Criticism over recent Lil Wayne and Chris Brown concert in Haiti

June 26th of this year a large concert that was organized by mega producer Swizz Beats was done, and Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne performed.  Swizz Beats did as well, but obviously the two star attractions were Lil Wayne and Chris Brown. 

Some say the Haitian government paid money to bring these folks over to give a free concert, others, such as Swizz Beats claims the artist paid for it themselves.  People were saying that the President, who is a musician, paid for this concert to possibly win a re-election.  The government stated that this will boost tourism to Haiti and will be a boost to the economy.  People were saying if the concert cost $2 million US, then imagine how many people that could have been feed, or housing, etc.

Here is my take.

In the large scale of things, $2 million is a drop in the bucket for what Haiti needs.  Sure $2 million is nothing to sneeze at, but if the thought of buying food aid or giving food to people is right, then I would like to challenge that.  Haiti has to produce more of its own food.  Period.  Some of the high costs of food are due to importing food from everywhere, which pushes Haitian farmers out of business.  If the President Martelly bought $2 million dollars worth of food, it would hurt the farmers in Haiti even more.  Food aid doesn't help people in the long run.  Sure it will solve a hungry stomach today and possibly tomorrow, but it doesn't stop the country from depending on welfare.  This is why the approach of many NGO's needs to change.  They are suppressing the local farmers and not realizing it.  Do I think that $2 million could be spent on something else?  Sure!  Do I think that it was wrong for Lil Wayne, Swizz Beats, and Chris Brown to go and perform in Haiti either for free or for a fee?  No.  Haitians, like all people, need entertainment.  Regardless of what issues are currently affecting the country, some excitement to possibly energize the population is needed.  Who knows, this could prompt more artist to have Haiti in their concert rotation list.  If so, yes it would be a major boost to the economy.  Small vendors (small Haitian businesses) near the concert made great money.  Money that will stay in Haiti, and improve the lives of Haitians.  This is what drives an economy, not getting food imports that will only help a few people. 

So for me, I get the criticism, but for Haiti you have to look at a holistic approach to the entire thing.  This boosted the local economy in Port-au-Prince.  This put Haiti back in the spot light to help bring additional attention to the region.  This concert helped people who face crisis everyday, to put that behind for a couple of hours, and then return back to it.

So I think that we should be happy that some of the world's biggest black artists came and gave a great performance to the world's first black republic.

Go Gonave!

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