http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions...gotistical_wyclef_jean_offers_only_flase.html
Opinion: Stay in the States: Incompetent,egotistical Wyclef Jean offers only false hope for Haiti
BY Ansel Herz
Saturday, August 7th 2010, 1:07 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions...gotistical_wyclef_jean_offers_only_flase.html
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Opinion: Stay in the States: Incompetent,egotistical Wyclef Jean offers only false hope for Haiti
BY Ansel Herz
Saturday, August 7th 2010, 1:07 PM
Hip hop icon Wyclef Jean has said that
he will run for president of Haiti.
My grandmother sent me a short but sweet e-mail
this morning, asking if I'm doing okay here in Haiti,
where I work as a freelance journalist. She said the
country has popped up in the news again because
Wyclef Jean, a Haitian-born musician, is running for
president.
"He has no political affiliations, only celebrities, so
people are wondering about him," she wrote to me.
She's been duped by shallow media coverage
portraying Jean as a fresh face on Haiti's political
scene. Jean likened himself to Barack Obama, a new
hope for the earthquake-hit country, in front of a
throng of enthusiastic supporters here on
Thursday.
Look closely at his record. Jean more closely
resembles Sarah Palin -incoherent, incompetent and
in it for himself.
The pre-disaster financial improprieties of Jean's
charitable organization, Yele Haiti, have been well
documented. To take one example, Jean claims he
founded it in 2005 with a personal donation from
his multi-million dollar fortune. Records show he
didn't contribute a cent.
But Jean nearly redeemed himself when he lent his
star power to spectacularly successful charitable
fundraising efforts in the January earthquake's
immediate aftermath.
If only he hadn't dropped the ball. Like many other
charities, Yele Haiti hasn't spent much of the
donations it received for urgent humanitarian relief
- just 16% of some $9 million.
Now, when asked about his political platform, Jean
repeats vague platitudes about the need to create
jobs, support Haitian agriculture and attract foreign
investment - nearly identical rhetoric to that of the
currently ruling Preval administration.
One difference is that Jean isn't capable of
explaining his plans in French, the language of
Haiti's government, because he doesn't speak it. His
brother describes Jean's Creole as "rusty." It's spoken with a thick American accent.
Jean doesn't speak the languages fluently because
he hasn't lived in Haiti recently. He's hoping
authorities will waive the Haitian
constitution's requirement that candidates live in-
country for the five years preceding the ballot.
That's not an indication of a deep respect for
constitutional law. Nor was his praise in interviews
of armed rebels who rampaged through the Haitian
countryside in 2004. The rebels were part of a
campaign by the elite and foreign governments to
oust then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide
tried to raise the minimum wage and win reparations
from France, the island's former colonial power.
At the time, this is what Jean said of the men: "I don't
consider those people rebels. It's people standing
up for their rights. It's not like these people just
appeared out of nowhere and said, 'Let's cause some
trouble.' I think it's just built up frustration, anger,
hunger, depression."
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions...gotistical_wyclef_jean_offers_only_flase.html
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