
Hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean says he has submitted the necessary paperwork to run for president of Haiti, a country he left when he was a child.
“Now that our country has toppled, it’s a chance to rebuild from the bottom on up,” Jean said, adding he will be the voice of Haiti’s youth.
Jean’s announcement quickly became a top topic on the internet, with many debating whether the music star best known for rapping, playing the guitar and dancing, could actually lead a country.
One outspoken critic was actor Sean Penn, who has lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, for months to help manage 50,000 displaced Haitians living in a camp.
Penn said he questioned Wyclef Jean’s motives.
“What the Haitian people need now is a leader who is genuinely willing to sacrifice,” Penn said. “I haven’t seen or heard anything of him in these last six months that I’ve been in Haiti. I think he’s an important voice. I hope he doesn’t sacrifice that voice by taking the eye off the very devastating realities on the ground.”
Penn mentioned past allegations that Jean mishandled funds from his nonprofit organization Yele Haiti and used some of the money donated for Haitians.
“He claims he didn’t do it. That has to be looked into it,” Penn said. “I’ve been there. I know what $400,000 could do for these people’s lives.”
At the time, Jean tearfully denied the allegations that he misappropriated funds from his Yele Haiti charity and experts on nonprofits said they couldn’t find serious wrongdoing.
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Posted Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 11:11am
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