The startling influence of the United States seems to know no end – and it emerges in the oddest ways and places.
Say what you will about Larry Flynt, the man knows how to squeeze every drop of PR usefulness out of an issue. By calling for a federal bailout of the adult entertainment industry, he not only made headlines across the United States – he has had an impact around the world.
Take for example this article by Francisco Javier Gutierrez of Nicaragua’s Le Prensa, which uses Flynt as a useful foil to rail against Ronald Reagan’s old nemesis and still Nicaraguan president, Daniel Ortega.
In discussing what he considers his corruption-riddled nation, Gutierrez writes in part:
“The comparison between pornography and corruption requires a few more lines of explanation, but first I’d like to beg forgiveness from the members of the porn industry for the comparison: porn stars never pretend to be pillars of virtue or chastity the way but politicians, judges and lawmakers do. Politicians aren’t themselves affected by the crisis; meanwhile the U.S. adult entertainment industry, in the voice of Larry Flynt, has asked Congress for $5 billion to confront the decline in sales. … To seal the comparison, both political and sexual actors earn good salaries, but the fans of explicit sex are satisfied by the money they spend; while citizens are not – they feel swindled and unhappy.”
By Francisco Javier Gutierrez*
Translated By Paula van de Werken
February 3, 2009
Nicaragua- La Prensa – Original Article (Spanish)
We in Nicaragua have witnessed political corruption for so long, that it seems quite stupid now to try and disguise it as a virtue. We share the sentiments of North American Justice Potter Stewart when he tried to define pornography in 1964: “I can’t define pornography, but I know it when I see it.” Perhaps we don’t know how to define corruption in legal terms, but we recognize it when we see it.
The difference is that Judge Stewart had to rule on the 1958 Louis Malle film, The Lovers, in which he found no “obscenity”; while we Nicaraguans see real corruption everyday life, in the plunder committed by former President Aleman and the cynical decision of the [Nicaraguan] Supreme Court to free him. The politicians, judges and members of the National Assembly who support and profited from the decision are all living under a shameful cloud of debasement.
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