{"id":893,"date":"2010-08-06T06:39:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-06T11:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcdistrictdiva.com\/?p=893"},"modified":"2010-08-06T06:39:11","modified_gmt":"2010-08-06T11:39:11","slug":"for-the-kids-no-hope-for-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/for-the-kids-no-hope-for-haiti\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Kids: (No) Hope for Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Per usual, all manner of trickery went down this week, but none disturbed me more than the headline “Wyclef Jean Officially Running For President Of Haiti After Filing Papers<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Someone please call 9-1-1<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, I had read the rumors that he was considering <\/em>it, testing the waters, and whatnot. But I had hoped — prayed <\/em>— that this was some kind of a joke, that he would never actually subject Haiti to his leadership. I was so, so wrong.<\/p>\n

In a Palinesque level of self-awareness, Jean proclaimed: “America has Barack Obama and Haiti has Wyclef Jean!” (Oh, rly?<\/em>) In the vein of (retracted) HuffPost writer Lisa S. Warren, cue the “Haiti done in by Wyclef Jean’s hubris<\/a>” articles.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Then again, as the Associated Press <\/em>noted,<\/p>\n

The winner of the Nov. 28 general elections inherits a destroyed capital, 1.6 million homeless people and countless groups fighting over billions of dollars in international reconstruction funds pledged after a January earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people.<\/span><\/p>\n

But even still, vote for me, because, really, how much worse can it get<\/em>? doesn’t seem like an effective campaign slogan. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t question his love for his native country at all.\u00a0 Knowing the American tendency to forget, Clef has been wonderful about keeping our eyes on Haiti in the wake of her most recent devastation.\u00a0 His humanitarian efforts there and his commitment to Haiti is not in question<\/a>.\u00a0 What is in question is his ability to lead a demolished country, riddled with government corruption.\u00a0 The fact that his Yele Haiti foundation is shady, at best<\/a>, and that IRS is hitting him up for over $2.1 million in back taxes<\/a> does nothing to assuage concerns that his handling of funds for Haiti would be any better. (His response to his tax lien is hilariously priceles<\/a>s: “First of all, owing $2.1 million to the IRS shows you how much money Wyclef Jean makes a year.” Just…no.)
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jean appeals to emotions in his “open letter<\/a>” explaining his decision to run for Haiti’s president — vote for me because I, like, really, really, really love Haiti!<\/em> (Under that logic, I should have a starring role on Grey’s Anatomy<\/em>. No one loves it more than me, do you hear me Shonda<\/a>?!) There are plenty of reasons why he chose that route instead of explaining why his presidency would be logical.\u00a0 He clearly has no political experience whatsoever, no known political ideology, and no college degree<\/a> to speak of.\u00a0 Yet, any questions about Clef’s lack of education, Clef’s brother, Sam Jean has dismissed as “elitist” (seriously, is Team Palin running this effort?).\u00a0 But education does actually matter and might actually come in handy when deciding policy issues for any country — let alone one that needs to be entirely rebuilt. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And frankly, I don’t trust anyone who cheats on his spouse<\/a>.\u00a0 Emotions aside, betrayal of a spouse and vows shows a serious character flaw. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This is yet another example of a culture of you can be anything you want to be! <\/em>gone wrong.\u00a0 Yes, one should always strive to fulfill her highest potential and to necessarily fill a void she sees — within her limits.\u00a0 If Clef really feels his presidency is the way to help Haiti, maybe become a resident of the country first.\u00a0 (Unfortunately for the people of Haiti,) The problems will still persist 4 years from now — use this time to get a degree. Understand the politics and the infrastructure needs of the country.\u00a0 Have an actual platform <\/em>upon which to stand. Those things matter.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am certain Clef has a role to play in the healing of Haiti. \u00a0 I am just as certain that president <\/em>is not that role.\u00a0 This is not about you, sir! If you love the people and your country so much, I implore you, spare them the unnecessary Hurricane Jean.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Please go HERE<\/a> to help raise $2,500 for the children of Haiti through UNICEF<\/em>. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Follow DCDistrictDiva on Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0 Become a fan of \u201cThe Dithering of a District Diva\u201d on Facebook<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Per usual, all manner of trickery went down this week, but none disturbed me more than the headline “Wyclef Jean Officially Running For President Of Haiti After Filing Papers.” Someone please call 9-1-1. Yes, I had read the rumors that he was considering it, testing the waters, and whatnot. But<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[414,986,990,1036,1051,1056],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tricks-are-for-kids","tag-haiti","tag-um","tag-unicef","tag-why","tag-wyclef-jean","tag-yele"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7nB6F-ep","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brookeobie.com\/districtdiva\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}