A few weeks ago, Wyclef Jean announced his candidacy for the presidency of Haiti. Everyone kind of freaked out because Wylcef didn’t seem to have the political chops to run for anything, really, considering his past is littered with financial and sexual indiscretions, and because he didn’t really seem to have a plan for Haiti in general. Sean Penn took to the CNN airwaves to blast Wylcef, and even ex-Fugee Pras thought it was a bad idea. Wyclef even had to go into hiding because he was receiving death threats! Anyway, people got their panties in a twitch for no reason, because ‘Clef is ineligible for the presidency:
The hat Wyclef Jean had tossed into the political ring has been tossed back.
The Haiti-born singer-songwriter did not make the final list of approved candidates who satisfy legal requirements to run in his native country’s presidential election, an electoral official tells the Los Angeles Times. The main reason is that Jean, 39, lives primarily in New Jersey – and not on the Caribbean island.
“He is not on the list as I speak,” said the official, whose identity was not revealed.
Jean had left Haiti at the age of 9, for Brooklyn, N.Y.
One of 34 hopefuls in Haiti’s Nov. 28 election, Jean and his potential candidacy brought some much-needed excitement to the island, which on Jan. 12 was ravaged by a devastating earthquake.
So far, there has been no comment from the musician.
[From People]
A motherf-cking technicality! That’s got to hurt for ‘Clef. Oh well. The Great Debacle is over, and now we can go back to not paying any attention to Haitian politics, right? Or is Wyclef going to fight The Man? Will there be Haitian tea partiers demanding to see his birth certificate? We can only hope.
And the country of Haiti breathes a collective sigh of relief.
Hope they get the real leadership that they so desperately need.
^
What denise said.
I just read this in the Toronto Star and I agree with both comments, haha.
Thirded!
“The Great Debacle is over, and now we can go back to not paying any attention to Haitian politics, right?”
A QUOTE FROM TAYLOR MOMSEN?
FarOut!
No experience and only 39? Six down, kindergarten. You’re not Pitt The Younger. Pfft, you’re not even Belinda Stronach (a little Canadian ‘totally unprepared for the office’ political humour).
That is the best news Haiti could have gotten.
he really doesn’t need to run. His leadership would be the last thing Haiti needs.
…and bitch crossed the floor too, Jo. Banged Tie Domi. Probably twirled her hair in cabinet meetings.
Moving along: Wyclef probably thought it was time to move his mental kingdom of Fugee-la-la-land to a real live place.
Finally something good happened to Haiti for a change.
good for Haiti! he was the last thing they needed (i.e. an egomaniac, liar, and attention-whoring thief)
Fugee-la-la, ha!
Ah, Tie Domi. I remember the ‘marriage was already broken’ debacle that arose out of that. That was strange. She’s a billionaire attractive in that conventional WASP-y way, and is a billionaire. Why the odd-looking married guy known as much for his hockey punching as his playing?
And The Great Floor Crossing of 2005, that was something, huh? I imagine it was to get away from Peter McKay. Didn’t he come off as the biggest sap during that mess? I don’t know anyone who even knew that they had been dating until him and his weepy goon squad decided to use the breakup as an impetus for a smear campaign. It was so petty and dumb, as her gaping, yawning lack of experience and connection to her countrymen would have acted as beyond the eating of that particular pudding. Now, all I think of is how so many people saw fit to call her a whore on the record for her policitical and personal flightiness. I’m not a fan of hers by any stretch, she’s something of a proto Palin, but when you’re watching the national news and every male politician is calling her a whore, you gotta scratch your head.
Has anyone heard from her since she went Liberal? I read in the paper last week that her father was getting paid a billion dollars to accept a buyout and retire. A billionaire becomes more of a billionaire to leave his own job. I don’t want to live on this planet anymore. Hopefully Julia Louis-Dreyfus will start returning my phone calls.
Whatever, as long as Conrad Black’s duplicitous arse is kept away from the Bridle Path, I don’t feel a need to get too steamed. Who’s renouncing his citizenship now?
LOL…poor Peter McKay – he just keeps getting dumped. I agree 100% with what you said Jo ‘Mama’, well except the Julia Louis-Dreyfus part. Every time I see a Conrad Black written article in the National Post it makes me angry. I mean, the guy didn’t want to be Canadian until it was the lesser of two evils…grr…
Anyhow, back on topic, I heard that Wyclef Jean has a bunch of lawyers on retainer who were waiting to challenge this ruling. He’s apparently convinced that he will win this election.
Poor Wyclef. No respect from the Haitian government or on this thread–not that I’m not enjoying the Belinda Stronach hijack. Good times.
Ha! Peter McKay always getting dumped!! I’m cackling like a goon over here. Even his hairline is abandoning him. Pourquoi!?!?!
Wyclef has lawyers on retainer? For what? What does he think is going to happen? Was his brain welded shut at some point? How does he plan to even get into the race legitimately with anything short of the WABAC Machine? Crazy cakes, man.
I was visiting my sister last week and this topic came up on the news. I can’t remember what he said word for word, but it was something very, very close to, ‘I have open eyes, and my ears aren’t naive’. What–what is that? Was that even a sentence? And I do believe my sister owes me a Coke, as we both groaned and said, ‘so dumb’ at the same time.
I’m still hoping that my-too-old-to-be-adopted self will somehow curry favour with the obscenely wealthy erstwhile Elaine. Dang, when your cousin becomes CEO of Addias as a side project, you know you’re a legacy. Heiresses of the world, give me lots of money for some reason. ‘A lot’ is my favourite currency, as ‘free’ is my favourite price.
Yes, Conning Connie. Coincidentally, I read a piece on him today (weird coincidence), and apparently over 70 per cent of Canadians don’t want him to return. Of course, for the time being, he can’t, so I suppose this is the spring training stage of profressional h8ter-ation. Maybe if he ever turns up, Prince can head some kind of ‘There Goes The Neighbourhood’ initiative. Dude responsible for the Purple Rain soundtrack does not need to live near that high-handed oaf.
Some people are just frauds through and through. I remember seeing him in an interview years ago discussing his expulsion from Upper Canada College. What he saw as an enterprising spirit and endeavour, was mistakenly read as a kid stealing and selling exam answers. Stop all the clocks, how could they have landed at that conclusion? I almost felt as if I were in another dimension when listening to him talk in his usual condescending and imperious tone about how provincial it was for the school to take any kind of issue with his illegal acts. Very, ‘I’m a free-thinking firebrand who is working from a much higher plane, so clearly I’m a visionary preyed upon by the proles. I am better off without the backwards and non-sensical ethics of the bumpkin race’.
Unbelieveable.
And we all know how difficult it is to hold anyone in that viper’s nest to be taken to task for their…indiscretions.
What a time be alive. Next year in parliament!
Whatever made him think he was qualified in the first place?
great site
Hey Clef, we have loved you since day one. You are a very strong representative of Haiti and we applaud your effors. You and Dessaline have proved that you are true Haitians because you carry our flag around the world. You have always stood up for Haitian people and have never been ashamed. Keep on doing great things with Yele Haiti and remember you can’t trust those “dinosaurs” in Haiti. They think that they are getting away with corruption, but they will be wiped out one day.
If he can’t make a good record, how is he going to run a country? Just kidding 🙂
Thank God!
If he really loves his country then he should do more for it; it doesn’t take a politician to make a difference. Penn is not even Haitian and he’s doing more for Haiti than Wyclef
And on another note, Wyclef is now using his talent to push Ritz crackers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3ueKle_CrQ
did anybody else catch the npr interview last Monday I think? He did not make a very good case for himself.