Sean Penn is 'Suspicious' of Wyclef's Bid to Become President of Haiti

So Wyclef has decided to run for president of Haiti, Lauren Hill is currently working on making a comeback, and the fifth Beetle still remains more popular than Pras. Oh well, so much for that long awaited and anticipated Fugee reunion album...

Sure there've been questions raised as to the legitimacy of Wyclef's quest to become president beyond his ability to lead his beleaguered country out of the throngs of centuries old colonialism. But beyond the question of his ability to lead a nation after displaying the obvious inability to keep a three man musical group together, serious questions are being asked.

One such voice comes from Sean Penn, an activist who is no stranger to controversy. Here is Penn in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Larry King Live last night, after Wyclef's official announcement of his candidacy:

The Friday Sex Blog [The Other and Sex]

-=[ Sex, Domination & Resistance ]=-

The term miscegenation was first used in the 1860’s when American journalists invented the word in order to discredit the Abolitionist movement by stirring up debate over the prospect of white-black intermarriage. (On a tangential note, I find the parallels between miscegenation and the current gay marriage “debate” utterly fascinating.) In any case, miscegenation refers to sex or marriage between two people of different races.

Let me start right off by stating that I am of Puerto Rican descent, a people that has one of the highest rates of interracial marriage in the world (I believe only Brazil has higher rates). The funny thing is that Puerto Ricans don’t see it as “interracial.” There’s no “white” Puerto Rican as opposed to a “black” Puerto Rican. We are Puerto Ricans first. In fact, we don’t even adhere to a black/ white dichotomy. This is not to imply that racism does not exist among Puerto Ricans, it does. However, how we view and construct race is drastically different from the way Gringos conceptualize it. But that’s another subject for another day...

Under Pressure: "Good at the game of Tricknology," how the Media tried to play Wyclef and us all on Haiti

Wyclef Jean doesn't have time right now to make another hit making record as he has consistently in the past. If he did, I think a remake of Queen's "Under Pressure" would be oh so appropriate. As I mentioned a couple days ago on this blog, he has come under fire for the misappropriation of funds for his Yele Haiti foundation; a foundation, which is energetic in raising funds and support for his beleaguered Haitian homeland. Yesterday, an emotional and tearful Wyclef stood before cameras at a press conference to defend his foundation and ultimately himself from the accusations; accusations which he continues to deny.

Fortunately for Wyclef, according to tax experts on non-profits as reported by CNN, there have been no serious wrongdoings by Wyclef or his organization other than not filing their taxes in a timely manner [read it here]. Uh-huh, how about that? Yeah, how about said experts disclosing that it is perfectly routine for non-profits to charge their own charities so long as services are being provided in return. See, this is another one of those incidents in the long line of them always f*cking with us - they're always f*cking with us, even when we're doing good deeds. I felt the need to do a followup on my initial post on this because, well, some of "us" actually felt he was wrong to do what he did as far as charging his charity for services rendered.

A Crisis in Haiti: When there's blood on the streets...

Back in the day I could remember as an immigrant from the Caribbean myself when "being Haitian" was the butt of all jokes. What can I say, everybody has to have somebody to pick on I suppose. Considering that Haitians have been placed in such an inauspicious position among us West Indians and practically everybody in the western hemisphere if not the world. It's really great to see the outpouring of support here in their darkest hour. It truly gives me hope and a renewed sense of optimism that one day, the realization that we're all citizens of the world becomes obvious. So much so that we may never compromise the humanity of others as we all share space on this planet.

Honestly, my mind has been all over the place as I watch the portentous media coverage. Watching from a distance as we sit comfortably in our lives, I guess we can agree that there's a sense of helplessness which overtakes our being. A feeling which compels us to act with the greatest of humanitarian spirit, hence the outpouring of support financial and otherwise. I have some thoughts swimming around in my head about this event, but before getting to them, I just want to say that it is truly awesome to see that within the first 48 hours of the earthquake, people have donated funds to the Red Cross in record numbers. Numbers that have surpassed the initial 48 hour response period in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Tsunami in Miramar back in 2004.