Wyclef Jean Haiti presidential bid... Good or Bad?

[R_P_A_S]

from the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10787887

A long time ago I posted a thread about Haiti and I mentioned how Wyclef was always showing love and financial support for Haiti... This was in 2007 when I made this post.

(my thread)
http://www.revleft.com/vb/haiti-poorest-country-t50046/index.html?t=50046&highlight=Wyclef

One of you.. former "Compañerodelibertad" i think it was.. It's he now something "human"? He posted a good link about how Wyclef's family was responsible for supporting the 2004 coup and how they are one of the most privilege in Haiti.

(the link from 2004)
http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/11_2_4.html

Does anyone have any newer or additional information about Wyclef's family in Haiti.. or anything that shows that they are also to blame for the country's destabilization or anything of that sort?

[bricolage]

9pq_3OheqzU

[Adi Shankara]

9pq_3OheqzU

How sad, the man hasn't even started running yet and he already predicts his own assassination.

With that said, Wyclef Jean loves Haiti, and I honestly think he has enough money (for better or for worse) that corruption wouldn't tempt him into raiding the already impoverished coffers of the Haitian treasury.

[Ele'ill]

It would require an economic 'bloc' of countries standing in solidarity- I don't think a person 'running a country' can solve real issues.

[BillKephart]

Honestly I'm skeptical of the possibility of real progress in small island nations. Even a more prosperous Haiti would tend to remain an agrarian and largely peasant society. Could Wyclef act as a "modernizer" and attract industry and foreign investment? I suppose that would be progressive in a historical sense but somehow I don't see it happening. International imperialism wants to keep such nations agrarian.

[NGNM85]

If Sonny Bono could become a House Rep., why the fuck not?

[Sendo]

Honestly I'm skeptical of the possibility of real progress in small island nations. Even a more prosperous Haiti would tend to remain an agrarian and largely peasant society. Could Wyclef act as a "modernizer" and attract industry and foreign investment? I suppose that would be progressive in a historical sense but somehow I don't see it happening. International imperialism wants to keep such nations agrarian.

It's hard for colored islanders to get ahead without our help and investment. It's not our interference that's to blame (centuries' worth of intervention), it's our lack of sufficient intervention.

(By the way, Haiti was only three decades ago, self-sufficient for staple foods and a respectable exporter of cement)

[scarletghoul]

Honestly I'm skeptical of the possibility of real progress in small island nations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba

[The Idler]

What are his politics?

[Soviet dude]

Rapper is No Friend of Haiti -- Wyclef Opposed Aristide (http://newamericamedia.org/2010/08/rapper-is-no-friend-of-haiti----wyclef-opposed-aristide.php)

The title basically says it all.

[Raúl Duke]

His tax issues and the tax issues of his organization, plus allegations that Yele Haiti funds are being misused makes me lean towards the opinion that he'll probably be quite corrupt.

[khad]

Wyclef Jean made a movie which labeled Aristide supporters brutal thugs who execute innocent civilians in gruesome ways.

I hope he does receive a bullet in the face. Or thirty, for that matter.

No Haitian expat eating out of Amerikkka's hand is going to be worth anything.

[Dimentio]

I wouldn't want to be the president of Haiti if so the country was thrown at me.

[Adi Shankara]

It's hard for colored islanders to get ahead without our help and investment. It's not our interference that's to blame (centuries' worth of intervention), it's our lack of sufficient intervention.)

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the way you worded this, but it sounds kind've racist.

or is it sarcasm? of which case, it is hard to tell on the interwebs.

[Dimentio]

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the way you worded this, but it sounds kind've racist.

Yep. Kinda like "all people from Latin America are poor uneducated brownies which we sooooo need to take care of."

[chegitz guevara]

Wyclef Jean made a movie which labeled Aristide supporters brutal thugs who execute innocent civilians in gruesome ways.

According to comrades in Haiti, this was true. And when Aristide stopped paying them, they turned on him and overthrew him. Many of the people who had helped the former President control Haiti were the very same people who turned on him.

Revolutionaries got no business supporting bourgeois politicians.

I don't know Wyclef's politics, but I doubt he's a rev.

[Proletarian Ultra]

Good or bad?

Either Wyclef would do what international capital told him to do, in which case he would immiserate his own countrymen; or he would not, in which case he would face a coup, civil war, or a crippling embargo.

I.E. he can be Mandela, or he can be Mugabe. Them's the choices.

[Raúl Duke]

The fact of the matter is to my knowledge Wyclef has no political experience which one can use to predict how it would be like in terms of policies, besides that he's anti-lavalas.

If one was to look at his capacity as an administrator for his relief organization all one could see is that he may end up being a very corrupt politician using state funds for his benefit, since he used the organizations funds for his benefit and to get his friends on board and paid nice salaries.

[Steve_j]

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the way you worded this, but it sounds kind've racist.

or is it sarcasm? of which case, it is hard to tell on the interwebs.

You left this bit out though, so i think/hope it was sarcasm



(By the way, Haiti was only three decades ago, self-sufficient for staple foods and a respectable exporter of cement)

[Tatarin]

First off, it's easy to sing about what one wants to do, or will do, if one were a president, but has he stood on Haiti, surrounded by Haitians (and not by security guards) and heard their wishes? Sure, maybe Wyclef do have a lot of money, but that much? And what will he do when the state treasury begins running low?

What will he do - even if he becomes the biggest social democrat of all time - when the world starts throwing the socialist cake at him? When the US and the EU starts spinning stories of how high the taxes are in Cub..., sorry, Haiti?

What will he do when other countries starts blockades, and rants in the UN? Will he turn to Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran?

So good of luck Mr. Jean, hope you know what you're doing.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Uh oh..it looks like we've gotten a glimpse of what exact views Wyclef supports. Here's an interview that was taken between Wyclef & Esquire:


ESQUIRE: What changes have you seen in the way people are living in Port-au-Prince since the quake?

WYCLEF JEAN: Before the quake we had close to an 80 percent illiteracy rate. The population could not read and write. Before the quake you had a situation of child slavery. Before the quake you had a high prostitution rate. Before the quake, Cité du Soleil was in an inhumane situation — not even animals would walk in. Before the quake, Haiti got hit with back-to-back hurricanes, the city of Gonaïves was destroyed.

ESQ: That’s a good breakdown of how it was before, but what’s the change been like since?

WJ: One-point-two million homeless. There were homes then. No matter what kind of homes they were, they still were homes. Forget the fact that people live in tents these days. Now, no homes. That will catch up to them.

ESQ: Haitians talk about this being a new beginning.

WJ: Oh, yes. Haiti has an opportunity now to start from scratch, and what that means is, we can get real schools in there, there’s a chance of getting real hospitals, of teaching a population how to read and write, where kids can get a degree, and actually do something with the degree right now. As far as investment and business, this is the best time to invest in business in Haiti.

ESQ: But let’s say this is the moment people on the outside stop paying attention. Can that be reversed? Will Americans keep Haiti on their mind?

WJ: Definitely. I think it’ll stay that way that with Bill there. An ex-president of the United States of America — I don’t know too many stories like that in the case of history, where a former president goes and decides that he’s going to be part of helping run another country. That’s big. It don’t get bigger than that. You know what I’m saying? That signal is, “Yes, the Americans are there.”

ESQ: There’s still a lot of energy in Port-au-Prince — you see kids in their uniforms going to school here. It feels like there’s a certain reverence for school. Yet…

WJ: Let me ask you something: Is that really school? Or is that the façade of school? You and me, all of us here in the States, we know what school is. Nobody bluffs us. In Haiti, there is the façade of school. But this moment — the rebuilding — is an opportunity to actually provide real schooling for a mass population, which can turn things around in the next fifteen years.

ESQ: Should that be the focus of relief efforts?

WJ: Now the effort needs to change from relief to business, because if you don’t have a country where you’re bringing in business — where you’re sure that if you put in a dollar, you’re going to get three dollars back — no one will be interested.

ESQ: I don’t know if this is a difficult question or what, but from my reading…

WJ: There’s no question that’s difficult for me. My daddy was a minister, my grandfather was a voodoo priest, my uncle was a mason, I was raised with a lot of studies.

ESQ: …everyone agrees there’s a small group of families that control money and commerce in Haiti. If that’s so, how can you decentralize that structure in order to do things like reinvent health care?

WJ: The first question is not who they are. The first question we have to ask is, What are these families? They are capitalists. They believe in capitalism, in making money, right? We have to build an open system that doesn’t stop them from making money, that will work for them, if only because what they’re making could double, triple. Everything starts with policy. We just say, If you break the law, then you’ll pay for it, because there’s an enforceable policy in place. In America, we don’t stop people from making money. If you’ve got a dollar, and you can make three with it, make three with it, you can make six, make ten, but — pay your taxes, dude. Don’t do that and you’re going to be in trouble. That’s how I see it happening.

ESQ: Taxation. The Tea Party nightmare.

WJ: Yeah. Understand what I’m saying to you. I don’t bite my tongue — some people may be scared to talk about families — but I grew up in the States, and the reality of it is: if they are in the mansion, and around them is nothing but huts, and a bunch of people who can’t read and write, then it’s not a mansion; it’s the façade of a mansion.
:( :thumbdown:

[Volcanicity]

"Yes the americans are there".Holy shit if that doesnt start alarms bells ringin nothing will!

[KurtFF8]

The AP also interviewed him (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100806/ap_on_en_mu/cb_haiti_wyclef_interview;_ylt=AtpQBCAEmyQ2v4DMXxH 3TBSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJ2aWYzZWltBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTA wODA2L2NiX2hhaXRpX3d5Y2xlZl9pbnRlcnZpZXcEY3BvcwMxM ARwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDYXBpbnR lcnZpZXd3)


The potential front-runner in Haiti's Nov. 28 election told The Associated Press that he supports the U.S. and U.N. vision for rebuilding Haiti's economy after its magnitude 7 earthquake — a plan that encourages private investment in factories, agriculture and other areas.

He also hit back at critics of his own personal finances, including allegations over his use of post-quake charity funds and the revelation he personally owes $2.1 million in back taxes to the United States.


"We can provide a way to get (Haitians) out of the mess they're in. And the way that that's going to happen (is) education, job creation and investment for Haiti," Jean said in the wide-ranging interview Thursday evening.


I think it's pretty clear that his campaign isn't something that the Left can support. I mean if Sean Penn is critical of Jean, how can we get behind him?!

[khad]

According to comrades in Haiti, this was true. And when Aristide stopped paying them, they turned on him and overthrew him. Many of the people who had helped the former President control Haiti were the very same people who turned on him.

Revolutionaries got no business supporting bourgeois politicians.
What's the SP's stance on electoral politics, Mr. congressional candidate?

[RadioRaheem84]

Sean Penn has called him a weasel and is a favored candidate by the US to bring in more interests to the island. Even Clef's old band mate Pras from the Fugees backed his opponent saying that Clef would not be good for Haiti.

Where have you guys been on this? He is obviously a shill for corporate interests and will be given the thumbs up by the US administration.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/wyclef-jean-charitys-funny-money

Thieving asshole took money from his charity.


But the largest 2006 payout--a whopping $250,000 (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/wyclef-jean-charitys-funny-money?page=5)--went to Telemax, S.A., a for-profit Haiti company in which Jean and Duplessis were said to "own a controlling interest." The money covered "pre-purchased...TV airtime and production services" that were part of the foundation's "outreach efforts" in Haiti. No further description of these services was offered, though the return claimed that "the fees paid are below market" and that the use of Telemax was the "most efficient way of providing these services."
The group's tax returns also report "consultant" payments totaling $300,000 between 2005-2007, while the 2006 return reported nearly $225,000 in "promotion and PR" costs. These expenses are not itemized further in the IRS returns. (6 pages)


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/7930869/Sean-Penn-questions-Wyclef-Jeans-Haiti-presidential-aspirations.html


“I see in Wyclef Jean somebody who could well have been influenced by the promise of support of companies. I think Haiti is clearly vulnerable … There is a history of American interests coming in and underpaying people. This is a culture of one to two dollars a day, that they were making.” Penn openly worried about American corporations and individuals “enamored” with Wyclef becoming “opportunists on the back of the Haitian people.”

[Ricardo]

Are there any socialists or at least progressives running in the upcoming election?

I feel that if Wyclef actually won, he would have enormous support from the US and basically be a puppet, allowing capitalism to run what is of left of Haiti into the ground.

[RadioRaheem84]

Clef's opponent is a moderate liberal named Michel Martelly, aka Sweet Micky. Pras, Clef's former band mate fully endorsed Martelly over Clef.

http://www.allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2010/08/06/22323530.aspx

[The Idler]

Rapper is no friend of Haiti (http://www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/3112)

[fa2991]

All musicians not named "Jello Biafra" should be barred from political office.

[RadioRaheem84]

Manu Chao for President of the world! Or at least France where he is from.

[Invincible Summer]

ESQ: [...] Will Americans keep Haiti on their mind?

WJ: Definitely. I think it’ll stay that way that with Bill there. An ex-president of the United States of America — I don’t know too many stories like that in the case of history, where a former president goes and decides that he’s going to be part of helping run another country. That’s big. It don’t get bigger than that.

Yes, it can:
1) Cataclysm of epic proportions that causes the earth to implode essentially ending all the earth's problems
2) World revolution.



This guy is reactionary as shit. I really hope he doesn't go very far.

[RebelDog]

I seen him on the news comparing himself to Obama and I think thats what the people of Haiti could get here if they don't be careful, ie someone who will promote the interests of US business.


The potential front-runner in Haiti's Nov. 28 election told The Associated Press that he supports the U.S. and U.N. vision for rebuilding Haiti's economy after its magnitude 7 earthquake — a plan that encourages private investment in factories, agriculture and other areas.Anybody with any respect for the facts knows that this is the same disasterous policy that has made Haiti such a hellhole, to enphasise your point.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Now if only Bono would become president of Ireland...

[chegitz guevara]

What's the SP's stance on electoral politics, Mr. congressional candidate?

Crappy. Why do you ask? But regardless, we don't support bourgeois politicians ... unless they are other members of the SP. :thumbdown:

[The Red Next Door]

wyclef jean made a movie which labeled aristide supporters brutal thugs who execute innocent civilians in gruesome ways.

I hope he does receive a bullet in the face. Or thirty, for that matter.

No haitian expat eating out of amerikkka's hand is going to be worth anything.

damn you are ruthless!!!!

[Proletarian Ultra]

Now if only Bono would become president of Ireland...

I did a google image search for 'horrified look', and this was the result best captured my feelings about that suggestion:

http://www.cherrybombed.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/karlandditto.jpg

[Revy]

Rapper is No Friend of Haiti -- Wyclef Opposed Aristide (http://newamericamedia.org/2010/08/rapper-is-no-friend-of-haiti----wyclef-opposed-aristide.php)

The title basically says it all.

Aristide is no friend of Haiti. Ever heard of "Operation Uphold Democracy"?



Aristide embraces neo-liberal economics (http://www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org/Dollars.htm)

Elected in 1990 after a campaign characterized by anti-imperialist slogans, Aristide revealed his lack of an independent economic vision only a few months later when he told journalists that while capitalism was, as he titled an LP of his songs, "a mortal sin," "now we have a democracy going up and this capitalism will be different." Aristide made free marketeer Leslie Delatour part of his team and traded in his fiery pulpit vocabulary for a lexicon much more pleasing to the international financial community’s ears. In August 1991, his government promised lenders and donors - the IMF and World Bank, the United States, Canada, France, and other countries - to enact the usual slew of neoliberal policies: slash the public payroll, privatize state-owned industries, cut tariffs and government petroleum subsidies, and remove controls on Haiti’s currency. In return, the fledging administration was promised over $400 million, nearly $100 million more than it requested. US Ambassador Alvin Adams expressed his appreciation for the new government, which he called "open and pragmatic [and] - serious about implementing sound economic policies."


A month later a coup d’état interrupted the administration’s implementation of these policies, but it also offered the United States and other promoters of the Washington consensus an opportunity to push for continued and deeper reforms from the weakened Aristide. Three years later, once again in Paris in August, and once again meeting with bilateral and multilateral donors, Aristide had Delatour on his team again, helping craft the document which became known as the Paris Plan. And once again, Aristide signed on the dotted lines; this time, he made Delatour head of the Central Bank.

"Aristide should not have come back under those conditions. He should have stayed outside and let us continue the struggle for democracy," said Clement François, a member of the executive committee of Tèt Kole Ti Peyizan Ayisyen, a national peasant association involved in Haiti’s democratic and popular movement since the 1980s. "Instead, he agreed to deliver the country on a platter so that he could get back into office."


Once back in the National Palace, Aristide followed through on his Paris promises. In 1995, for example, he lowered most tariffs to under 10% and initiated the privatization of state enterprises. His successor, René Préval, elected in 1995, continued with a reduction in the state payroll and further deregulation. What remained for Aristide when he took power again in 2001 was to continue applying the Caribbean version of the neoliberal policy: promoting tourism, focusing on specialty crops for export rather than agricultural production for local consumption, and marketing Haiti’s 'comparative advantage,' its rock-bottom wages.


!In the area of industry, according to the experts, Haiti has an extraordinary potential to transform herself into a pole of attraction," Aristide said from the inaugural podium on February 7, 2001. He promised that 14 new free trade zones would create 140,000 jobs. At the same time, the president pledged to increase Haitians’ access to water an electricity, to augment food self-sufficiency by 30% (agricultural production contracted by over 5% last year), to increase the GNP by 4% (it fell by 1.2% in 2001), and to reduce the annual inflation rate from 15% to 10% (in 2001 it averaged 16.8%.)

The government blames the stark contrast between promises and realities on what it calls an 'aid embargo.' For the past year, international lenders and donors have been withholding some $500 million in promised loans and aid due to an ongoing political dispute over the outcome of the May, 2000, elections and the deterioration of the human rights situation. More fundamental than the loss of aid, however, was the rapid liberalization of the Haitian economy under ten years of Lavalas administration devoid of any coherent development program.

[Dimentio]

Sean Penn is claiming that Jean has embezzled 400 000$ from his own charity fund, and I don't think a guy who has lived in Haiti for several months as an aid worker would try to lie about such an issue.

[Delenda Carthago]

Honestly I'm skeptical of the possibility of real progress in small island nations. Even a more prosperous Haiti would tend to remain an agrarian and largely peasant society. Could Wyclef act as a "modernizer" and attract industry and foreign investment? I suppose that would be progressive in a historical sense but somehow I don't see it happening. International imperialism wants to keep such nations agrarian.
I kinda agree,still,there are lots of things that could be done,like education.

[REDSOX]

The mere fact that the bourgeois media is hyping this guy up seems to suggest that the bourgeois approve of him and from what i have heard about his politics well..........:(

[Adi Shankara]

damn you are ruthless!!!!

"That's our Khad!"


*Cue 1950's style sitcom theme music*

[The Vegan Marxist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTEnZvmo2Pg&feature=player_embedded

This is kind of interesting on how Pras Michel referred to a Marxist term, the bourgeoisie, put it in its right context, & is expressing his support to this particular candidate. Does anybody have any background on who Pras is supporting? He's supporting someone named Michel Martell. Though I can't find a single bit of information on him at all, let alone his political stance.

[KurtFF8]

He also said in that interview that his favored candidate can get support of the masses and the elite. That's certainly not a Leftist stance either.

[Outinleftfield]

Good or bad?

Either Wyclef would do what international capital told him to do, in which case he would immiserate his own countrymen; or he would not, in which case he would face a coup, civil war, or a crippling embargo.

I.E. he can be Mandela, or he can be Mugabe. Them's the choices.

Or he could seek closer ties with Cuba and Venezuela.

But I doubt it. This is more likely to be a ploy (Even if he loses or isn't even placed on the ballot) to get Haiti to forget Aristide and think about how cool it would be to have a celebrity president.

Then again I could be wrong. Has anyone been able to find anything about this guy's positions? All I've read are "wants to create jobs" and "wants to improve education" which both mean nothing since it says nothing about how he would do that or more importantly whether he will empower the working class.

[The Vegan Marxist]

It's been reported that Wyclef is no longer on the Presidential candidate list:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38778359/ns/world_news-americas/

[LETSFIGHTBACK]

oTEnZvmo2Pg

This is kind of interesting on how Pras Michel referred to a Marxist term, the bourgeoisie, put it in its right context, & is expressing his support to this particular candidate. Does anybody have any background on who Pras is supporting? He's supporting someone named Michel Martell. Though I can't find a single bit of information on him at all, let alone his political stance.


He mentioned "getting people from the banking industry on board" The elite on board" Now where/how do you think this will wound up?' Rebuild the sweatshops, in the guise of "providing jobs", build cheap housing, and through sweatshop pay, charge them rent that exceeds their income.The goal here is "let's rebuild the low income neighborhoods, get the people back to work for slave wages, producing for the same corporations that got rich from their poverty.

[Dimentio]

As this is moot now, lets lock this subject.

[Honggweilo]

my uncle was a mason

inb4 tinfoilhats!

but srsly, wycleff is just pretty naive, drenched with american cultural bias (ie showpolitics, mediacracy) and completely lacks any coherent analysis.. even if his motives may be nobel

[Prairie Fire]

Fuck that guy. He supported the coup in 2004, and here are a collection of other great articles in his politics.


WYCLEF'S POLITICS

Wyclef's politics: "Right out of Clinton's playbook"
(Aug. 4)

International aid managers agree that Haiti can't recover unless it taps into the education, capital, entrepreneurial drive and love for the mother country that Jean epitomizes — even if his French (one of Haiti's official languages) is poor and his Creole (the other) is rusty. "A lot of Haitians are excited about this," says Marvel Dandin, a popular Port-au-Prince radio broadcaster. "Given the awful situation in Haiti right now," he says, "most people don't care if the President speaks fluent Creole."

Jean insists he's not playing "the naive idealist." He gets much of his platform, he says, "right out of the playbook" of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy to Haiti, whose pragmatic vision of bringing business, government and civil society together for development ventures was bearing fruit there before the earthquake hit. "I'm the only man who can stand in the middle and get the diaspora and Haiti's elite families to cooperate that same way," says Jean. (It's not a ridiculous claim: if Ivory Coast soccer phenom Didier Drogba could bring his country's warring factions together a few years ago, who's to say Jean can't use his renown to succeed in Haiti?) Jean's priority — one he shares with Haiti's Prime Minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, who is widely respected but so deeply involved in the reconstruction effort that he is unlikely to run for President — is to disperse both power and population from overcrowded Port-au-Prince. Jean wants to revive Haiti's fallow agriculture with new rural communities tied to schools, clinics and businesses.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2008588-2,00.html

==

Wyclef calls WSJ, blathers incoherently about politics
(Aug. 4)

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/08/04/wyclef-jean-on-his-decision-to-run-for-the-presidency-of-haiti/

==

"In America, we don't stop people from making money"
(July 8)

ESQ: Should that be the focus of relief efforts?

WJ: Now the effort needs to change from relief to business, because if you don't have a country where you're bringing in business — where you're sure that if you put in a dollar, you're going to get three dollars back — no one will be interested.

ESQ: I don't know if this is a difficult question or what, but from my reading...

WJ: There's no question that's difficult for me. My daddy was a minister, my grandfather was a voodoo priest, my uncle was a mason, I was raised with a lot of studies.

ESQ: ...everyone agrees there's a small group of families that control money and commerce in Haiti. If that's so, how can you decentralize that structure in order to do things like reinvent health care?

WJ: The first question is not who they are. The first question we have to ask is, What are these families? They are capitalists. They believe in capitalism, in making money, right? We have to build an open system that doesn't stop them from making money, that will work for them, if only because what they're making could double, triple. Everything starts with policy. We just say, If you break the law, then you'll pay for it, because there's an enforceable policy in place. In America, we don't stop people from making money. If you've got a dollar, and you can make three with it, make three with it, you can make six, make ten, but — pay your taxes, dude. Don't do that and you're going to be in trouble. That's how I see it happening.

ESQ: Taxation. The Tea Party nightmare.

WJ: Yeah. Understand what I'm saying to you. I don't bite my tongue — some people may be scared to talk about families — but I grew up in the States, and the reality of it is: if they are in the mansion, and around them is nothing but huts, and a bunch of people who can't read and write, then it’s not a mansion; it's the façade of a mansion.

And I only speak firsthand, because my mama was a maid, and I'm from the hut — not a house, not an apartment, not a ghetto, a hut. After all these years, when these families have made so much money, why aren't people in schools? Why can't kids read, and why can't they write? Is this modernized slavery, in a way? Is this whole thing created to keep a certain class, with slavery? That needs to change, and it's going to change with the revolution. And the revolution this time is not going to be with arms. It has to be a revolution with policy, nonviolence, apply the Gandhi thing, and the Dr. King method. That's what I believe.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/wyclef-jean-haiti-earthquake-interview

==

Wyclef calls for $150 million of reconstruction money to go to UN repression
(July 12)

Au cours des trois prochains mois :

La Commission intérimaire pour la reconstruction d'Haïti doit débloquer 150 millions de dollars de promesses de dons pour assurer une sécurité publique cohérente et un plan de sécurité qui réponde aux problèmes de violence, d'enlèvement, de viol et d'abus sexuel qui règnent à travers le pays, particulièrement parmi les communautés les plus vulnérables.

http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2010/07/12/promesses_1386063_3232.html

==

Wyclef praising UN, "progress" before the Food Riots
(April 13, 2008)

Anger and frustration from Haiti's poor was inflamed by this U.N. propaganda campaign that sought to portray the situation as improving even as the reality of grinding poverty deepened. Radio commercials featuring the voice of hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean and extolling progress made in Haiti by the U.N., saturated the airwaves throughout the country the week before protests erupted in Haiti's third largest city of Les Cayes on April 2. Ironically, the national radio spots produced by the U.N. featured Wyclef urging the Haitian people to "turn away from the use of violence."

http://www.haitiaction.net/News/HIP/4_13_8/4_13_8.html

==

Jean on Capitol Hill stumping for sweatshop development in Haiti (HOPE act)
(Nov. 17, 2006)

The world of music, politics and fashion collided on Capitol Hill Wednesday as high-level Haitian government officials joined forces with hip-hop musician Wyclef Jean to lobby members of Congress to pass a bill enhancing apparel trade benefits for the island nation before they adjourn for the year.

Jean, who was born in Haiti, said he donned his "Joe college" duds - an oxford shirt under a pullover with striped tie, plaid pants and hip leather sneakers - to make the case for expanding apparel trade with Haiti. He was part of a delegation, comprising Haitian government officials and several apparel manufacturers, who met with Reps. Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), the incoming chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee next year, Clay Shaw (R., Fla.), Jerry Weller (R., Ill.) and Sen. Mike DeWine (R., Ohio).

"For me, it's very important because what I'm trying to do in the next 10 to 15 years is to get investors excited about Haiti again," said Jean, whose uncle, Raymond Joseph, is the ambassador to Haiti. "Apparel is important because it provides jobs. I'm here lobbying for this bill because if we can give 10,000 people jobs instantly, it sends a signal to investors that says the doors are really open for Haiti."

http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com/international_labor_right/2006/11/wyclef_supports.html

==

Jean supports Guy Philippe, calls on Aristide to resign
(Feb. 25, 2004)

Wyclef Jean voiced his support for Haitian rebels on Wednesday, calling on embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down and telling his fans in Haiti to "keep their head up" as the country braces itself for possible civil war.

"The country's in an uproar, it's not safe. But for the safety of the country and to stop the violence, it has to be a situation where he steps down," Jean, who was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, told MTV News. "If the president steps down, there will be some form of negotiation with the opposition force."

"I don't consider those people rebels," Wyclef said. "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."

On Wednesday morning (February 25), the heavily armed opposition, led by members of Haiti's now-disbanded army, approached the capital of Port-au-Prince after laying siege to the country's second largest city, Cap-Hatien, on Thursday. They demanded that President Aristide step down, called his government corrupt and demanded new elections. Fifty-five U.S. Marines were sent to Haiti to protect the U.S. Embassy there on Monday.

Wyclef also asked his fans to understand that the current uprising is not simply senseless violence. "What I want people to be clear about is it's not just people chopping up people for no reason. It's on the level of a civil war. People want the president that is currently the state to step down. And him stepping down will let the people make any kind of negotiation to come up with some form of peace."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1485326/20040225/jean_wyclef.jhtml?headlines=true.

==

Wyclef calls for military intervention post-quake
(Jan. 18)

In a statement released days after the quake, Wyclef demanded that "We must act now. President Obama has already said that the US stands 'ready to assist' the Haitian people. The US Military is the only group trained and prepared to offer that assistance immediately. They must do so as soon as possible. The international community must also rise to the occasion and help the Haitian people in every way possible."

http://rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com/2010/01/aid-not-troops-why-wyclef-is-wrong.html


Harry Belafonte, by contrast, signed a Jan. 27 letter to Congress decrying the U.S. government's "overemphasis on security, and the deployment of 20,000 troops, to the detriment of delivery of life-saving supplies."

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/28-13





THE WYCLEF FILE: Wyclef's Bogus Charity, Yele Haiti


Original report on Yele's Funny Money
(Jan. 14)

According to tax records, Yele spent $250,000 on air time paid to Wyclef-owned TV station, $31,000 in rent for "office space" in the kitchen of Wyclef's studio, $525,000 on PR and consulting fees ...

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0114102wyclef1.html

Charity Navigator on Yele: No financials, no plan for where the money will go
(Jan. 16)
http://blog.charitynavigator.org/2010/01/wyclef-jeans-yele-haiti-foundation.html

Wyclef's funny money part 2
(Jan. 19)
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0119101wyclef1.html

Wyclef demanded $100,000 for "benefit" show appearance
(Jan. 22)
http://gawker.com/5455019/wyclef-jean-demanded-100000-to-appear-at-a-fundraiser-for-his-haitian-hometown

Wyclef paid $105,000 from Yele funds to mistress in 2008
(March 12)
http://gawker.com/5492081/wyclef-jean-paid-his-mistress-105000-through-his-haiti-charity

==

Wyclef's text message fundraising operations launched just one day after the earthquake
(Jan. 13)

As WENN went to press, 'Gone Till November' singer Wyclef was urging Twitter.com followers to donate money to his Yele Haiti charity organisation: "Please text 'Yele' to 501501 to donate $5 to YELE HAITI.Your money will help with relief efforts. They need our help... please help if you can."

http://www.3news.co.nz/Wyclef-Jean-starts-fundraising-for-Haiti-quake-victims/tabid/209/articleID/137128/Default.aspx

==

Yele not equipped for humanitarian work: insider
(Jan. 15)

... a source familiar with the foundation's operations contacted us to express concern that the tiny operation is at risk of being overwhelmed with donations that have no hope of reaching the ground in Haiti any time soon.

In a nutshell, the source says, "Yele Haiti is not a disaster relief organization." According to MTV, Jean's pleas for money via Twitter and television appearances asking people to text "yele" 501501 for a $5 contribution had brought in more than $1 million to the organization as of yesterday. But large first-responders usually have the resources to move money quickly to where it's needed, either by virtue of prepositioned disaster fund, large pools of money that they can shift among accounts as circumstances warrant, or access to a bridge loan to get money flowing. Yele Haiti, which as of 2007 had no paid staffers and currently, according to the source, has one employee who works out of the kitchen in Jean's Manhattan recording studio, has no such capacity. So it can spend whatever money it has on hand—at the end of 2007, it had roughly $500,000 in cash and liabilities of more than $900,000—but after that it has to wait for any donations made over the last three days to actually clear and show up in its bank account. And again, because it is a small player and uses a small firm to process its online donations, the source says, that process can take "two weeks to a month."

"There are groups you can give to right now that have already spent the money before they received it," the source says. "Yele Haiti is just not set up for a huge campaign like this. It's great that Wyclef is there—he should be there. But there's no need to position his charity the way they're doing right now. It's not right." Yele Haiti is will be one of the beneficiaries of George Clooney's "Hope for Haiti" telethon to be broadcast next week, and "there's no reason for that," the source says.

Jean has repeatedly demonstrated a long-standing commitment to help the people of Haiti, and has worked earnestly toward that goal over the years. His presence there right now and urgent appeals for help are evidence of that. But even if he can overcome the penchant for "financial shenanigans" that the source says he is "notorious for" among people familiar with Yele Haiti's operations, Yele Haiti is better situated to deliver second-order aide and help begin the rebuilding process once all the donations come through.

"We've got a team of 15 people on the ground in Haiti, and a warehouse, and contacts with people in the neighborhood," Locke says, repeating Yele Haiti's extensive experience getting food out into dangerous neighborhoods for the UN's World Food Program after Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004 and the 2008 world food crisis.

http://gawker.com/5449478/more-on-why-donating-to-wyclef-jeans-charity-might-not-be-the-best-way-to-help-haitians-right-now

==

More doubts about Yele's humanitarian capacity
(Feb. 4)

The organization, Yéle Haiti Foundation, whose typical fund-raising efforts in the past brought in tens of thousands of dollars, has reaped more than $2 million from texted-giving alone. It is also eligible for a share of the $70 million raised through the Hope for Haiti Now telethon on MTV last week and stands to raise millions more on Friday, when Mr. Jean appears on a second telethon for earthquake relief, presented by Black Entertainment Television.

Mr. Jean also said that he had given $1 million to Yéle, though he has offered no documentation of those gifts. [at tearful press conf appearance]

Some groups that have worked with Yéle’s Haitian arm praise it. The World Food Program, which is affiliated with the United Nations, has said it could not function in some parts of Haiti without Mr. Jean’s support, a sentiment echoed by the Pan American Development Foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with the Organization of American States.

ComCel, a Haitian wireless company, also praises Yéle. One of its earliest backers, ComCel continues to give the Haitian arm of the charity several hundred thousand dollars a year for its scholarship program and other educational projects. Brad Horwitz, chief executive of ComCel’s parent company, Trilogy International Partners LLC, said the foundation had learned along the way.

But Sanjay Rawal, who served as Yéle’s executive director in 2004 and 2005, said in an interview that he had questions about whether the organization was ready to handle large projects. Mr. Rawal said he resigned because he was frustrated over the lack of a bookkeeper and because board members had charged expenses to the charity that he deemed inappropriate.

“I have always been tremendously moved by Wyclef’s love and commitment to his people,” Mr. Rawal said. But, he added: “Yéle is a small organization. And I think the public has a right to question its capacity to deliver disaster relief.”

“We really don’t know how the group in Haiti spends its money,” Sandra Miniutti, chief operating officer of Charity Navigator, said. H. Art Taylor, chief executive of the Wise Giving Alliance, agreed, and said he wondered why donors were so supportive of fund-raising by celebrities. “Wyclef Jean has been like a magnet to attract money to his charity, and we don’t have even the slightest idea of how he or his organization intend to use this money,” Mr. Taylor said. “What’s the plan?”

In a statement on Thursday, Mr. Locke said he had a detailed plan for the money the charity has raised, but he provided no details.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/us/05charity.html

==

Jean's tearful defence of Yele: "I'm Haitian"
(Jan. 15)

Jean responded to the criticisms Saturday evening via YouTube. In the six-and-a-half-minute clip he says that he has "always been committed to the people of Haiti, I live in that country, I'm Haitian. This is where I come from."

Hugh Locke, president of Yele Haiti, said the charity does what others can't, because Jean gives it unusual access to the country's slums. He said the group hopes to spend a higher percentage of its budget on services as it gains experience. "I think people should be very comfortable that any money given to Yele Haiti is going 100 percent to emergency relief."

The charity provides scholarships, funds a soccer team, takes students on environmental-education camping trips and employs women to cook for schools, according to Yele Haiti. After a 2008 storm, it helped a food program distribute emergency rations to 6,000 families without violence, Locke said, organizing the community to distribute the food rather than sending in aid workers with armed guards.

But its financial records raise questions, experts say. In 2006, Yele Haiti had about $1 million in revenue, according to tax documents. More than a third of the money went to payments to related parties, said lawyer James Joseph, who specializes in nonprofit issues. Yele Haiti reported nearly $1.9 million in income on its 2008 tax return.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/15/AR2010011504024.html

==

Yele tied to the CIA? Former Executive Director Sanjay Rawal interviewed on the origins of Yele
(March 28, 2008)

Q. Tell us about Wyclef Jean and the program you started with him to help Haiti.

SR: In 2004, Wyclef and I were sitting in his music studio in New York. Clef had just met Harry Belafonte who lauded him for his humanitarian activities but also told him he had a long way to go.

Clef hadn’t been back to Haiti since 1997 when the Fugees performed in Port-au-Prince – Pras wore a bullet-proof vest on stage! So, on a whim, we flew down to plan the largest concert in Haiti’s history – multi-million attendee concert set for December 2004 – as a demonstration of peace.

To make a long story short, the unrest in Haiti reached a boiling point that October and we were forced to scuttle our plans for the concert, but having realized the impact Wyclef could make in Haiti on a purely humanitarian level, we launched Yele Haiti to address key development issues in the area.

We wanted to start small, but the need was so great. In just two years, Yele became the best-known non-profit in Haiti. Down there we ran slum clean-up projects and gave scholarships. [B]In the States we had meetings with World Bank President James Wolfensohn, State Department and intelligence officials, and had fundraisers with Angelina Jolie, Norah Jones, Drew Barrymore, Meryl Streep and others. It was a wild ride.

Q. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?

SR: Tried to negotiate a cease-fire between rival gangs and militia in Haiti with Wyclef. It worked but not before bullets flew (and flew way too close to me for comfort).

Q. What is your favorite bar?

SR: I am not a drinker, but I spent hours at the FCC in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia. I also like watching the sunsets over Port-au-Prince in Haiti at the bar at the Hotel Montana.

http://aswstalker.blogspot.com/2008/03/sanjay-rawal.html

==

Excerpts from Rawal's searing resignation letter
(Oct. 31, 2005)

It has also been clear that the foundation is very valuable to Wyclef's image and hence if leveraged very profitable to his career. Through the foundation's activities, he has received coverage in publications from which he has been absent for years, including People Magazine, US Weekly, InTouch, Celebrity Living and Star. True, he is in urban gossip rags but his last mention in People was from early 2004. Seth [Kanegis] has even integrated this charitable aspect into Wyclef's PR plan.

... The board did not show enough (if any at all) appreciation to the team on the ground in Chicago nor did they respect the fact that room and board charges were on the Executive Director's credit card. A number of incidental charges were wrongfully placed on his card as board members neglected to leave their credit cards at the front desk of their hotel for example even at the insistence of the hotel. This attempt, even if unconscious, to saddle the Executive Director and/or their own foundation with illegitimate debts and charges in unpardonable.

When a person runs a foundation, people need to leave their sense of entitlement at the door. When Bill Gates goes to a charity event, he does not bill his hotel to his charity. Having the charity pick up the tab for a wife being picked up at the airport is appalling. Just because a person is paying for business expenses too, that does not entitle them to free trips on a charity. There can be absolutely no commingling of business and charity.

Some board members may consider their business contributions to Haiti as part of their giving, which is fine. This only hurt me personally as I saw hundreds of thousands of dollars going to business needs and nothing going to the charity, when it seemed that part of Wyclef's new PR strategy focuses on his charitable endeavors. I felt Yéle was being suffocated.

I feel it is an excellent time for the board members of Yele to shed their sense of entitlement. Stop thinking that Yele will pay you back for the money you put into Haiti. You must ask yourself why you are doing all of this. To be paid back? I do not think that is why you are doing any of this.

I realize that the studio is a pressure as is the whole music world. Everyone has pressures, but when you take on something, you need to take responsibility for it. You need to shed this sense of entitlement. You need to put in money and then closely monitor the budget. With no money there can never ever be any budget.

http://gawker.com/5452991/resignation-letter-from-yele-haitis-founding-executive-director

==

Videographer blasts Yele as a PR-driven "joke"
(Jan. 19)

"Yele is a joke among NGOs in Haiti," said a freelance videographer who worked one year for the organization in Port-au-Prince and declined to be named. "It would be like if you gave me and my friends several million dollars and said, 'OK, go help Haiti.'"

While the videographer witnessed Yele doing some good work, including buying scholarships for schoolchildren, it often spent out-sized sums of money to publicize that work. "The other NGOs, if they pay tuition for 2,000 schoolkids in the countryside, they don't send a team of PR people and videographers on a chartered jet plane to go take pictures of them going to school. Yele did that all the time. It always seemed that the objective was to get positive press."

"Frankly it scares me that they have this much money at their disposal, because they don't have anyone on the ground, and when they did, it was mishandled."

http://gawker.com/5452105/hubris-in-haiti-wyclef-jeans-history-of-overselling-yeles-ability-to-help

==

Wyclef's financial troubles
(Nov. 21, 2008)

Wyclef Jean’s house is reportedly set to be sold before being built. According to documents obtained by TMZ, Jean, via a company he owns with friends, has yet to repay $2 million to Home Equity Mortgage Corp. The house reportedly went into foreclosure back in March of this year. Miami-Dade County is set to put the property up for auction on December 12.

Court documents also revealed that construction workers have also been stiffed. Clef was unavailable for comment. Clef is allegedly familiar with debts. Earlier this summer, Jacob the jeweler sued Clef, alleging that he has yet to collect on $319,000 worth of jewelry he sold to the Fugee frontman between March 2002 and January 2006. Jacob claimed Clef bought $765,000 worth of bling in total, but has yet to pay the entire amount.

http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=30518

==

Yele Haiti blows relief money on swanky new NYC offices
(Feb. 18)

Yele Haiti, Wyclef Jean's troubled charity, will get just $1 million, or 2.8%, of the more than $35 million raised so far by the Hope for Haiti Telethon that Jean co-hosted.

Though initial reports suggested that the money would be "evenly divided" among Yele Haiti, Partners in Health, Oxfam, the Red Cross, Unicef, and the U.N. World Food Program, Hope for Haiti announced today that Yele Haiti would get just $1 million of the first $35 million being disbursed. While Partners in Health is getting $8 million, for instance, to to "provide emergency medical assistance and supplies, strengthen the public health system, and provide rehabilitation, social support and economic assistance to survivors," Yele Haiti will get $1 million for the rather vague goal of "promot[ing] community mobilization in major underserved neighborhoods to coordinate aid delivery and support recovery efforts."

Of course, Yele Haiti also raised an estimated $1 million a day in the wake of the earthquake directly through text donations, and there are signs that it's finding ways to spend it: It's moved its headquarters from a desk in the kitchen in Jean's Manhattan studio (for which the charity paid $30,000 in annual rent to Jean's production company) to a 40,000 square-foot floor of New York's Exxon Building. The New York Post reported today that Yele is currently in talks to take over the floor, but Gawker intern Sergio Hernandez stopped by today to confirm that it has already moved into the new digs. He was there to ask for the charity's 2008 tax return, which executive director Hugh Locke told reporters at a press conference last month had been filed with the IRS and which Yele is legally required to produced for inspection to anyone who asks for a copy. Locke told reporters last month that he'd e-mail the return to anyone who wanted it, but our repeated requests to Yele's publicist for a copy went unanswered. So we sent Hernandez to ask for it in person. They didn't let him past security.

http://gawker.com/5475060/wyclef-jean-gets-shut-out-of-george-clooneys-telethon-money

==

Yele's Unproductive Publicity Stunts in Haiti
(August 3, 2006)

Earlier this year [2006], Mr. Jean appeared in a parade for Carnival with a lion in tow, and he plans to ship one of his antique Rolls-Royces to Cité Soleil, to display it in the midst of the slum. "Some of the publicity stunts he's been involved in with respect to Haiti are not that productive," says Mr. McCalla [of NCHR in NY].

But Mr. Jean believes such examples send a message of empowerment to Haitian youth. "If you're in the States and you become a big rapper, the greatest thing you can do is buy a new car and bring it back to the ghetto, and all the kids will jump in the car," he says. "When these kids jump in the car, they think in their minds, one of these days they are going to make it."

The hip-hop competition, he says, has already brought hope to some of Port-au-Prince's youths. "Nine times out of 10, these kids feel like there is nobody who will ever come here. I'm like, you guys are big, you are super-talented, all you need is means. That's why we have this competition....That's why we purchased the television station and are doing different things like that."

"You might not be able to eat, but you can still sing a song," Mr. Jean says. "Through music, you channel a whole new energy which comes from spirituality. That's a new model for sustainable development, but it's something we do anyway, naturally."

Origins of Yele

In the late 1990s, he started the Wyclef Jean Foundation to support school music programs in New York, to which he had immigrated at age 9. But the organization closed after a few years because of fund-raising and management challenges.

Today, Mr. Jean is working to revamp the organization and restart a music and arts program called Clef's Kids. His plan is to start by serving young people in and around New York and in the Little Haiti neighborhood of Miami, and then eventually spread to the rest of the country.

The idea for Yéle Haiti came out of a 2004 encounter between the musician and Hugh Locke, now the organization's executive director, at Lincoln Center, in New York. Mr. Jean was planning a concert in Haiti for later that year, but a lack of security threatened to scuttle the event.

After the concert fell through, Mr. Locke, who runs Orsa Consultants, a communications and management consulting firm in New York, helped the Haitian artist develop a more permanent way to help his home country.

"I realized in 2004 that the best way to help Haiti is to get awareness outside of Haiti and raise money outside of Haiti geared to specific projects for Haiti," says Mr. Jean. "To get the diaspora in Haiti to respond, it's almost like you have to make it bigger than life."

Mr. Locke designed an organization that would use Mr. Jean's star power to raise money and support for organizations already working in Haiti. He met with World Bank officials and others there to identify charities that Yéle Haiti might assist.

Mr. Jean contributed $120,000 to get the organization off the ground, according to Mr. Locke, but his primary role was never to be Yéle Haiti's benefactor.

Praise for Wyclef

"Everyone likes Wyclef here. He is an unconventional person. He is what he is," says Moïse Ariot, supervisor at Pwojè Lari Pwòp. "If the politicians could show affection for their country the way Wyclef does, things could be better."

"Wyclef has put Haiti on the map with audiences who haven't traditionally thought of Haiti," says Caroline Anstey, World Bank country director for the Caribbean. "He has been able to sit down and talk to politicians, NGOs, civil society, to ordinary people, to poor people living in the slums, to rural peasants, and really be a bridge across a number of different worlds."

"He is a celebrity, but he's also a Haitian celebrity working on Haitian issues," says Ms. Anstey, of the World Bank. "He has strong roots in the community, and the community sees him as a leader and a role model."

http://philanthropy.com/article/Raising-Hopes-in-Haiti/58586/



This guy fooled me when I saw him on Chappelles show,singing "if I were the president", but it turns out that he is a comprador, always has been.

It has been said that wyclef has dropped out of the race; even if this is true, I think we still need to talk about what is the current alternative in Haiti?

I mean, a few years ago, everyone supporting Haiti in Canada got behind Rene Preval, especially after the election was rigged against him. But now, Preval is another bourgeois candidate, not even a national democratic figure.

So, what are the forces on the ground that are the alternative for Haitian workers?

Chegitz Guevara


Revolutionaries got no business supporting bourgeois politicians.



Should we have cheered when Saddam Huissien was brought down?

Is supporting imperialism over a national bourgeoisie the answer? Are imperialists really the lesser evil?

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/index.htm

[The Vegan Marxist]

Should we have cheered when Saddam Huissien was brought down?

Is supporting imperialism over a national bourgeoisie the answer? Are imperialists really the lesser evil?

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/self-det/index.htm

Quite the opposite actually, since the the people who brought down Saddam were just as worse, if not more.

Who's supporting imperialism here? No one. Not a single person is saying that.