Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Dr. Chidi Amuta is Executive Editor of USAfrica, since 1993
The occasional temptation to clandestinely steal a kiss here, stroke a breast there or pinch a drooping bum there can lead manyhealthy males into behaving like unguarded adventurous youngsters. Sexual sin is what happens when female attraction points are left carelessly loose and at the easy disposal of adventurous men with active libido. The occasional lure of deviant behaviours can tempt even the most powerful of men to transgress occasionally. But when male sexual deviance degenerates into a casual sport massively subscribed to by droves of highly placed citizens mostly leaders, national morality is in jeopardy. Sexual bad manners becomes a game played by the high and mighty in reckless disregard as to who is watching or is being influenced.
It gets worse when the club of deviants has a grand patron who provides the infrastructure, environment and liquid cash to fund the escapades. What begins as a trickle of well –heeled casual fun seekers could balloon into a “frequent flyers” club of select elite.
Men and women of stature and means get busy with the logistics and record keeping of the ‘club’ for other purposes. Profiles of key patrons are secretly documented. Copious files of mails, videos, photos and biometrics are accumulated by the ‘service providers’. Business and official government high value information could be exchanged and collected under the canopy of free fun and casual flicks. Reckless sexual indulgence becomes a highway that leads literally to nearly every high place.
The collective of practitioners becomes something of a club or cult of the privileged and powerful. The high and mighty go and come as in excursions of excited youngsters. Young women are reduced to sex objects and toys to be played with, abused and exploited by those who have power, money and recreational amenities and pleasures in abundance. Private jets and yachts, private islands replete with oceans of champagne, choice menu and other pricey creature comforts are abundantly on offer. The things that remain objects of dreams and fancy for most people are lavishly thrown at frequent patrons of these reverie sessions.
The poor victims, mostly young impressionable women, are of course carried away by the generosity of private jet trips to mid sea islands, huge cash gifts, lavish mouth-watering menus of varied exotica and other lavish perks provided by wealthy clients seeking unusual pleasure and fun. New victims are attracted tothe club or are recruited just as more powerful sponsors and subscribers join in the bazaar. Young women, some grossly under age, become victims and playthings of the rich and powerful in return for unprintable perversions.
Then one day, the custodians of the gilded zones of public morality and power remind us that these exotic excursions were not unnoticed. Records actually were kept as sleuths and spooks begin to roll out the secret files, documents, photos and videos. Public curiosity and interest is aroused. Accountability in the public sphere is demanded by the media and public opinion. The identities of the naked gods become public. A scandal is born. Enter the raging blaze of the Epstein files scandal now burning like wild fire threatening to consume the apex of the political and business elite of the West. Most icons and demi gods of politics, business and entertainment are called for questioning for all the rough play they undertook behind closed doors.
The Epstein scandal has remained alive since the man himself was tried and jailed for sex trafficking in July, 2019. He died in a New York prison cell on August 10, 2019. Some say he committed suicide. Others say he was killed to protect the numerous high and mighty clients now being revealed or hunted. But he died anyway as most such men are wont to die. He who must die so that others can keep living! And since after Epstein’s death, America’s Department of Justice has been wrestling with how to keep Epstein’s ghost quiet and its trail hidden by hiding its associated huge files. Between the FBI and the Department of Justice, the restless ghost of a bad guy has remained restless and occasionally resurrected with shocking revelations. Officialdom has been in trouble as to what to reveal or keep secret about Epstein’s activities and his elaborate privileged clientele.
The emergence of Donald Trump in the White House has given the search new fuel. There is a deep and widespread indication that Mr. Trump was variously present at Epstein’s fun rendezvous. While emails and other documents have indicated that Trump had a relationship with Epstein, Mr. Trump is using every leverage in his powerful office to insulate himself from direct criminal involvement. When a restless ghost of scandals enters politics, many rules change. The past comes alive. Past sins become present concerns and things forgotten dance naked in the streets. Virtual deities are stripped naked and people shudder in shock and amazement.
Mr. Trump’s name and silhouettes have been sighted in files and photos around the Epstein epic. He has also routinely disappeared from the photos and videos that should merit trial and possible conviction. But he has vehemently been shielded from direct active criminal involvement through a series of suspicious deletions and redactions by both the Department of Justice and the FBI, respectively. Both agencies charged with tinkering to expose these files are Trump administration outfits, manned by his minions and trusted political lap dogs.
Epstein’s ghost is not about to die. Nor is its association with Mr. Trump’s troublesome trail. One active theory is that many of Mr. Trump’s controversial escapades in office are carefully designed to divert attention from his expansive Epstein involvements. Even the raging air strikes against Venezuela and now Iran have been interpreted as diversionary manoeuvres from the rampage of the Epstein ghost.
Tomes of files with emails, photos and videos have so far been released. A lot more still remains unrevealed. Most have been altered, erased, edited and redacted. No one is certain now about what is in the originals. But the investigations remain ongoing. In the process, Epstein’s ghost continues to ravage the political landscape of the US and its key cultural allies and affiliates in the West. Huge names have been mentioned from among the American and European political pantheon. Bill and Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and numerous other political and business leaders have been mentioned. Some are still living in denial. Others have admitted friendship with the late sex offender. Hillary and Bill Clinton have had the courage to come forward to testify before the Congressional Committee on the matter. While Hillary denied ever knowing or visiting Epstein, Bill admitted knowing the man but denied doing anything illegal with him.
In the UK, the Royal Family has been badly scorched. Prince Andrew has been found to have been neck deep involved with Epstein. He has been stripped of his royal titles and privileges and even evicted from his luxurious royal abode. He has been arrested and questioned like a common felon. King Charles III has had to impose sanctions on his errant brother while distancing the monarchy from his shameful Epstein involvements. In the process, he has reiterated the equality of all citizens before the law.
Similarly, Peter Mendelian, a British political aristocrat and former UK Ambassador and Trade emissary to Washington, has similarly lost his job, been arrested, questioned and humiliated. Even Prime Minister Kier Starmer has had to be viciously questioned on why he should keep his job given his close association with Epstein links like Mendelson.
In far away Norway, the former Prime Minister, ThorbjonJaglan has been arrested and questioned for close links with Epstein. As things stand, no one knows how far afield the ravaging ghost of Mr. Epstein will travel in this epic drama of unbridled nakedness around a reckless sex merchant and his allies.
Yet, Epstein’s troublesome ghost is far from appeased. The whole Epstein drama is a sad ouvre on the hypocrisy of the Western elite. Most of those who have so far come to feature in the Epstein drama happen to be among the leading lights of the elite in the U.S. and Europe.
Ordinarily, the Western elite has come to be associated with the moral high ground of a leading world civilization. Yet theEpstein saga has seen them stripped naked and drenched in assorted lowly infamy. Trafficking underage girls for sexual entertainment has been converted into a hobby by the high and mighty. To have been actively involved with a man who was convicted as a serial sex offender calls into question the moral stature of the Western elite.
The restless ghost of Epstein has been on the prowl in the corridors of power in the West without let. Those in a position to know insist that what has come to light is only a tiny part of what took place. Perhaps, the bulk of the Epstein epic may remain dead and unknown. But for now, this restless ghost is alive and well. It may be one in a classic case of the dead standing in judgment over the living. It is ultimately a moral trial over the elite of a major cultural bloc of our universe.
Over time, sexual morality has come to assume a rhetorical prominence in the West to a doctrinal level. The moral universe of the West emerged from the outlines of an essentially Judaeo -Christian biblical moral code emphasizing a series of . “Thou shall not…” covet thy neighbour’s wife or his daughter or maiden!. To do so is to commit a moral transgression that the led should never associate with their leaders in politics, business or culture. . That limiting moral code abhors polygamy and its variants. It abhors sexual overtures and relationships between males and females who are not their wives or legitimized opposites.
In recent times, ‘consent ‘ has become the operational license to allow sexual deviance in the West. Female activists or those who prefer to be seen as activists have come up with an assortment of movements and epithets to brand their objections. The “Me ,too , Movement “, for instance, has emerged as a platform for advocacy in cases of sexual exploitation and abuse by men with money, power or influence. The Epstein case still remains an Albatross on the neck of a Western elite that would rather be seen as a deceptive near celibate showcase for other cultures- Muslim, traditional African and other indigenous etc.
There however remains an inherent hypocrisy about an elite that insists on a different appearance from its intrinsic natural impulses. The Western elite is the product of the surplus of capitalist prosperity. That prosperity and its superfluous material abundance comes with a ravenous appetite for pleasure and even deviant behavior. The copious deviations and excesses that have come out of the Epstein files are only testimonies to an abundance gone awry. Epstein may be dead. But his trail remains alive and well. His troubled ghost will not stop rampaging Western corridors of power and high streets of big money to claim casualties. Somehow, Epstein’s ghost seems to be on an endless quest for a prized target. Donald Trump would be lucky to escape the fixated gaze of this determined ghost. So far, the barrage of missiles and bombs rained on Venezuela and Iran have not so far distracted Epstein’s ghost from its fixation with the man in the White House.
What the Epstein files, therefore, tell the Western elite is simple: To thyself be true
