Wyclef Jean Running for President of Haiti, Source Says

(Aug. 3) -- What if he were the president? According to a report by The Associated Press, Wyclef Jean, the Haitian-born, Brooklyn-raised hip-hop musician and producer, is set to explore that very question.

The former head of Haiti's Chamber of Deputies, Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques, told the wire service that Jean -- who heads up Yele, a charity that has raised an estimated $10 million for Haiti since the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake -- will declare his intent to run in the upcoming November election in his native country. A spokeswoman for Jean said only that the singer will make an announcement Thursday but was mum on what it will address.

As Surge Desk's Carl Franzen reported in July, rumors have swirled as to whether Jean would try to seek Haiti's presidency, and the singer/songwriter has done little to put them to rest.

Whoever becomes Haiti's next president will face no shortage of challenges. On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a boat full of 323 Haitians looking to flee the island nation, Reuters reported, where 1.5 million quake victims still live in tents in makeshift relief camps. And while more than $5.3 billion in aid has been pledged to help rebuild Haiti, less than 20 percent of that money has actually made it through the pipeline, the Miami Herald reported.

Still, despite all that faces Haiti, Jean remains an optimist about the country's future prospects, as he outlined in a recent interview with Esquire.

"Haiti has an opportunity now to start from scratch," Jean said, sounding very much like a candidate. "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."

For further glimpses as to a possible campaign platform, not to mention a ready campaign theme song, there's the 2006 hit alluded to above. Here's how Jean updated the song in 2008 for a session at AOL. Perhaps it's time to update it again.

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