Made To Worship

It's a national disgrace - but what nation would that be?

You can tell a lot about a country by its political scandals. The relative scale of the incidents and the levels of subterfuge vary from nation to nation – as does the reaction. Silvio Berlusconi’s under-age nightclub dancers, Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s chambermaid-chasing, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love-child and, err, Chris Huhne’s driving points. Which country has been more incensed, and why?

Italians weren’t so much horrified as humiliated by the bunga bunga revelations. Asked to imagine what went on behind their PM’s doors on a Saturday night, they might have jokily suggested that while the Great Seducer presided from a throne, naked 18-year-old models would be made to worship a statue of the fertility god Priapus. That this actually did go on was profoundly embarrassing.

The DSK scandal sparked outrage here and in the US – but what can best be described as dismay in France, where they’re used to the messy extra-curricular lives of Giscard, Mitterrand and Chirac. “Now Sarkozy will look 'honourable’ with his perfect family,” grumbled a Parisian friend. Elsewhere, French socialists were divided as to the real wince-factor: was it worse that the maid was a West African immigrant or that the hotel cost $3,000 a night? The closest thing to anger was directed at the US, for daring to picture a manacled DSK.

As national individuality wanes in the face of globalisation, I’ll bet that each of these countries will be flattened into Anglo-Saxon conformity. France and Italy will be forced to become more censorious not just about sex and affairs but about peccadilloes of every sort, and abject public apologies will be the only way back for disgraced politicians. So there’s an era of insincere televised mea culpas to look forward to – which might rather make one long for the outrageous but unhypocritical days of the bunga bunga.

...

Wondering what happened to the Cannes Film Festival? It was replaced at the last minute by the Cannes Fashion Festival. You can still catch a line or two about the “in competition” here and there, but that’s rather missing the point.

What’s important is that Doutzen Kroes was wearing Pucci on the red carpet, Bar Rafaeli was in Roberto Cavalli and Naomi Campbell was… well, in some strapless, backless, frontless job with cutaway bits.

MADE TO WORSHIP, PIANO; CELLO SONGBOOK

Made to Worship, Satb

See the Morning

Your Study of the New Testament Made Easier Part 2, Acts Through Revelation

Worship that Pleases God : Loving God with Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength