if I was President

A few years ago, I had the opportunity of hearing musical stars like Shakira and Alicia Keys perform at a Clinton Global Initiative concert event at the Apollo Theater. Watching Miss Shakira shake her belly in front of Former President Clinton was really something. One of the performers, Wyclef Jean crooned, "If I was President..." Creepy foresight.

Due to Wyclef's recent announcement that he's running for Haiti's presidential elections, Haiti's been on my mind recently--thoughts about foreign intervention and salvation, idealism in particular. What does it say about a country when one of its leading candidates is a musical celebrity? I feel like you can't even talk about any political, social, international humanitarian issue anymore without celebrity name dropping--when did actors and singers take over the world? I'm considering my future in this industry, possibly working for future "acclaimed humanitarian philanthropist" Justin Bieber, truly depressing.

One of my favorite This American Life's podcast stories, Haiti is Destiny, by Ben Fountain poignantly captures the turmoil, confusion, and frustration. An excerpt: 

"You know what I've noticed?" he (a Haitian eye doctor) told me at his house, "God gives you 205 years to do something with Haiti, and if you fail he passes it on to someone else. The Spanish had it from 1492 to 1697, 205 years. Then the French from 1698 to 1803, 205 years (sic). Then Haitians from 1804 to 2009, 205 years." So what was coming next? "Maybe a revolution," he answered cryptically, "Or maybe Haiti would survive as a sprawling industrial park for the international aid complex..."

"Poor Haiti," people say, "so primitive, so backward, so far behind the times." I've been hearing about how backward Haiti is for as long as I've been going. But how about this? What if Haiti is ahead of the times? It seems to be on the leading edge of so many current trends--environmental degradation, serial ecological disasters, crumbling infrastructure, a population that exceeds resources, plus a skewed economic water that channels vast wealth to a privileged few while the great majority of people stagnate and struggle. By any objective measure Haiti appears well advanced on the track that the rest of the world seems hellbent on following.

 So how do you feel about Wyclef's candidacy?
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I'll leave you with this. Thanks to my cousin (and avid reader), I was able to attend the amazing Arcade Fire concert at Madison Square Garden. Win Butler came out into the crowd, and his wife Regine was beautiful.

Lyrics from my favorite song, one that Regine always sings with such fervor, Haiti:
Haïti, mon pays,
wounded mother I'll never see.
Ma famille set me free.
Throw my ashes into the sea.

Mes cousins jamais nés
hantent les nuits de Duvalier.
Rien n'arrete nos esprits.
Guns can't kill what soldiers can't see.

In the forest we lie hiding,
unmarked graves where flowers grow.
Hear the soldiers angry yelling,
in the river we will go.

Tous les morts-nés forment une armée,
soon we will reclaim the earth.
All the tears and all the bodies
bring about our second birth.

Haïti, never free,
n'aie pas peur de sonner l'alarme.
Tes enfants sont partis,
In those days their blood was still warm