Posted on 08/04/2010 6:43:12 AM PDT by LottieDah
He took center stage leading the Haiti earthquake relief, and now Wyclef Jean has confirmed he's running for president of his native country.
The rapper told Time.com he plans to announce his candidacy Thursday, just days shy of Saturday's deadline.
"If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another 10 years before doing this," the Haitian-born superstar said Tuesday night. "The quake drove home to me that Haiti can't wait another 10 years for us to bring it into the 21st century."
Jean, 37, collected donations for earthquake relief through his charity, Yele Haiti.
"If I can't take five years out to serve my country as president, then everything I've been singing about, like equal rights, doesn't mean anything," said the rapper, who was raised in Brooklyn.
"My decision is a draft," Jean said in a video posted on Time.com. "I've been drafted by the youth."
The former Fugees singer's Yele Foundation has worked to raise funds to help the island nation recover from the devastating earthquake that destroyed thousands of homes and killed hundreds of people in January.
Jean's family released a statement last week saying "Wyclef's commitment to his homeland and its youth is boundless."
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Better him, who has had experience in the free market than the usual tin horn dictator they’ve had.
I thought Wyclef was accused of stealing money from charities that were set up to aid Haitians.
That is one of his qualifications to run for a banana republic.
He’ll hire the one for you and two for me accounting firm!
Yeah, but once he’s president (if that happens), who is to say that he will still be a free market believer? Most likely he will depend completely on foreign aid to fund a whole bunch of public works projects of dubious worth. His fame will help him get that money. It would be like Bono becoming president of a West African country.
“I thought Wyclef was accused of stealing money from charities that were set up to aid Haitians.”
That makes him the perfect candidate. Those poor Haitians have never had and honest leader, why would the trend change in their favor?
LOL Aristide returns.
From what I understand, this was never proven, and what he was accused of was taking money from his own charity. I wouldn't be surprised if this charge was by some who wanted the government to take the money and distribute it instead of a private charity showing them up.
Some more info.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/HaitiEarthquake/wyclef-jean-haiti-yele-charity-face-scrutiny/story?id=9605578
guess he really enjoyed skimmin’ money from his “charity”, now he wants to do it with U.S. taxpayer foreign aid.
You know... given that he has actual private sector work experience, and he actually loves his country, it actually might work out.
He can’t do any worse, I wish him well.
Could be. I never quite understood the whole thing either.
On the other hand, the charge could have come from a competing charity.
The "Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund" for instance.
But Clinton wouldn't.......nahhhhhhh.....
That’s what we get to try to figure out, but doing the same thing they’ve done, with military dictators funded by Cuba isn’t the solution for them.
Great. “Papa Jean.” Is there a Baby Jean?
I think we funded their dictators as a balance to Cuba’s influence in the region.
I wish him well, but do not have much hope he can end the corruption and cronyism that has destroyed the country for decades.
He effectively RUINED the USA for HAITI all-star version of WE ARE THE WORLD by screaming his head off when it came to his turn (As if he badly needed to go to the bathroom ).
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