“If you do not know by now, Wyclef Jean, the hip hop Grammy-Award winning musician, producer, philanthropist and Haiti’s Goodwill Ambassador; formally announced his intention to run for president of Haiti. This announcement was publicized nearly eight months after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, killing an estimated 200,000 people. In a statement made after his announcement he designates that “The quake drove home to me that Haiti can’t wait another 10 years for us to bring it into the 21st century”. On Friday, September 17, an electoral council representative read the names of 19 presidential aspirants and the 15 rejected. Inevitably among the list of rejected candidates was, Wyclef Jean. Whether or not we agree with this decision, the fact remains that Haiti is still in need of assistance because of the socio-political realities it faces that are now only magnified because of the recent earthquake. Although disheartened by the outcome, a five-paragraph statement released after the decision regarding his ineligibility stated that Jean accepted the decision noting, “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”. Indeed it has, prior to the earthquake, Wyclef founded Yele Haiti (www.yele.org), a non political, registered non-profit grassroots organization that uses elements of music, sports and the media to support projects centered around health care, education and community development. The Yele Haiti website boasts efforts of creating “over 3,000 new jobs, close to 7,000 children being put in school, more than 8,000 people a month receiving food and approximately 2,000 young people per month learning about HIV/AIDS prevention”. In addition, the organization supports university scholarships, sporting events, classical orchestral training and many other community service projects and emergency relief services. As a collective society, we in the United States are too in a position to help. We are afforded these opportunities because we live in a country that generally supports and acknowledges hard work. Often times, we tend to dwell on the negative aspects of our current situation in life, on the things we wish we had and far too often, we fail to see that we are doing a lot better than we think. I wholeheartedly believe in helping our fellow humans and I am convinced that if we adopted a philosophy of helping our neighbors, regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, physical disabilities, religious ideology or any other constructs that have been developed to divide, this world would be a better place to live in. Some of the many ways we can help are by bringing awareness to the needs in Haiti and other developing nations, donating money to organizations like Yele Haiti or by working on supporting legislation meant to encourage economic stability and self sustaining policies in developing countries. After learning about his ineligibility, Wyclef stated, “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.” It appears that Wyclef has the best interest of the Haitian people at heart and when we too adopt an attitude to help our brothers and sisters, our efforts are indeed not in vain. Those interested in donating to Wyclef ‘s earthquake relief fund can text YELE to 501501 to donate $5. Contributions will be automatically billed to your cell phone carrier.”