29761: (news) Chamberlain: Rapper Wyclef Jean to be Haiti's roving ambassador (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Joseph Guyler Delva

     PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Haitian President Rene Preval
has appointed Haitian-born hip-hop star Wyclef Jean as a roving ambassador
to promote the troubled country's image abroad, government officials said
on Wednesday.
     "We wish we could have several Wyclefs as roving ambassadors because
the country could have gained so much," Foreign Affairs Minister Renald
Clerisme told Reuters in an interview.
     Jean moved to New York when he was nine, but has been active in his
support of his native country, regularly wearing the Haitian flag on his
clothing at public events and creating a foundation to provide aid and
assistance there.
     Government officials praised the Grammy award-winning Jean as a model
for youth, the pride of all Haitians and "our best asset to promote the
country's image around the world and to help attract foreign investors."
     The presidential palace announced that Preval, who left Port-au-Prince
on Wednesday for a three-day visit to Jamaica, would be joined there by
Jean.
     Jean, 34, gained fame as a member of the hip-hop trio The Fugees, who
won Grammys in 1996 for their album "The Score" and the single "Killing Me
Softly With His Song." He was also nominated last month for a best pop
collaboration Grammy for his performance with Shakira on the smash hit
"Hips Don't Lie."
     Haiti's government credits Jean with successfully lobbying the U.S.
Congress for passage of a trade bill expected to help create textile
manufacturing jobs in Haiti.




 REUTERS