Haiti = California

This trend of D-list celebrities running for high political positions is alarming.
Wyclef Jean's assumption that his political "neutrality" lends a bipartisan voice for Haiti is an ill-conceived excuse for presidential power. But since he "represents" the youth constituency, which is 50% of the population, his star power probably has a reasonable amount of local pull amongst jobless young men. Haiti's only going to get uglier...
I would advise Haitians to think twice before voting for anyone who speaks in third-person. Sadly, I believe that Wyclef has a good shot at becoming president. Mary Carey for VP!
{addendum} After thinking about this a bit more, I think that Sean Penn's comment on national TV was gratuitous and probably detrimental to whole cause. Whereas it might be true that Wyclef Jean is an absentee Samaritan, it's not like Americans are going to be the ones voting the dude in... if anything I'd hope that the people of Haiti can pick what's best for them (and it really may be Wyclef Jean).

Taxes in Pakistan

During my usual morning news crawl, I read that today Hillary Clinton announced $500 million in aid to Pakistan. Although I know that Pakistan plays a pivotal role in capping terrorist insurgency, and I would never claim to be a modicum of an expert in the area, this just doesn't jive with me at all.
Watch this NYTimes video. Pakistani government officials are not only ineffectual, but disgustingly counterproductive to the well-being of their country. If they openly evade taxes and allow their rich cohorts to flaunt their tax immunity while taxing the poor, then it infuriates me that Americans have to shoulder the burden of maintaining a decent Pakistani standard of living. We provide food and infrastructure so they don't blow us or themselves apart. I understand that American strategists have done their research and deemed that this is the best short-term solution for the Central Asian region and for American security, but by giving this corrupt government a total of $7.5 billion over 5 years ($1.5 billion per year), are we essentially disincentivizing them to do their job? Are we running their country for them? If so, is this the best way and are our benefits worth the costs?
Is the United States really the Global Police, or the Global Babysitter? I bet 300 million Americans didn't sign up to wipe the ass of all upper crust Pakistanis.

For Pakistan, [Clinton] announced a string of new projects -- including dams, power generation, agricultural development and hospital construction -- funded under U.S. legislation passed last year tripling civilian aid to $7.5 billion over the next five years.
The projects, the first to be launched under a new aid plan, are seen as crucial to shoring up support for the U.S.-led struggle against militants in a country where opinion polls show fewer than one in five view the United States favourably.
"The opinion about the United States in Pakistan will change when the people of Pakistan see how, through this partnership, their lives have changed," said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.