If I Was President: My Haitian Experience
Donate to Yele Haiti Earthquake Relief
-
Recent Comments
-
“Election Time” Official Music Video
This video was shot in Haiti with an all Haitian cast and Crew. I want you all to see the otherside of Haiti that you don’t see everyday in the news.
Pre-Order If I Was President – My Haitian Experience
If I Was President – My Haitian Experience will be available on Itunes December 7th. Pre-Order your copy today!
World Premier of “Election Time” Music Video AOL BoomBox
The Video Premier of the new song “Election Time” is now showing at the TheBoomBox.com
Click Here to View
Wyclef Jean Press Release – “Election Time”
Columbia Records will release If I Were President: My Haitian Experience, the new six song EP from Wyclef Jean, available digitally on Tuesday, December 7, 2010.
If I Were President: My Haitian Experience, includes “Election Time,” a provocative new universal song written in the wake of Wyclef’s recent attempt to run for president in Haiti. The track is currently streaming here:
“This song is inspired by Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick In The Wall,’ with the chant, ‘We don’t need no education,’” says Wyclef Jean. ”It is also inspired by Fela Kuti’s ’Zombie.” It’s the voice of the youth. It is the voice of this generation. It’s the artist once again doing what the politicians should be doing. This is about inspiring the voice of this generation.”
“Election Time” arrives with an extraordinarily powerful and beautiful video lensed in Haiti. Wyclef teams up with Haitian director, Steve Halloun to co-direct the clip. Halloun, a former student of the University of Miami Film School, like Wyclef, is deeply concerned with helping Haiti on all fronts. The video created jobs for local residents, including the actors and technical staff, while showing the world unfamiliar pictures of his native country.
“I have to show all the sides of Haiti,” Wyclef Jean says. ”There is still beauty in Haiti and I have to show the beauty and the ugly reality that is going to change. It will change.”
November is “Election Time” in many countries around the world including in both of Wyclef’s countries–the United States and Haiti, where the November 28th general election holds great historic import. ”It means the rebirth of my country. It means that the young people can bring about change,” says Wyclef. ”I would want to tell the youth of Haiti to go out and vote. We have had a long history of dictatorship in Haiti. It’s not a Haitian right to vote that we are talking about. We are talking about a world right. Take your right. Your true weapon is your voting card. Use your weapon and use it wisely.”
If I Were President: My Haitian Experience is a family affair, co- executive produced by Wyclef and his brother, Sedeck Jean. The two started together and then went separate ways in their careers until the Earthquake of January 2010 reunited them musically. Sedeck Jean is also featured in the “Election Time” video.
Wyclef describes If I Were President: My Haitian Experience as “the life story of an immigrant. It’s for everyone who has had to leave one place and adapt to another. It’s about the refugee in all of us trying to fit in. But it’s not all sorrowful. In life, there is love and hate, war and peace. It’s both sides. This is the continuation of my music and it represents both sides. It’s for all my fans. It’s for those who love me for ‘Gone ‘Til November’ and ‘Hips Don’t Lie,’ too.
“Every great album to me is inspired by real events. It’s about what you’ve seen and experienced. They were done by the greats who came before me: Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Fela Kuti. The music has to be real. Fela Kuti used his music as a tool for development of his people. You need to relate to the culture. If I Were President: My Haitian Experience is about relating to the culture of Haiti which translate to the world.”
Wyclef Jean plans a world tour in 2011. ”The Haitian Experience ” tour will include, “the music, the art, the culture and definitely the carnival,” says Jean.
* * * * *
Haitian-born Wyclef Jean is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter/musician/producer, humanitarian, Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti, and founder of Yéle Haiti. A founding member of the pioneering hip-hop group Fugees and prolific solo artist, Wyclef has effortlessly crossed genres, generations and geographic boundaries with his music.
In 2005, Wyclef Jean created Yéle Haiti to provide aid and assistance to his native Haiti. Yéle Haiti is a grassroots movement inspiring change in Haiti through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment. Their community service programs include food distribution and mobilizing emergency relief. Wyclef coined Yéle in a song and means “a cry for freedom.” The organization has been garnering international attention for its work including being featured in the Associated Press, USA Today, CNN, Fox News, NBC’s Today show, and on 60 Minutes. After the devastating earthquake in January 2010, all programs now focus on the relief and reconstruction of the island nation.
* * * * *
STATEMENT FROM WYCLEF JEAN
GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING MUSICIAN WYCLEF JEAN OFFICIALLY WITHDRAWS FROM HAITI PRESIDENTIAL RUN AND APPEAL
The Singer-Activist Will Continue to Work for the Haitian People, But Will Resume Focus on His Legendary Music Career
NEW YORK—Sept. 21, 2010—Grammy-winning Haitian artist Wyclef Jean, dropped several weeks ago from the ballot for the upcoming November elections in his home country, now says he has officially withdrawn his candidacy.
“After weeks of quiet but painstaking reflection with my wife and daughter, I have chosen to end my bid for the presidency of Haiti,” said Jean. “This was not an easy conclusion to reach; but it is one that was thoughtfully made, taking into account many, many competing factors and weighing the course that will best advance the healing of the country and help it find the quickest path to recovery.”
When Haiti’s Provincial Electoral Council released its list on Aug. 20 of whom it deemed qualified to run in this year’s elections, 15 of the 34 who had filed the papers to enter the race for presidency had been dropped from the ballot. Jean, one of those disqualified, accepted the council’s decision, in efforts to respect the rule of law and in order to ensure that his supporters would remain peaceful and law-abiding in the aftermath of the announcement.
Simultaneously, Jean and his representatives filed a legal appeal against the ruling of the council, due to perceived irregularities in the council’s operations. At the time, the singer and his advisers gave as their rationale the desire to ensure that the council was being held accountable and that its processes were made transparent. Not withstanding his interest in a sound, just and fair governance process, Jean is choosing instead to revert his attention and focus to his music. Jean’s new album “If I Were President, the Haitian Experience” is scheduled for release in February 2011, followed by the summer 2011 kickoff of his worldwide tour “The Haitian Experience.”
“Some battles are best fought off the field, and that is where we take this now. Our ultimate goal in continuing the appeal was to further the people’s opportunity to freely participate in a free and fair democratic process,” said Jean. “In that regard, the appeal was meant to improve the electoral process for all, candidates and voters alike. It is one way that I hope to bring light to the functioning of a government that is often ranked as one of the most corrupt on the planet, resulting in a country that is by most measures the poorest in the Western world. It’s not about my candidacy—this appeal was meant to address the shortcomings of the process for every Haitian. Though my run for the presidency was cut short, in this way, I feel it was not in vain; it’s something we can use to improve conditions for my Haitian brothers and sisters.”
Haiti’s presidential election was originally scheduled for earlier this year, but was delayed due to the devastating earthquake that struck the country in January. The quake was particularly destructive in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, where many government buildings, including the presidential palace, were left unusable; while many government workers are estimated to have died in the disaster and election materials lost. (END)
Marian Salzman
President
Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, North America
200 Madison Avenue, 2nd floor
New York, New York 10016
http://www.eurorscgpr.com
NEW WYCLEF JEAN – PRIZON POU K. E. P. A
WYCLEF JEAN – PRIZON POU K. E. P. A
[AUDIO=http://wyclefjean.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/wyclef-jean-prizon-pou-k-e-p-a.mp3]
Huffington Post – Keeping The Faith
It is with a heavy heart that I tell you today that the board of elections in Haiti has disqualified me from my run for the presidency of the country. Though I disagree with the ruling, I respectfully accept the committee’s final decision, and I urge my supporters to do the same. We must all honor the memories of those we’ve lost–whether in the earthquake, or at anytime–by responding peacefully and responsibly to this disappointment.
I was inspired to run for president because I know Haiti can become great with the right leadership, and I believe I could be that leader; but, ultimately, we must respect the rule of law in order for our island to become the great nation we all aspire for it to be.
I want to assure my countrymen that I will continue to work for Haiti’s renewal; though the board has determined that I am not a resident of Haiti, home is where the heart is–and my heart has and will always be in Haiti. This ruling just tells me that I can’t officially seek the office of president. More importantly, there is no one who can tell me to stop my work in Haiti, and there is no one who could. I think of my daughter, Angelina, and it makes me want to redouble my efforts to help give all the children in Haiti better days.
I also want to honor the memory of my father, a minister; I know that he would tell me that even though I’ve faced a setback, I must continue in all my good-faith efforts to help Haiti turn a corner to a better and brighter future. Do not think that my role in the future of Haiti is over; it’s just a different role than I had anticipated it to be.
Rest assured, this isn’t the end of my efforts to help improve my beloved country but only marks a new beginning.
Signed,
Wyclef Jean
Esquire.com Interview
A portion of this interview appears in the August 2010 cover story, “The Country That Never Was,” on Bill Clinton’s looking for hope in the dirt to rebuild — no, just build — Haiti as the de facto CEO of a leaderless nation. But Jean, an influential leader in his own right, struck as so smart — so honest (“It’s the rising, and what I mean by the rising is destroy torebuild“) — that we’d thought we should share a bit more.
ESQUIRE: What changes have you seen in the way people are living in Port-au-Prince since the quake? 
WYCLEF JEAN: Before the quake we had close to an 80 percent illiteracy rate. The population could not read and write. Before the quake you had a situation of child slavery. Before the quake you had a high prostitution rate. Before the quake, Cité du Soleil was in an inhumane situation — not even animals would walk in. Before the quake, Haiti got hit with back-to-back hurricanes, the city of Gonaïves was destroyed.
ESQ: That’s a good breakdown of how it was before, but what’s the change been like since?
WJ: One-point-two million homeless. There were homes then. No matter what kind of homes they were, they still were homes. Forget the fact that people live in tents these days. Now, no homes. That will catch up to them.
ESQ: Haitians talk about this being a new beginning.
WJ: Oh, yes. Haiti has an opportunity now to start from scratch, and what that means is, we can get real schools in there, there’s a chance of getting real hospitals, of teaching a population how to read and write, where kids can get a degree, and actually do something with the degree right now. As far as investment and business, this is the best time to invest in business in Haiti.
ESQ: But let’s say this is the moment people on the outside stop paying attention. Can that be reversed? Will Americans keep Haiti on their mind?
WJ: Definitely. I think it’ll stay that way that with Bill there. An ex-president of the United States of America — I don’t know too many stories like that in the case of history, where a former president goes and decides that he’s going to be part of helping run another country. That’s big. It don’t get bigger than that. You know what I’m saying? That signal is, “Yes, the Americans are there.”
ESQ: There’s still a lot of energy in Port-au-Prince — you see kids in their uniforms going to school here. It feels like there’s a certain reverence for school. Yet…
WJ: Let me ask you something: Is that really school? Or is that the façade of school? You and me, all of us here in the States, we know what school is. Nobody bluffs us. In Haiti, there is the façade of school. But this moment — the rebuilding — is an opportunity to actually provide real schooling for a mass population, which can turn things around in the next fifteen years.
ESQ: Should that be the focus of relief efforts?
WJ: Now the effort needs to change from relief to business, because if you don’t have a country where you’re bringing in business — where you’re sure that if you put in a dollar, you’re going to get three dollars back — no one will be interested.
ESQ: I don’t know if this is a difficult question or what, but from my reading…
WJ: There’s no question that’s difficult for me. My daddy was a minister, my grandfather was a voodoo priest, my uncle was a mason, I was raised with a lot of studies.
ESQ: …everyone agrees there’s a small group of families that control money and commerce in Haiti. If that’s so, how can you decentralize that structure in order to do things like reinvent health care?
WJ: The first question is not who they are. The first question we have to ask is, What are these families? They are capitalists. They believe in capitalism, in making money, right? We have to build an open system that doesn’t stop them from making money, that will work for them, if only because what they’re making could double, triple. Everything starts with policy. We just say, If you break the law, then you’ll pay for it, because there’s an enforceable policy in place. In America, we don’t stop people from making money. If you’ve got a dollar, and you can make three with it, make three with it, you can make six, make ten, but — pay your taxes, dude. Don’t do that and you’re going to be in trouble. That’s how I see it happening.
ESQ: Taxation. The Tea Party nightmare.
WJ: Yeah. Understand what I’m saying to you. I don’t bite my tongue — some people may be scared to talk about families — but I grew up in the States, and the reality of it is: if they are in the mansion, and around them is nothing but huts, and a bunch of people who can’t read and write, then it’s not a mansion; it’s the façade of a mansion.
