Priceless detail from NYT article on Wyclef Jean’s political ambitions that I wanted to call your attention to:

But Yéle [Jean’s charity] needed a way to account for $250,000 that Mr. Jean, through the check to Telemax, had used to help cover the costs of a carnival float, Mr. Rawal said.

The float featured Mr. Jean in a frilly blouse and gilded epaulettes as Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian revolutionary hero. Mr. Jean also imported a lion for the spectacle, keeping it in the parking lot of the Montana Hotel, now destroyed, where the kitchen crew fed the beast sirloin steaks. (Emphasis added).

If this guy is elected president of Hati, something that seems highly likely to happen, the inevitable next chapters will include all kinds of financial malfeasance, rampant cronyism and who knows what other fuckery? But what will happen after a year or two of President Fugee spending relief money to glorify himself is easier to predict: International relief organizations and nations will simply refuse to deal with Haiti and the people will rot.

What’s good for Wyclef Jean is not synonymous with what is best for the people of Haiti.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the spectacle of seeing an egomaniacal pop star trying to get into politics as much as the next guy (I can’t wait for Sting to decide that he should be the UK prime minister, for instance), but this isn’t about the schadenfreude, it’s about how poorly Haiti will fare should this moron get elected.

Thank you Chris Campion!

Star’s Candidacy in Haiti Puts Focus on Charity (New York Times)