Shea: Jean’s Haiti relief effort sparks controversy

When the Jan. 12 earthquake hit Haiti, Wyclef Jean had no idea how much it would affect him…. When the Jan. 12 earthquake hit Haiti, Wyclef Jean had no idea how much it would affect him.

The Haitian rapper and musician began working to help his country long before the earthquake destroyed its capital, Port-au-Prince. In 2005, he founded the organization Yele Haiti, which helped the country through the aftermath of Hurricane Jeanne and provides scholarships to Haitian children.

Jean’s last album, 2009’s From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansion, chronicled the life of the Haitian revolutionary, Toussaint L’Ouverture.

Considering his deep involvement with the country, it was no great surprise that Jean leapt into action just hours after the earthquake hit. He was all over the news, repeating the phrase, “We must act now.”

But just days after Jean and Yele Haiti had fully mobilized, news sources such as The Smoking Gun and the Washington Post began to look into charges, “for costs other than providing benefits to Haitians in need.”

Finance problems are hardly uncharted territory for Jean, whose Miami beach house was foreclosed upon in 2008. Furthermore, the Smoking Gun reported that on four separate occaisions The Florida Division of Corporations dissolved Jean’s charity organization, the Wyclef Jean Foundation, for not filing required state disclosure reports. So it’s not hard to believe that this new scrutiny raised some eyebrows.

But through multiple public statements, a YouTube video and an appearance on Oprah, Jean adamantly asserted his innocence and his passionate efforts.

“I gotta tell you, coming back in here after digging kids up … and finding cemeteries for them … this is what I come back to: an attack on my integrity and my foundation, Yele Haiti,” he told The Washington Post

Even though Jean has never had much luck with finances, I think his intentions are sincere. He’s a musician, not a banker. It’s no great shock that he’s made mistakes with large amounts of money. He hired new accountants for the charity just to be safe. His interests are clearly vested in Haiti — not in himself.

The poor guy watched his home get destroyed, worked hard to help, got put under some pretty serious public scrutiny and still managed to make some genuinely impressive efforts to benefit his tiny island nation.

He participated in a huge benefit concert with other big name artists like Jay-Z, Alicia Keys and Beyonce that raised $61 million for Haiti. Only five days after the earthquake, Yele Haiti raised over a million dollars, and he even went to Haiti himself to see the destruction and to help pull dying people from the rubble. That shows a hell of a lot of character.

So hats off to you, Jean. You stepped up to the plate when your country needed you, went above and beyond the call of duty, pushed through a major media crisis and still managed to make a difference in Haiti.