Is the Polanski case an example of the Euro-American cultural divide striking again? Or is it about Switzerland, worried about its relations with the United States after the UBS debacle, trying to curry favor with Washington?
Whatever the cause, the controversy triggered by the arrest and possible extradition to the United States of famed film director and pedophile Roman Polanski is fierce.
For France’s Le Figaro, columnist Yves Threard captures French and Polish outrage by quoting French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand, in part:
“To see him [Polanski] thrown to the lions like this over a long-passed saga that has no real meaning and to see him alone, imprisoned, while he was on his way to an event at which we were to pay him homage, that is to say, trapped, is absolutely appalling. We know the conditions under which it occurred, and just as there is a generous America that we love, there is also a certain America that frightens us, and it’s that America which has here shown us its face.”
Then, questioning Swiss motives, Threard writes:
“What will the Swiss, who are decidedly not the people they once were, do? Have they lost their neutrality? They are no longer a tax haven – they have already handed over the names of foreign taxpayers who had concealed money there. A long-standing extradition agreement exists between Switzerland and the United States, so Polanski could therefore be legally transferred across the Atlantic. Is Switzerland in a period during which is has to buy better treatment from America? This begs the question.”
By Yves Thréard
Translated By Lisa Cabral
September 27, 2009
France – Le Figaro – Original Article (French)
The arrest of Roman Polanski in Zurich for an old moral scandal in the United States has become a political-diplomatic matter. The indignation shown in Poland, the film director’s country of origin, and in France, his adopted country, is fierce.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US