opportunity, plus a photo op. It was a rather short interview. Nevertheless, I looked forward to having a longer one during the Fall Meetings later on the year.

Which of course, would not happen. My ‘eh?’ moment came when I saw DSK looking haggard and disheveled doing the ‘perp walk’ that was broadcast to the four corners of the world, when he was arrested for sexual crimes in New York. Now, I know that infidelities, affairs and buying sex are pretty common these days, especially amongst politicians and those in power, but still, my poor brain found it hard to wrap itself around the whys and wherefores of this event. Trying to rape a hotel maid? ‘What was he thinking?’ was the only thing that came to mind and, if the charges were true, I trust the ever expanding Universe has its own karmic law on the correlation between power and abuse.

The other ‘eh? what was he thinking?’ moment I got was when I read in the same week about Arnold Schwarzenegger (former Governor of California and ‘Terminator’ star) basically acknowledging he fathered a child with a member of his household staff more than a decade ago. With a household staff? Somebody the family hired to take care of the house and he had a baby with her? And he only confessed ten years later? What kind of mind would house such a profound and longterm deception is beyond rational thinking. I suppose I would have to strike his name off the list of people I would like to interview.

Still about power and abuse, another ‘eh?’ moment I had was when I read a news article about the way a certain large insurance company chose to reward its employees; by throwing an orgy for its salesmen at a spa in Budapest complete with prostitutes. It didn’t say how female salespeople were rewarded but suffice to say that sometimes, when it comes to navigating the mysterious mind of members of the male sex, I am hopelessly lost.

I suppose rather than the usual bonuses or extra holiday time, giving your well-performing employees plenty of action in the nether department is quite a novel way of ensuring company loyalty and spreading the spirit of corporate culture. But I can’t help thinking there is something very disturbing about this, not least because it reinforces the idea that with enough power, influence and money, other human beings could be easily relegated as purchases and trophies for others to use and treat as they wish.

To quote from the article in the BBC, the ‘guests were able to take the women to four-poster beds at the spa "and do whatever they liked".’

"The women wore red and yellow wrist bands. One lot were hostesses, the others would fulfil your every wish.

"There were also women with white wrist bands. They were reserved for board members and the very best sales reps."

Perhaps some human minds are affected by the dark energy that makes up 74% of the Universe.