It has been announced today (6/8) that ex-fugee and Haitian born rapper Wyclef Jean intends to run for the Presidency of Haiti. This has been rumoured for weeks and I've been looking for a tactful way to explain to him that this would be a really bad idea. However it seems a bit late for that now.
While Wyclef is clearly a talented musician he doesn't have any formal experience of politics whatsoever. Nor does he have any qualifications in economics, agriculture or development so I don't think he even understands the scale of the problem in Haiti. Even before the earthquake Haiti had high levels of unemployment, homelessness and poverty. The earthquake then destroyed most of the homes and businesses that provide employment meaning that these problems now affect some 90% of the population. To make matters worse Haiti doesn't have any real system of land ownership and no system of land use zoning. In the current economic reality this makes it nearly impossible to build the types of permanent structures that provide people with homes to live in and jobs to pay for them. The current President of Haiti, who is himself a well educated and successful man, understands that the scale of Haiti's problems are big for one man to deal with on his own. That's why he's decided to call in the assistance of the Office of Special Envoys to Haiti. Even that organisation is having trouble filling vacancies because the talented people it needs also understand the scale of Haiti's problems so don't want the job on their CV's in case it all fails damaging their professional reputations. In fact I'm worried that if I keep talking I'll end up with the job.
The help that Wyclef has already given to Haiti has been immense and I'm sure there are many other ways in which he can continue to help. However I think the job of President should be left for a Haitian who has a talent for politics and genuinely gets excited by spreadsheets calculating the cost analysis solar cell energy generation versus fossil fuel imports. Most importantly though the rumours of Wyclef running for President are already scaring off large donors. Although kind hearted these are professional people who understand the problems of Haiti and what is required to solve them. They are not going to be prepared to waste their limited resources on a project that is going to fail. Wyclef becoming President is also most certainly make it impossible for the US Congress to pass it's Haiti donation bill. That's why the IRS have been giving Mr Jean subtle, little clues that it would be a good idea if he didn't get further involved.
On a slightly related topic gay rights campaigners in the US state of California have got a court to ban something known as Proposition 8. This is a voter sponsored state law that bans gay couples from getting married. As I understand it gay couples in California are allowed to be joined together in a civil union that gives all the legal protections of marriage and only lacks the religious aspect of marriage. Therefore I'm at a loss to work out what exactly the gay rights campaigners have achieved especially as the matter is probably going to have to go all the way to the Supreme Court before it has any effect on gay marriage in California. In fact I think the only thing they've achieved is to give religious Americans one more reason to be angry at the incumbent Democrat President ahead of the mid-term elections even though it has nothing to do with the President.
Most importantly though the Proposition 8 ruling seems to have got lots of left-leaning Americans questioning a Constitution that protects the rights of the individual over the whipped up fury of the majority. That is a really bad thing because it's that constitution that is one of the cornerstones that makes America the country it is, the land of the free. It is also the thing that means America has never been a fascist or communist country and why Americans don't have to put up with the stuff we have to in Britain like a local council putting a family under covert surveillance for two months to make sure they were sending their children to the correct school.
It's worth noting that powerful, corporate interests, like FOX News, would like to see the back of the US Constitution as soon as possible.
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