President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes?

Level 2 Intermediate
1 Warmer
In two minutes, write as many things about Haiti as you can.

Haiti

2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers are given to
help you.

Grammy policy notoriously dire candidacy slum rubble

1. an adverb used to describe something that is famous for a bad reason _______________________ (para 2)
2. a poor area of a town where the houses are in very bad condition _______________________ (para 2)
3. broken pieces of stone and brick from buildings, walls etc that have been destroyed
_______________________ (para 3)
4. a set of plans or actions agreed on by a government or political party _______________________ (para 3)
5. the fact that someone is a candidate (wants to win) in an election _______________________ (para 4)
6. a prize given in the US each year to the best performers and writers of music on CD
_______________________ (para 5)
7. an adjective meaning very severe or serious _______________________ (para 6)
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NEWS LESSONS / President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes? / Intermediate
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 President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes?
Level 2 Intermediate

faith donations allies controversy scholarship charity decentralize

8. people who are ready to help you, especially in difficult situations ____________________ (para 6)
9. an organization to which you give money so that it can give money and help to people who need it
____________________ (para 7)
10. money that an organization gives to someone so that they can study at school or university
____________________ (para 7)
11. belief in a god or gods ____________________ (para 8)
12. to take power from a central government or place and give it to several smaller and more local ones
____________________ (para 9)
13. a disagreement, especially about a moral issue that a lot of people have strong feelings about
____________________ (para 10)
14. money or goods that you give to an organization, especially one that helps people
____________________ (para 10)

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NEWS LESSONS / President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes? / Intermediate
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President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes?
Level 2 Intermediate
Wyclef Jean: President of
Haiti-in-waiting or singer with
stars in his eyes?
Musician will stand in election in his native
country but critics ask what exactly he offers a
nation in desperate need of leadership
Ed Pilkington in Bloomfield, New Jersey
6 August, 2010
1 Wyclef Jean is in his recording studio in New
Jersey working on his latest album, The Haitian
Experience. “One more time,” he says and then
brings the microphone up to his mouth and
sings: “Wyclef, the Haitian president!”
2 Now that the world knows the former singer with
the group The Fugees and solo star is running
for president of Haiti, the key question is: why?
Jean recalls a visit he made to Haiti just before
Christmas with his four-year-old daughter. While
there, he decided to spread a little joy for the
children of Cité Soleil, the notoriously poor and,
at times, violent slum in the capital, Port-au-
Prince. “I wanted to bring Santa Claus to the
slums because these kids were poor, so I took a
helicopter and I landed with my daughter and a
Santa Claus right in the middle of Cité Soleil.”
3 He was staying in Haiti in the Hotel Montana.
Three weeks later, on 12 January, the entire
building was reduced to rubble in the massive
Haitian earthquake. “We escaped death by a few
weeks. So that’s why I’m standing [for president].
Maybe I could have waited another ten years for
this, but this is urgent. Singing about policy is
not enough.”
4 Wyclef Jean’s candidacy will have an explosive
impact on the presidential elections on 28
November. Unusually for Haiti, the race is
wide open, with no obvious frontrunner. The
current president, René Préval, cannot stand
again because he has already served two
five-year terms.
5 Jean is Haiti’s most famous son. He left the
country when he was nine, moving first to
Brooklyn and then to New Jersey, where he later
formed The Fugees with Pras Michel and Lauryn
Hill. Their second album sold more than 18
million copies worldwide and won two Grammys.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2010
NEWS LESSONS / President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes? / Intermediate
6 No one doubts that Jean is likely to have an
electric presence when campaigning begins. But
there are other doubts, like why should anyone
in Haiti vote for a pop star as president at such a
dire moment in its history? “People can say, ‘Clef
what do you know about politics and running the
country?’ But when you think of the connections
and allies I have around the world, I feel I can
help move this country forward.”
7 Jean insists that he has always been political. He
has been actively involved in Haitian affairs since
2005, when he set up his charity, Yéle Haiti,
which works with poor young people by helping
them to read and write, and awarding educational
scholarships. But it was the earthquake that
really convinced him of the need to get directly
involved in the running of his country.
8 He reached Port-au-Prince the day after the
earthquake. “For two days I was picking bodies
up, taking them to a morgue. I found my friend,
Jimmy O, dead in his car with a building on him.”
He says the experience made him question
his faith. “The streets were filled with bodies of
children and pregnant women; at that moment you
think ‘If there is a God why did he let that happen?’
But then you see a man with a nail in his hand,
and he says we are building a new Haiti.”
9 Almost seven months on from the earthquake,
hundreds of thousands of people are still living
under plastic sheets despite the onset of the
hurricane season. There is hardly any food or
work. If Jean actually were to win the election,
where would he begin? “There’s nowhere to go
but up in Haiti right now, because everywhere
you look there’s disaster. So the first thing
you do is engage education and job creation.”
Secondly, he says, he would encourage people
to move out of the capital by building new
villages in the countryside. “Each village would
be associated with a different food – mango
village, sugar cane village. If you can provide a
job opportunity and a home for people you can
start to decentralize Port-au-Prince. Education
would be the key”, he says.
10 But first, before he can start work on these
policies, there’s an election he has to win, and
if it is like previous Haitian elections it’s going to
get dirty. One of the things that people will talk
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President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes?
Level 2 Intermediate
about is the controversy over his charity. Yéle
Haiti, which has raised about $9 million (£5.7
million) in disaster relief since January, has been
accused of a range of financial irregularities.
What does he say to the charge that some
donations ended up in his personal accounts?
“No, that didn’t happen. No, we would never do
that. My honesty you can never question. I would
never steal from my country.”
11 There is likely to be a lot more criticism when
Jean launches his campaign in Haiti on
Thursday. So does he really think he can win?
“Even if I lose, I win,” he says. “The world will
have known that in history there was a young
man from Haiti who felt he wanted to do more
than music, to engage in Haitian politics and
help move the country forward.”
© Guardian News & Media 2010
First published in The Guardian, 06/08/10

3 Comprehension check
Answer the questions by referring to the information in the article.
1. What kind of artist is Wyclef Jean?
2. Who or what are The Fugees?
3. According to the article, when is the next presidential election in Haiti?
4. What natural disaster recently happened in Haiti?
5. Why must there be a new president in Haiti?
6. Where was Jean born and where did he move to?
7. What is the name of Jean’s charity?
8. If he wins the election, what does Jean say that he will do first?
9. What does Jean want to “decentralize” and how?
10. What kind of criticism is Jean facing regarding the charity?

4 Find the phrases

Find phrases or expressions in the article that match the definitions. The number of words and paragraph
numbers are given to help you.
1. trying to be elected to become the head of the country ______________________________ (three words,
para 2)
2. only broken pieces of brick and mortar left ______________________________ (three words, para 3)
3. anyone still has a chance to win ______________________________ (five words, para 4)
4. a quality where someone has an extremely exciting way of speaking and acting that makes everyone want to
listen to him/her ______________________________ (two words, para 6)
5. a severe and serious point of time ______________________________ (two words, para 6)
6. to be unsure about his religious beliefs or the existence of God ______________________________ (three
words, para 8)
7. money given to people who are in urgent need of help, usually after an event that has affected lots of people
______________________________ (two words, para 10)
8. incorrectness in the way money and funds are dealt with and looked after
______________________________ (two words, para 10)
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NEWS LESSONS / President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes? / Intermediate
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President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes?
Level 2 Intermediate
5 Discussion
There has been further news on Wyclef’s candidacy since this article was published. At the time of
publication, Haiti’s election board decided that Wyclef Jean could not run in the presidential election. Jean
was intending to appeal against the decision. Discuss the following questions:
1. If Wyclef is running in the election, do you think he can possibly win? If not, do you agree with the
decision to stop him from running for president?
2. In your opinion, what qualifies a person to be president of a country?
3. What did the president or prime minister of your country do before he/she was elected?

6 Webquest
Search the internet for more information about Wyclef Jean and his involvement with Haiti.
• Go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/ and type Wyclef into the search field to find out the latest news on his
appeal to run for president.
• Read an interview with Wyclef and watch videos on his blog: http://wyclefjean.wordpress.com/
• Go to http://www.yele-haiti.org/ to read about Wyclef Jean’s aid projects and to watch video interviews and more.
• Watch him discussing his plans for Haiti by typing presidential candidate wyclef into the search field on
www.youtube.com
• Find and watch videos of some of Wyclef’s and The Fugees’ most famous songs such as ‘Killing me softly’ by
The Fugees and ‘Hips don’t lie’ with Shakira.
• You can also find Wyclef on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Wyclef

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NEWS LESSONS / President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes? / Intermediate
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President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes?
Level 2 Intermediate

KEY

2 Key words 4 Find the phrases

1. notoriously 1. running for president

2. slum 2. reduced to rubble
3. rubble 3. the race is wide open
4. policy 4. electric presence
5. candidacy 5. dire moment
6. Grammy 6. question his faith
7. dire 7. disaster relief
8. allies 8. financial irregularities
9. charity
10. scholarship
11. faith 5 Discussion
12. decentralize
13. controversy Teacher’s notes: You could mention the fact that other
14. donations artists or public figures have held, or do still hold, high
positions in politics. Consider Ronald Regan, Arnold
Schwarzenegger etc.
3 Comprehension check

1. a musician
2. a very successful music group
3. 28 November, 2010
4. the earthquake in January 2010
5. The current president, René Préval, cannot stand
again because he has already served two
five-year terms.
6. He was born in Haiti and moved to Brooklyn (New
York, US), then to north New Jersey (US).
7. Yéle Haiti
8. provide education and create jobs
9. He would move people out of the capital city to
specially created agricultural villages which would
each work on providing different crops.
10. that there have been financial irregularities
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NEWS LESSONS / President of Haiti-in-waiting or singer with stars in his eyes? / Intermediate
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