According to his family, Wyclef Jean is thinking about running for president of Haiti. “Wait,” you think to yourself. “President?” It’s true that Jean has been ambassador-at-large for Haiti since 2007, and everybody knows about his Yéle Haiti Foundation, which raised enormous sums of money for Haiti immediately following the earthquake in January. But everybody also knows about the controversy surrounding Yéle’s fiscal history. And if elected, Jean would inherit the job of rebuilding the country — a role a bit more difficult than the humanitarian musician who speaks up for Haiti at the Grammy Awards.
While there’s no doubt about Wyclef Jean’s love for his country, Arcade Fire love Haiti too, but Régine Chassagne’s not talking about a mayoral bid for Port-au-Prince (he has his own Haiti-based charity too, Jean). Shirley Temple was also an ambassador once, but she never considered entering Czech or Ghanian politics (okay, so she didn’t have the residency qualification). Nonetheless, the deadline for announcing candidacy is August 7, so we’ll know soon enough just how serious this is. Though, if Jean chooses to run, he’ll have some competition: his uncle, Raymond Joseph — also US Ambassador to Haiti — has already announced his plans to run.
• Yéle Haiti Foundation: http://www.yele-haiti.org
