From newsamericasnow:
AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Sat. May 15, 2011: Haitian-born, Grammy singer Wyclef Jean, has likened Michel Martelly to Barack Obama.
Jean’s comments came as Martelly, a Kompa singer known for mooning the crowds, was sworn in as the 56th President of the Republic of Haiti, replacing Rene Preval in the post.
Jean, who was among the many gathered for the swearing in on the lawns of the ruined National Palace earlier today, said Martelly’s dynamic promise of change has resonated with the people.
“It means a new start … the people want education not handouts. Now they have a leader who will mobilize then,” Jean told Reuters, comparing Martelly’s election victory with that of U.S. President Barack Obama in November 2008.
Ironically, during Martelly’s swearing in, in the country’s makeshift Parliament, the lights went out.
But the swearing in continues in the dark while Martelly went on to repeat his promises to transform Haiti from a development basket case into a new Caribbean destination for investment and tourism that will provide jobs and better lives for its 10 million people.
“Haiti has been sleeping,” Martelly, 50, said as dozens remained nearby in tent cities close to the former Palace. “Today she will wake up, stand up.”
He pledged to provide free education to the widely uneducated population and swore to bring to justice anyone who brings disorder to the country. Martelly also proposed restoring Haiti’s disbanded army to eventually replace the more than 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers in his country.
Several foreign dignitaries including former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Jamaica PM Bruce Golding and DR President Leonel Fernandez attended the swearing in. Though invited, neither former Presidents Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier or Jean Bertrand Aristide attended.
newsamericasnow
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Showing posts with label Wyclef Jean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wyclef Jean. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Wyclef Jean: A campaign in retrospect
by Joseph Crupi, COHA Research Associate
After prolonging his failed campaign for a month after Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) ruled him ineligible to run for the presidency, Wyclef Jean has finally dropped his appeal, officially terminating his presidential bid on September 21st. Jean’s recent involvement in Haitian politics was a source of controversy from the outset; many had cast him as an unqualified meddler, while others embraced his now defunct candidacy as a move to empower the youth and deepen democracy.
Jean’s decision to run for the presidency was greeted with optimism and hope by much of Haiti’s politically discontented populace. However, there were early signs that Jean was not the progressive candidate he initially professed to be. In an interview with MTV published on February 25, 2004, Jean had expressed support for the coup that ousted democratically-elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In reference to the militants who overthrew the former president, Jean said, “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.” Jean originally made these comments to MTV right as the events began to unfold in Haiti, before the involvement of the United States and other international powers had come to light. Therefore, Jean may have been able to excuse his politically improvident comments on the grounds of ignorance, but he removed any doubt about his political stance when he produced the 2006 documentary, The Ghosts of Cité Soleil. While the film received generally positive reviews, Jean’s depiction of the 2004 coup was historically inaccurate and politically biased. In the film, Jean paints sweatshop owners and neo-Duvalierists in a positive light, while implying that Aristide stepped down of his own free will.
Jean has also come under investigation for the mismanagement of his charitable organization, Yele Haiti. According to a tax document published by The Smoking Gun, Jean used funds from Yele Haiti for personal purposes, a claim Jean vehemently denied. However, the organization’s president admitted that Yele Haiti does have unusually high administrative costs, but he attributed the anomaly to the organization’s inexperience. An August 16 New York Times article details the dismal quality of service that Yele Haiti has provided to tent camps under its responsibility. According to residents of the communities, Jean’s organization has failed to provide them with food or water, ignoring pleas from the camps’ leaders.
Jean’s supporters advanced two primary arguments during his campaign. First, they claimed Jean’s celebrity status would draw much needed investment to Haiti. However, the reasoning behind this argument is not clear. Multinational corporations do not respond to celebrity, but rather profitability and investment security. In light of Jean’s mismanagement of Yele Haiti and his lack of economic knowledge, it is difficult to see how any corporation could view a Haiti under Wyclef Jean as an attractive business environment. Second, Jean’s supporters argued that his election would demonstrate that a Haitian could command the world stage. Jean certainly could command attention, but it is not the type of attention Haiti wants or needs. During his bid for the presidency, Jean was more of an embarrassment than a source of national pride. Had he been elected, it is likely that he would have been viewed as a novelty rather than as a serious spokesperson for a new, autonomous Haiti.
In late August, the CEP ruled that Jean, along with 14 other candidates, was ineligible to run in the presidential election. Although the CEP did not explain its decision, it is believed that Jean was ruled ineligible because he failed to satisfy the five-year residency requirement. After initially stating that he would comply with the CEP’s ruling, Jean appealed the decision, claiming he had been acting as a roving ambassador and was therefore exempt from the residency statute.
Through his subsequent appeal of the disqualification, Jean may have inadvertently reinforced the political corruption already entrenched in Haiti’s electoral process. The CEP is notorious for its politically motivated decisions, lack of transparency, and ardent opposition of former president Aristide’s political party, Lavalas. The media coverage of Jean’s candidacy, though, painted a far different picture of the CEP. In Jean’s case, there was a rational legal basis for his exclusion from the election, and many media sources phrased their reports as if the CEP had definitively and specifically ruled Jean ineligible under the residency requirement. The wording of a number of news articles gave the impression that the CEP had declared a reason for excluding Jean, which it had not, thus creating an illusion of transparency. Jean’s statements immediately following his decision to accept the ruling granted the CEP even more legitimacy in the public eye. Although he later appealed and claimed the CEP had used trickery to block his candidacy, Jean attempted to appeal within the structure of Haitian political law, which has no appeal mechanism. His decision to protest the election through official channels validated the authority of the CEP and bolstered Haiti’s corrupt political system.
After dropping his bid, Jean claimed that his “ultimate goal in continuing the appeal was to further the people’s opportunity to freely participate in a free and fair democratic process.” However, Jean has hardly been an advocate of democracy in Haiti’s past elections. Indeed, he failed to speak out when Lavalas presidential candidate Gerard Jean-Juste was jailed under false pretenses and barred from running in the 2006 presidential election. Jean was again silent in 2009, when the Lavalas party was barred from the legislative elections for failing to produce a document signed by its party leader, the exiled President Aristide. In 2010, the Lavalas party fulfilled all the necessary requirements to register for elections, yet they were excluded for their failure to produce proper documentation in the previous election. The ruling was upheld despite condemnation from the UN, the OAS, and members of the US Senate; predictably, Jean remained silent. Jean’s failure to speak out on behalf of Lavalas may be attributable to his roots in Haiti’s elite class, which has traditionally opposed the progressive reforms of the Lavalas party. However, his failure to plead the case of the 14 other candidates ruled out of the 2010 presidential election, many of whom had legitimate claims to candidacy, suggests his appeal was motivated more by a desire for personal advancement than by genuine democratic conviction.
In addition to his weak record of support for democratic elections, the notion that Jean would have been committed to cultivating a democratic society had he been elected is equally dubious. Indeed, democracy consists of far more than the freedom to vote. Broadly understood, democracy is the right of the people to govern themselves in pursuit of a just society. If elected president, Jean would have had neither the capability nor the intent to secure this end. Having lived outside Haiti for most of his life, Jean can hardly claim to be attuned to the burdens and desires shared by much of the country’s impoverished citizenry. Furthermore, while Jean provided a vague vision of reducing poverty and attracting foreign investment, he has not demonstrated the expertise to translate such a vision into practical policies that would further democracy. Moreover, the Haitian people have spoken clearly in favor of the reforms introduced by the Lavalas party under Aristide, yet Jean remains unequivocally opposed to the Lavalas platform, preferring instead to retain the neo-liberal policies of Haiti’s elite class.
In recent weeks, Jean has begun to show signs of stress. In response to allegations from Sean Penn that Jean had not had a visible presence in Haiti, Jean lashed out and accused Penn of using drugs. Shortly thereafter, Jean was hospitalized for stress related illness. According to his publicist, Jean had been “suffering from stress and fatigue based on the grueling eight weeks he’s had.” Jean’s inability to handle the demands of a short campaign demonstrated that he was certainly not ready to assume leadership of a country, and fortunately, he was never given the chance.
For months, Jean’s candidacy has dominated headlines in Haiti and elsewhere, overshadowing the efforts of the Haitian people to rebuild their country, fight corruption, and achieve a true democracy. Unfortunately, Jean did not offer a solution to these problems, only a temporary distraction. Perhaps now the world can turn its focus back to the real needs of the Haitian people, and Jean can return to writing music.
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being "one of the nation's most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers." For more information, visit www.coha.org
October 6, 2010
caribbeannewsnow
After prolonging his failed campaign for a month after Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) ruled him ineligible to run for the presidency, Wyclef Jean has finally dropped his appeal, officially terminating his presidential bid on September 21st. Jean’s recent involvement in Haitian politics was a source of controversy from the outset; many had cast him as an unqualified meddler, while others embraced his now defunct candidacy as a move to empower the youth and deepen democracy.
Jean’s decision to run for the presidency was greeted with optimism and hope by much of Haiti’s politically discontented populace. However, there were early signs that Jean was not the progressive candidate he initially professed to be. In an interview with MTV published on February 25, 2004, Jean had expressed support for the coup that ousted democratically-elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In reference to the militants who overthrew the former president, Jean said, “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.” Jean originally made these comments to MTV right as the events began to unfold in Haiti, before the involvement of the United States and other international powers had come to light. Therefore, Jean may have been able to excuse his politically improvident comments on the grounds of ignorance, but he removed any doubt about his political stance when he produced the 2006 documentary, The Ghosts of Cité Soleil. While the film received generally positive reviews, Jean’s depiction of the 2004 coup was historically inaccurate and politically biased. In the film, Jean paints sweatshop owners and neo-Duvalierists in a positive light, while implying that Aristide stepped down of his own free will.
Jean has also come under investigation for the mismanagement of his charitable organization, Yele Haiti. According to a tax document published by The Smoking Gun, Jean used funds from Yele Haiti for personal purposes, a claim Jean vehemently denied. However, the organization’s president admitted that Yele Haiti does have unusually high administrative costs, but he attributed the anomaly to the organization’s inexperience. An August 16 New York Times article details the dismal quality of service that Yele Haiti has provided to tent camps under its responsibility. According to residents of the communities, Jean’s organization has failed to provide them with food or water, ignoring pleas from the camps’ leaders.
Jean’s supporters advanced two primary arguments during his campaign. First, they claimed Jean’s celebrity status would draw much needed investment to Haiti. However, the reasoning behind this argument is not clear. Multinational corporations do not respond to celebrity, but rather profitability and investment security. In light of Jean’s mismanagement of Yele Haiti and his lack of economic knowledge, it is difficult to see how any corporation could view a Haiti under Wyclef Jean as an attractive business environment. Second, Jean’s supporters argued that his election would demonstrate that a Haitian could command the world stage. Jean certainly could command attention, but it is not the type of attention Haiti wants or needs. During his bid for the presidency, Jean was more of an embarrassment than a source of national pride. Had he been elected, it is likely that he would have been viewed as a novelty rather than as a serious spokesperson for a new, autonomous Haiti.
In late August, the CEP ruled that Jean, along with 14 other candidates, was ineligible to run in the presidential election. Although the CEP did not explain its decision, it is believed that Jean was ruled ineligible because he failed to satisfy the five-year residency requirement. After initially stating that he would comply with the CEP’s ruling, Jean appealed the decision, claiming he had been acting as a roving ambassador and was therefore exempt from the residency statute.
Through his subsequent appeal of the disqualification, Jean may have inadvertently reinforced the political corruption already entrenched in Haiti’s electoral process. The CEP is notorious for its politically motivated decisions, lack of transparency, and ardent opposition of former president Aristide’s political party, Lavalas. The media coverage of Jean’s candidacy, though, painted a far different picture of the CEP. In Jean’s case, there was a rational legal basis for his exclusion from the election, and many media sources phrased their reports as if the CEP had definitively and specifically ruled Jean ineligible under the residency requirement. The wording of a number of news articles gave the impression that the CEP had declared a reason for excluding Jean, which it had not, thus creating an illusion of transparency. Jean’s statements immediately following his decision to accept the ruling granted the CEP even more legitimacy in the public eye. Although he later appealed and claimed the CEP had used trickery to block his candidacy, Jean attempted to appeal within the structure of Haitian political law, which has no appeal mechanism. His decision to protest the election through official channels validated the authority of the CEP and bolstered Haiti’s corrupt political system.
After dropping his bid, Jean claimed that his “ultimate goal in continuing the appeal was to further the people’s opportunity to freely participate in a free and fair democratic process.” However, Jean has hardly been an advocate of democracy in Haiti’s past elections. Indeed, he failed to speak out when Lavalas presidential candidate Gerard Jean-Juste was jailed under false pretenses and barred from running in the 2006 presidential election. Jean was again silent in 2009, when the Lavalas party was barred from the legislative elections for failing to produce a document signed by its party leader, the exiled President Aristide. In 2010, the Lavalas party fulfilled all the necessary requirements to register for elections, yet they were excluded for their failure to produce proper documentation in the previous election. The ruling was upheld despite condemnation from the UN, the OAS, and members of the US Senate; predictably, Jean remained silent. Jean’s failure to speak out on behalf of Lavalas may be attributable to his roots in Haiti’s elite class, which has traditionally opposed the progressive reforms of the Lavalas party. However, his failure to plead the case of the 14 other candidates ruled out of the 2010 presidential election, many of whom had legitimate claims to candidacy, suggests his appeal was motivated more by a desire for personal advancement than by genuine democratic conviction.
In addition to his weak record of support for democratic elections, the notion that Jean would have been committed to cultivating a democratic society had he been elected is equally dubious. Indeed, democracy consists of far more than the freedom to vote. Broadly understood, democracy is the right of the people to govern themselves in pursuit of a just society. If elected president, Jean would have had neither the capability nor the intent to secure this end. Having lived outside Haiti for most of his life, Jean can hardly claim to be attuned to the burdens and desires shared by much of the country’s impoverished citizenry. Furthermore, while Jean provided a vague vision of reducing poverty and attracting foreign investment, he has not demonstrated the expertise to translate such a vision into practical policies that would further democracy. Moreover, the Haitian people have spoken clearly in favor of the reforms introduced by the Lavalas party under Aristide, yet Jean remains unequivocally opposed to the Lavalas platform, preferring instead to retain the neo-liberal policies of Haiti’s elite class.
In recent weeks, Jean has begun to show signs of stress. In response to allegations from Sean Penn that Jean had not had a visible presence in Haiti, Jean lashed out and accused Penn of using drugs. Shortly thereafter, Jean was hospitalized for stress related illness. According to his publicist, Jean had been “suffering from stress and fatigue based on the grueling eight weeks he’s had.” Jean’s inability to handle the demands of a short campaign demonstrated that he was certainly not ready to assume leadership of a country, and fortunately, he was never given the chance.
For months, Jean’s candidacy has dominated headlines in Haiti and elsewhere, overshadowing the efforts of the Haitian people to rebuild their country, fight corruption, and achieve a true democracy. Unfortunately, Jean did not offer a solution to these problems, only a temporary distraction. Perhaps now the world can turn its focus back to the real needs of the Haitian people, and Jean can return to writing music.
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being "one of the nation's most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers." For more information, visit www.coha.org
October 6, 2010
caribbeannewsnow
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Haiti six months after - a national and international shame
By Jean H Charles:
On July 12, 2010, the international press has returned en masse to Haiti for an evaluation of the progress in the rebuilding effort after the earthquake of 1/12. It has been reporting on whether the outflow of global donations has contributed to bring solace to the people of Haiti. The verdict is unanimous: the effort in rebuilding has hit a discomforting snag.
To start with, only Norway, Australia and Brazil have delivered on their promised pledges, or 10% of the $5.3 billion raised at the United Nations last March. Only 250 million tons of rubble out of 3 billion metric tons has been removed. The majority of the 1.5 million displaced people are still living in tenuous conditions in tents and shacks. The international Jesuit Society summed up the general sentiment; Haiti six months after the hurricane is a national and international shame!
Wyclef Jean, the ubiquitous Haitian-American artist, gave us the picture of the situation on the ground. “I arrived here 24 hours after the quake and I will say that minus the bodies on the floor, and minus the smell, it looks exactly the same today as it did then. Nothing has changed and people are getting frustrated. The youth is frustrated.”
The Haitian government continues to exhibit the same indifference towards, and the same lack of leadership and coordination in leading the way for an effective recovery. In canvassing the pile of literature on the process of reconstruction, I have been able to find only three points of light.
- The 7 Day Adventist Relief fund has built, with recycled material, some 500 solid homes to house displaced families from the earthquake.
- Venezuela, in the city of Leogane, operates an effective tent city with the support system that makes the lives of the people much better than before the earthquake.
- There is no major outbreak of disease because of the abundance of vitamin D from the tropical sun and the medical care of organizations such as Doctors without Borders and the chain of international medical volunteers who commute to Haiti week after week.
The rest is promises and promises, without a delivery mechanism system. The Haitian people, passionate fans of soccer, have observed a hiatus of three weeks during the World cup season. The World Cup is over; Haiti this summer will be a hot one! The people are already on the streets demanding the resignation of the inept and corrupt government.
The amount of discontent is broiling. The Haitian government is requesting a 20% tax to admit donated material into the country. The warehouses near the airport are filled with food and medicine; yet, because of indifference, dysfunction, nepotism and corruption, the food and the medicine are not delivered to those in need. Worse, some of the medicine is now expired and some of the food is now rotten.
Having invested so much emotion and empathy in Haiti after the earthquake, the rest of the world is crying for some explanation. Leadership matters. The current issue of Foreign Policy has provided an excellent analysis on why Haiti will continue to sink itself and the rest of the world with it. Haiti is pregnant with the lethal cocktail that feeds the appetite of the type of leadership that we find in countries like Somalia, Guinea, and Niger in Africa. Weak and bad leaders make their countries weaker, threatening world security.
Rene Preval the president of Haiti is benefiting of an aura of goodwill fed by a sector of the international community. Yet he fits into what Paul Collier, the eminent economist, called the bad guy, whose survival is incubated against the interest of its people by a combination of support from the international powers, big business and international institutions, labeled the enablers by Paul Wolfowitz.
The neocolonial ruse of using corrupt leaders to maintain the grip on the country’s resources and its people is alive and kicking in Africa and in Haiti. France has recently helped Bongo junior to succeed Bongo senior. The United Nations is making the bidding for some named foreign countries in planning to help Preval to succeed himself through a clown puppet with a botched and flawed election.
The takeover of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, in France did have unintended consequences some fifteen years later in Haiti. It produced the country’s independence in 1804. Be ready for a rough ride this summer! Haiti, the rebel daughter of Africa has a way of setting an international trend. The undemocratic practices of some Western powers, supported by corrupt national leaders, might be in the beginning of their end. It seems Haiti is ready to ring the bell for the death of the failed States as it did some two hundred years ago by dismantling the world order of slavery.
Haiti needs the support of all people of goodwill in the world as it crosses the river from that painful transition of a failed state status to an enlightened nation, ready to provide service and leadership to the world. Stay tuned for updates on the mahogany revolution in progress, in Haiti!
July 17, 2010
caribbeannetnews
On July 12, 2010, the international press has returned en masse to Haiti for an evaluation of the progress in the rebuilding effort after the earthquake of 1/12. It has been reporting on whether the outflow of global donations has contributed to bring solace to the people of Haiti. The verdict is unanimous: the effort in rebuilding has hit a discomforting snag.
To start with, only Norway, Australia and Brazil have delivered on their promised pledges, or 10% of the $5.3 billion raised at the United Nations last March. Only 250 million tons of rubble out of 3 billion metric tons has been removed. The majority of the 1.5 million displaced people are still living in tenuous conditions in tents and shacks. The international Jesuit Society summed up the general sentiment; Haiti six months after the hurricane is a national and international shame! Wyclef Jean, the ubiquitous Haitian-American artist, gave us the picture of the situation on the ground. “I arrived here 24 hours after the quake and I will say that minus the bodies on the floor, and minus the smell, it looks exactly the same today as it did then. Nothing has changed and people are getting frustrated. The youth is frustrated.”
The Haitian government continues to exhibit the same indifference towards, and the same lack of leadership and coordination in leading the way for an effective recovery. In canvassing the pile of literature on the process of reconstruction, I have been able to find only three points of light.
- The 7 Day Adventist Relief fund has built, with recycled material, some 500 solid homes to house displaced families from the earthquake.
- Venezuela, in the city of Leogane, operates an effective tent city with the support system that makes the lives of the people much better than before the earthquake.
- There is no major outbreak of disease because of the abundance of vitamin D from the tropical sun and the medical care of organizations such as Doctors without Borders and the chain of international medical volunteers who commute to Haiti week after week.
The rest is promises and promises, without a delivery mechanism system. The Haitian people, passionate fans of soccer, have observed a hiatus of three weeks during the World cup season. The World Cup is over; Haiti this summer will be a hot one! The people are already on the streets demanding the resignation of the inept and corrupt government.
The amount of discontent is broiling. The Haitian government is requesting a 20% tax to admit donated material into the country. The warehouses near the airport are filled with food and medicine; yet, because of indifference, dysfunction, nepotism and corruption, the food and the medicine are not delivered to those in need. Worse, some of the medicine is now expired and some of the food is now rotten.
Having invested so much emotion and empathy in Haiti after the earthquake, the rest of the world is crying for some explanation. Leadership matters. The current issue of Foreign Policy has provided an excellent analysis on why Haiti will continue to sink itself and the rest of the world with it. Haiti is pregnant with the lethal cocktail that feeds the appetite of the type of leadership that we find in countries like Somalia, Guinea, and Niger in Africa. Weak and bad leaders make their countries weaker, threatening world security.
Rene Preval the president of Haiti is benefiting of an aura of goodwill fed by a sector of the international community. Yet he fits into what Paul Collier, the eminent economist, called the bad guy, whose survival is incubated against the interest of its people by a combination of support from the international powers, big business and international institutions, labeled the enablers by Paul Wolfowitz.
The neocolonial ruse of using corrupt leaders to maintain the grip on the country’s resources and its people is alive and kicking in Africa and in Haiti. France has recently helped Bongo junior to succeed Bongo senior. The United Nations is making the bidding for some named foreign countries in planning to help Preval to succeed himself through a clown puppet with a botched and flawed election.
The takeover of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, in France did have unintended consequences some fifteen years later in Haiti. It produced the country’s independence in 1804. Be ready for a rough ride this summer! Haiti, the rebel daughter of Africa has a way of setting an international trend. The undemocratic practices of some Western powers, supported by corrupt national leaders, might be in the beginning of their end. It seems Haiti is ready to ring the bell for the death of the failed States as it did some two hundred years ago by dismantling the world order of slavery.
Haiti needs the support of all people of goodwill in the world as it crosses the river from that painful transition of a failed state status to an enlightened nation, ready to provide service and leadership to the world. Stay tuned for updates on the mahogany revolution in progress, in Haiti!
July 17, 2010
caribbeannetnews
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