Wyclef Jean calls for evacuating Haiti's capital

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: Yahoo News

NEW YORK – Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean is calling for an evacuation of his homeland's earthquake-ravaged capital and asking for international aid to help set up tent cities nearby.

The Grammy Award-winning artist called for action during a news conference Monday in New York. He envisions temporary settlements housing 100,000 people each outside Port-au-Prince.

Jean is one of Haiti's most famous sons and has been a prominent voice in relief efforts since Tuesday's earthquake. He has raised more than $2 million through his charity, The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. It is also known as Yele Haiti.

But he has also faced questions about its accounting practices. He defended it Monday as a young organization that had made mistakes but has also been effective.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100118/ap_en_mu/us_haiti_wyclef_jean

[louis-t]

1. They certainly can't stay in the city.

Sounds like a good idea.

[tabatha]

2. That's a good idea.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

3. They will have to. Too many bodies buried in the rubble

for anyone to safely live there.

[DesertFlower]

4. that makes sense. nt

[msongs]

5. port au prince is not flattened, lots of viable structures still there..in pics anyway nt

[Posteritatis]

7. Mostly intact facades don't necessarily mean much. (nt)

[Dappleganger]

12. So, where will the water and electricity come from?

And just because a building isn't in pancake form on the teevee doesn't mean it's safe to inhabit. Whatever infrastructure they had before is GONE.

[No Elephants]

13. The buildings you see in pics may not be structurally sound.

Big problem: dead bodies all over, rotting. Very unhealthy environment for survivors.

I'm inclined to take this guy's word over a photo. Remember, in photos, even videos, of the WTC, the images of people hurling themselves out of windows and falling to the ground were immediately "disappeared" as too upsetting for the general public, kids, families of the victims, etc..

[robcon]

6. Horrible idea.

n/t

[HughMoran]

8. I have to wonder if it's possible to set up 20 tent cities of 100,000 people

Perhaps a partial evacuation of the most needy would be a good idea though.

[BrightKnight]

9. Wyclef and whose army? It's not possible even if it were a good idea.

It would be better to work with the natural desire of people to rebuild their own lives. Open the port and help people rebuild their own distribution networks.

Clearing the debris and rebuilding the core infrastructure will displace a lot of people.

--
He should work on getting a crane barge to make it a port city again.

[roamer65]

10. They're going to have to leave at least until the disease threat is gone.

Best thing to do is setup massive relief camps just across the border from the Dominican Republic and ship the supplies needed through the Dominican Republic. The camps can be temporary until the cities are habitable again.

[Abq_Sarah]

17. The problem is

Refugee camps are not an option a lot of people will be willing to tolerate. A lot of Haitians are gong to want to resettle somewhere else and President Obama and the state department are going to have to put pressure on the other nearby Island nations to accept refugees. In the end, the majority will probably make there way here but it's time for other nations to pitch in for once.

[naaman fletcher]

11. Why not ask any random dude? WTF does he know?

Besides of course all the money he has taken out of his charity.

[jtrockville]

14. (debunked) "But he has also faced questions about its accounting practices"

Ray Suarez had Stacy Palmer (editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy) on the PBS Newshour tonight. Looks like Wyclef Jean's charity passes muster with her.

...

RAY SUAREZ: There's been a lot of attention paid in the past few days to the charity of the Haitian-born musician Wyclef Jean Yele Haiti. What are the questions? Do his books pass the tests that you use when you're assessing the works of charities?

STACY PALMER: One of the things that people have been doing is looking very carefully at how he's done his accounting and how he's filed some of his tax forms.

And a lot of experts who were interviewed today say that they think that, really, they just were a little bit tardy and they were not necessarily so careful with their books, but no maliciousness, no wrongdoing, none of those kinds of things.

And it's hard to the get to the bottom of this. But it looks like what happens when a charity is a young charity and not too experienced and hasn't necessarily done all of the right things. But I don't think there's any serious wrongdoing. And, today, he very much said that, defiantly, in a press conference, that there was no wrongdoing. He didn't personally benefit from the charity, which is one of the charges that was made against him.

...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june10/haiti4_01-18.html

[AlphaCentauri]

15. Time to buil a new city in another location

[Retrograde]

18. and we should move San Francisco

and all the other cities near faults? Where do you propose all the people who live in seismically active areas, or on flood plains, or in hurricane-prone regions, or in Tornado Alley, go?

I don't doubt that Wyclef Jean means well, but uprooting 3 million people and moving them somewhere else is not going to solve Haiti's root problems. If the residents of Port au Prince want to stay and rebuild, more power to them.

[Abq_Sarah]

16. I'm sure the UN

USA and other countries have already planned for this. Right now though, they need to get search teams, food, water, medical supplies, doctors and nurses on the ground.