Could the Japanese student at the Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Conference who dubbed Skoll founder Bill Drayton a “Rock Star” be experiencing some cultural displacement? Maybe, but referring to philanthropic leaders as rock stars is prevalent in all sorts of American contexts. For instance, fellow blogger Allison over at Entry Level Living has an entire series dedicated to “social change rockstars” Triple Pundit  writer Tome Shueneman describes how the website changeagents.com facilitates “rockstar agents of change” . Even in a casual exchange with a friend about social enterprise, there was mention of the emergence of Gen Y’s rockstars .

When did social change become this sexy?

There have been men and women committing their lives to the greater good for a long time but we don’t hear people referring to Mother Teresa or Siddartha as rockstars. In fact, they were revered for qualities that were completely antithetical to the rock star archetype. Revered social change leaders were said to exhibit utmost humility, a deep degree of sacrifice for their cause and even in Jesus Christ “super star”‘s case, martyrdom for a greater good.

Social Enterprise has distinguished itself from non-profit work by exhibiting an intangible “cool factor”. I think this coolness is especially appealing to Gen Y and that the lack of luster in nonprofit leadership is part of the leadership gap being experienced by so many nonprofits right now. Since 80s babies grew up getting gold stars for coming to class in kindergarten it’s easy to see how the humble over-worked and underpaid nonprofit leader just looks…tired. The martyrdom model of contributing to the world meaningfully just doesn’t seem as exciting. But the sexified social entrepreneur offers something different. It offers the perfect blend of  altruism and society’s gold stars for being one of those cool kids who is finding innovative ways of changing the world.It’s a field that doesn’t shy away from celebrating the  the egoic nature of leading something great and I think is part of the impetus to become the next Social Enterprise “rock star”.

This of course comes with its problems.  For instance, too much emphasis on the entrepreneur’s passion and star quality can thwart the organization’s ability to grow beyond the founder as it matures.  All this buzz behind changemakers may also  attract people like Jason Sadler who want to make big changes without paying close enough attention to whether their efforts are effecively changing diddly squat. The rock star status may also encourage a lot more people to put the “social enterprise” stamp on a project that is no different than many existing non-profit organizations. In the race to be the hottest innovator, self-dubbed rock stars may be overlooking the decision to have more impact by joining forces with experienced practitioners rather than trying to reinvent the wheel.

That said, I think it’s great that making impact has become so popular. Doing good IS cool and the individuals committed to doing good are well deserving of praise especially through Social Enterprise. It takes a lot to use an evolving model with a young financing structure to successfully straddle the difficult goal of being financially sustainable and socially meaningful. Anyone in it for the entourage will be weeded out fairly quickly. As the field of social entrepreneurship matures, so will the notion of those at its helm. For now, I’m not opposed to some egoic motivation for exploring how someone can do their part to change someone else’s condition.

So to the up and coming Bill Drayton’s of the world, I say, Rock On!

Global Citizen Year (high school students) : This program is geared towards high school students who want to make a difference. It places high school graduates in service opportunities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America for a year between high school and college. The intense exposure to different cultures, languages, and problems in various global contexts influences their path and work in college. If you are a college student and want to work with Global Citizen Year, you should check out some of the job opportunities there.

Kiva Fellows: This is a program for individuals who are 21 or older that gives participants a firsthand view of how microfinance works on the ground. The Fellows are placed with one of kiva’s microfinance organizations and spend 10 weeks interviewing and surveying microfinance users.

think impact: Awesome program that places college students and recent graduates in Kenya or South Africa for 12 weeks where interns get to work with community leaders and assess existing social enterprises in the region. The intern participants can then apply to be fellows and raise money to build their own social enterprises in the community they lived in.

Starting bloc- Another network that connects young leaders who are starting their own organizations or businesses. Like Ashoka, it provides a network of resources and support that help propel the project forward. However they have an emphasis on younger leaders.

Echoing Green : Organization that provide both networks and seed funding for new social enterprises. Great organization to look into if you’re also interested in a financial boost behind your work.

Unreasonable Institute This organization has a rigorous selection process for choosing their 25 fellows who are young social entrepreneurs. For 10 weeks the entrepreneurs incubate their ideas with their innovative peers and experts from various fields. They are then given the opportunity to present their idea to Social Investors and Philanthropists at the end of the training period. This is also really nice for comapnies that just started and are reallyl trying to get off the ground.

Ashoka Fellows : Ashoka is a leading organization that supports and forges meaningful partnerships with social entrepreneurs throughout the world. If you have an innovative social business running, then you should apply to be an Ashoka fellow and be part of this supportive and influential network. If like me, you’re just looking for opportunities to learn about the field, check out Ashoka Internship

SASE skoll: The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship are more your cup of tea for more mature organizations. They are positioned to fund organizations that have proven to be sustainable and are ready to be scaled up and expand. If you’re ready to take your enterprise to the next level, Skoll may be a good resource for you.

Climate Corps: For my environmentally friendly MBA kids, you can apply to be part of Climate Corps, an internship that will teach you how to evaluate and help improve the sustainable practices of a global company. It requires that you become a member of Net Impact, but that’s also a great organization for students who are committed to blending business and values.

New Sector : This is a consulting firm that is dedicated to building the leadership capacity and effectiveness of social enterprises throughout the country. They have a number of really interesting opportunities for undergrads and young professionals that give you insight into how to maximize the potential of social impact organizations.

I think the newness of this movement in social enterprise can make it challenging to find your place in it, but there are organizations out there to provide support, networks, experience, and money to people who want to make things happen. So continue to pursue the work you were meant to do and seek out resources like those listed above to help you get there.

a) He can kill the weaker unarmed guy drag the mammoth home and emerge as the tribe’s sole hero and new chief.

b) He can get home with the other caveman and share the prize equally among their tribesman.

Knowing Rockafeller is a capitalist, many would assume that he would automatically go with choice one because it would bring him more immediate power, and anyone who believes in the virtue of self interest would make this decision wouldn’t they?Well what if Marx was also the tribe’s medicine man and Rockafeller had a chronically sick son, would it be in his self-interest to kill him? What about if Marx saved Rockafeller’s life last year and there was a tribal belief that killing someone who saved your life will result in eternal damnation for you and everyone in your family for generations to follow? Is a bigger slab of mammoth worth the trouble of eternal damnation of you and everyone you bring into the world? I’m guessing that’s a no.

I used this example to illustrate that self-interest doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The decisions that best serve our aims are often shaped by the values and expectations of the tribes we belong to. Our families, our religious beliefs, our country, and our ethnicity all create value systems that reward and punish us for different actions. Society gives us context for whether its in our self interest to buy new boobs before embarking on a television career, or to put another $5 bill in the collections plate at church. The way selfishness AND altruism is rewarded has a lot to do with society’s values. Is it possible for us to live in a society where it is in our self-interest to be altruistic? With an increased number of people demanding that businesses exist not solely for money, but as positive forces in their communities many businesses are seeing the value of being altruistic. Pepsi, Starbucks, even Walmart are putting programs in place to show that they are doing good business by being good citizens. And customers are paying attention, particularly buyers from GenY.

One study from Boston based companies Cone Inc. and AMP Insights shows that 69% of 13- to 25-years old consider a company’s social and environmental commitment when deciding where to shop, and 83% will trust a company more if it is socially/environmentally responsible. It is becoming in the self-interest of many businesses to pay attention to ethics and ways to serve society at large because the values of a growing portion of their customers are demanding it.

Perhaps more important to the concept of self-interest than community values are our individual values. All of our actions reinforce what we believe about ourselves and once we get out of physical survival, what we really work to maintain is a survival of who we believe we are in the world. If we believe we are kind giving people, we will reinforce that by rushing to write checks to a country that has just been devastated by a natural disaster. If we believe we are not worthy of loving relationships that exist without pain, we’ll go back to our abusive partner time and time again.

So next time you hear about the destructive nature of “self-interest” think about all the altruistic and selfish things you do to preserve your sense of self and consider the complex motives behind both acts.

A friend of mine posted this video on twitter and I was completely moved by witnessing this side of Lauryn Hill. At only 13 years old, she was able to stand before a stadium of people, who were there to judge her, and sing. The fact that children that age would risk such public rejection to share what they understand to be their gifts is so brave. Just the act of beginning said multitudes. However the full strength of her courage was demonstrated a few seconds in when the audience began to boo…and she continued to sing. She continued to sing in the face of mass disapproval and her resolve paid off . By the end of the song the audience had changed their mind. The quality of her singing didn’t change drastically from the beginning of her performance to the end. But more importantly, her belief in herself and her right to be on stage never changed either.

At 13, where did she learn to stand on such seemingly unshakeable faith in herself?

I am a decade older than what Lauryn Hill was in that video and I can tell you now, that I do not know if I have the chutzpah to stand before a booing theater of spectators and carry on. Many of us would probably have stopped and left, deciding that the crowd had confirmed the sneaking suspicion  we are not good enough. By standing her ground, she gave people time to come around and recognize the value of what she was offering. I saw this and thought about my own ambitions regarding the world of social entrepreneurship.

How often do we put of starting for fear of the worst thing being confirmed; that we are not good enough to start a business or a nonprofit or a think tank. After starting do we hold enough belief in our ideas to carry on in the face of opposition? Can we stand in belief long enough for  everyone else to come around to believe in our wacky vision too? If Muhammad Yunus had listened to conventional  Bangladeshi Bankers, he would never have contributed to alleviating poverty for millions of people throughout the world through microfinance. If Barack Obama had listened to all the politicians who said that a campaign on the dreamy notion of “change” wasn’t enough for the American people, we would not be guided by his historic leadership today. And If you, like Barack, Yunus, and Lauryn Hill are planning to do something to change the world, start by developing a fierce belief in your contribution. A belief so solid you can stand on it, so hot it burns through all the resistance, and so transformative that naysayers who are exposed to it for too long are forced to reconsider.

So what does a young person forging a career in social enterprise invest in? Well, image certainly doesn’t hurt. No need to look crunchy just because you want to start a great green company. But besides getting your hair done and rocking some hot new shoes, there’s another investment I’m convinced will help my career in subtle but important ways.

Reiki.

Rei-huh?

Ok, so Reiki is a form of energy healing that originated from Japan in 1922 and enables people to channel positive intent and a universal life force (Chi, Qui, Prana) to heal people’s emotional, physical, and psychological issues. In this class, we are taught that there are 7 main chakras or energy centers that are responsible for specific energies that make up who you are. So one chakra is the energy of grounding being aware of your body and interacting with your physical environment. Another is the energy of creativity, sex,and emotions, etc. Now, you may be thinking “what. the hell. is this girl talking about” and more importantly “what. the hell. does this have to do with investing in your career”.

Well my main reason for taking this course in particular wasn’t necessarily to become some genY new age spiritual guru. Frankly, I’m a little bit scared that at the end of it all I won’t be able to heal diddly-squat. But what’s really awesome about this 8 week course, is that each week, we are given exercises that challenge us to do something that uncomfortably reveals new aspects of who we are. It’s a course that is teaching me to truly consider the importance of integrity. Its teaching me how to listen to my emotions rather than reject them, and start truly honoring who I am by letting people know that I have boundaries that need to be respected. Every week I find myself becoming more aware of how much fear has obstructed my ambition and am learning how to step out of my own way. This is the value of any authentic spiritual teaching.

Say, for whatever reason, you don’t believe there are color-coded orbs of rotating energy centers running along your spine that is responsible for your physical, emotional, and psychological state. That’s fine. I didn’t think I’d take all of you along on that one. But consider what you do believe in. What do you believe about yourself? What do you believe about your environment, your fellow man? And most importantly, how are you challenging yourself to dig deeper and answer the really hard questions about who you are? We love reading stories about people who seem to live life from one risky adventure to another. But you know what’s really scary?  Admitting that the reason you argue with your deadbeat dad is because you’re hurt by the fact that he doesn’t show he loves you. Or having to tell your grandma that no, its not ok for her to continue to tell you that you shouldn’t leave the house without makeup. Jumping off of waterfalls is scary but shit, so is confronting deep-seated junior high insecurities about being unlovable because  the boy you liked thought you were ugly.

There Kim goes, talking about “souls” and “knowing yourself” again. I think it’s a big deal. Life is a great teacher. There are people, and situations, and challenges thrown into the mix that tell us a lot about who we are. But it’s hard to hear the lesson beneath all the drama sometimes. So why not invest in the things that force you to examine why you do the self-destructive things you do. I think in whatever you aspire to achieve in your life, doing so from a space of self-empowerment, authenticity, and love will always yield a better outcome than doing it for short-sighted reasons. This is especially true in a field like social enterprise that offers so many challenges to the individuals who are dedicated to creating positive impact in people’s lives.

So whatever works for you, whether it’s church, synagogue, therapy, love circles, yoga, prayer, or ENERGY HEALING ,take some time to invest in seeing yourself more clearly. If for nothing else, it will help you live in the comfort of self-acceptance and confidence. And career progress or not, who wouldn’t want more of that?

I have decided to start a Blog Carnaval to raise awareness about the oft ignored aspects of Haiti’s history and culture that are really beautiful. In doing so, I’ve come across Haitians who are doing remarkable things to help rebuild their country. One of my favorite leaders in this rebuild, is Carel Pedre. Carel is a Haitian DJ who was in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit and managed to survive. Since then, he has started the New Haitian Project, a social network that brings together people from all over the world to help with projects on the ground.

The various initiatives being forged on this social network are impressive. Members like Carmina Mevs have started the one laptop per child/ waveplace project that is organizing online volunteers to translate educational material from English into Creole and aims to revolutionize education in Haiti. There is a voluntourusm group that is brainstorming on how to facilitate volunteering trips that educate visitors and empower Haitians. If you blog, there’s a group for you. If you like music there is a group for you. Whatever your interest or skill set, there is a small collective of people who are there to help you leverage your abilities to do something.

It is remarkable that social media is enabling us to connect with each other in such meaningful ways.It provides a real platform for ideas to be exchanged that empower individuals to do more than just throw money at the problem. This is not to minimize the importance of money in the rebuild but I know there are many out there that wanted to do more and websites like The New Haiti Project enable us to do so.

Haiti has illustrated how technology and social media is totally changing the game. Mainstream media is being rivaled by day to day accounts of what’s happening on the ground through twitter. Donations are easily facilitated with small increments and texting. And networks like The New Haiti Project don’t just make Haiti a sensational hot story of the moment. They keep long term solutions and commitments at the forefront for people who are interested.

Now for all the complaints about how time consuming, invasive, voyeuristic, or senseless twitter and the like have been, these communication forms are ushering in big changes to how we do good. And for that I’m grateful.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned by observing the political changes that have happened over the past few years, it’s that Americans are some seriously fickle people. During the Bush era, in the wake of an attack that shocked so many of us, we bound together and were “Proud to Be American”So proud, that we somehow justified an open checkbook to fight a war in a country we had no idea had anything to do with 9-11.We just knew 700 billion dollars was absolutely necessary to keep the terrorists away from us. (Let’s try to look past the whole almost-got-blown-up-for-Christmas incident) A couple million foreclosures and some disgruntled army family members later, we decided we wanted change. Real change. A Change we could believe in. Enter the Obamas, brought in by a coalition of young folks, brown folks,white liberals and independents. The man gets into office and begins to…well…implement some changes. And the resistance begins.

“Sure, it sucks that my insurance won’t cover the cost of having my baby because I’m…pregnant. But I don’t want any socialist, government run, death squad assembling healthcare system”

” I don’t want to ever live through anything as devastating as The Depression but you should have let AIG, a financial mammolth with  the significant holdings all throughout the world, fail.”

I’m not interested in debating where you stand on these issues. They are complex, and various views have valid concerns. But the fear and ambiavlence goes to show that most people don’t really know what they want. And even if they do, they’re often not willing to follow their purported desires up with actions. This isn’t just true in politics, but in almost all facets of our life . We talk about how much we want to build wealth and invest, yet research shows that less than 40% of employees who WANTED 401k plans actually enrolled when given the chance to opt in. Many of us really don’t know that we want something that doesn’t exist until it’s present in our lives. This is why entrepreneurs who are insightful and creative enough to create a silent need are often rejected at first. How many of the inventions that we take for granted today were scoffed at for not being useful in society. Check out this 1984 throwback commentary on the uselessness of the mouse:

The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a “mouse.” There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I don’t want one of these new fangled devices.

Riiiiiiiggggghhhhht.

If democratically elected politicians are supposed to stay true to the desires of their constituents, and their constituents are constantly saying they want one thing and doing another, is it realistic to look to the government as the primary purveyor of change in our society? Government is instrumental in creating big shifts in society through policy but part of the reason it takes such a long time is because momentum depends on our willingness to take steps to change.  This is one of the reasons why I think it’s so important for a sector of Social Business to emerge in the market today .

If Steve Jobs asked the public “Do you want a small flat phone with no buttons, a camera, an mp3 player, and an internet connection” in maybe as late as year 2000, people would very likely say, “why the hell would I want music on my phone? No buttons? I have internet on my computer, why would I need it on my phone too? No, my motorola a760 is fine thankyouverymuch” If we left it to the government to reinvent how we communicate with each other, we might still be using messenger pigeons. It would take an incredibly charismatic and persuasive politician to build a large enough consensus to implement iphone production. Business is  good at creating small and large revolutions in society by creating things we didn’t know we were ready to use. Business has created a need for fun things like Wiis and Playstations. Perhaps it is time for it to create a need for important things like healthcare and climate change.

So a bunch of people don’t want climate change because they think that environmentalism will hurt the poor? Have a green company provide a range of services that weatherizes old homes and save members of all classes a ton of money on their energy bills. If  fear and politics prevent a healthcare bill from being passed, let a new insurance company emerge that dares to throw out the practice of denying care based on pre-existing conditions. We are living through a remarkably special political moment. I have a great deal of respect for Obama. He seems honest, human, intelligent, and committed to creating fundamentally progressive changes in our country. But as he has stated time and time again, he cannot do it alone. It’s high time we stop relying solely on the Senate or even our own fleeting judgement, and consider how business can be part of a change we can believe in.

This has been an interesting month.

I realized that adulthood scares the shit out of me simply because there is no path to navigating your life anymore. I’m part of a generation that holds living passionately and authentically as one of its highest values; I’ve got a lovely truck of college debt waiting for me; I’m about to graduate in the worst economy since The Depression; with the internet, outsourcing, and immigration, the career game is  changing; and blah blah blah.

Long boring story short, I have been ridiculously scared of the uncertainty of my young-adult future. And as a result, just hid behind really vague and scattered goals that barely resonated with me.Yeah, I’m over that. There comes a time where you must take the grown up risk of deciding where you want to go and following through with it.

So my dear goal-setting readers, you may notice a change in my goals as time goes on. Less of the “collect precious memories of water lilies in summer” goals, and more concrete objectives that are indicative of the uncertain future I am crafting for myself.

My goals last month were:

1-Spend 20 minutes on blog monday-friday.-I tried to designate time for blogging daily but once school was underway, this got pretty difficult. I love the posts I produced this month but would like to increase frequency. This month I’ll experiment with writing several posts on one day and publishing them on a schedule.

2-Spend 45 minutes a day on Trinidad Paper tue, thu, fri, sat- I. Did. Not. Complete.This. Paper. Halfway through the first draft. This paper must get done this month.

3-Meditate for 10 minutes every morning when I wake up-I joined a reiki class and one of the exercises we do  is 27 conscious breaths in the morning. I have done ok with this goal.

Goals for February:

1) COMPLETE FINAL DRAFT OF MY RESEARCH PAPER FROM TRINIDAD. Seriously. This is so overdue it’s not even funny. It gets done this month.

2) Get at least 20 bloggers to participate in my blog carnival for Haiti this month.

3) Secure a volunteer/free-work opportunity for one local non-profit organization or business.

4) Since I succeeded in publishing 10 blogs last month, I will aim to publish 14 this month using the bulk method.

And that’s all folks. Let this month be the first of many that exercise my decision to Go Forth.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

To participate in the meet-up:

1. Post a list of your career/life related goals for February, along with your checked off January goals if you’d like, on your own blog.
2. Come back to BrazenCareerist.com network and leave a link to your post in the comments (*If you don’t have your own blog, feel free to share your list here in the comments to join in!)
3. Then, check out everyone else’s lists as they leave comments - click their links, visit their blogs, say hello, meet, greet and support each other because that’s what it’s all about!

So when I heard about the earthquake in Haiti, like many of you I was incredibly saddened by the event. I donated what I could and followed reports on whatever developments were happening on the ground but for the most part felt it wasn’t enough. As I watched countless stories roll out on CNN and ABC, I reflected on how singular and detrimental the world’s perception of Haiti (and countless “poor” black countries for that matter) was. Prior to the earthquake, Haiti was associated with voodoo, corruption, and a helpless population devoid of much hope. In the torrent of sad stories coming out through the media, I doubt this perception has changed much. I am inviting you to take part in a project that aims to do more than just give money to Haiti.  It aims to deliver a tiny piece of their humanity merely by being a forum that presents Haitians as the multi-dimensional and fully human people that they are.

I’m looking for writers, photographers, and web designers to help me host a blog carnival, that will serve as a space that tells a different story of Haiti. It will be a collection of blogs and photographs that link to each contributor’s respective site. I’d like blogs that deal with experiences, people, and aspects of Haiti’s culture and history that are not present in the news today. You can talk about your Haitian-American friend, a Haitian leader or poet who inspired you, Haitian dance music or food, etc.. As long as you are revealing a sliver of Haiti that is different than one of dependency and helplessness, it will be linked to the site.

SUBMISSIONS ARE  DUE FEBRUARY 12TH

If You are a Writer:

Please  send me an email (kimcampbel@gmail.com), by FEB. 12th with Blogger in the subject line, a link to your blog and a copy of the post you’d like to submit. It will be evaluated for content before being linked to the site.

If You are a Photographer:

Please send me an email (kimcampbel@gmail.com)  FEB. 12th with Photographer in the subject line, a link to your blog, and permission to publish your work on the site. If you have unpublished photos that you would like to share for the carnaval, please attach them to the email.

If You are a Web Designer:

I have a very simple vision for the page. Like seriously, nothing crazy. I am just HTML inept. If you would like to help me put it together, email me with Web Design in the title of the email and I’ll hit you back with a description of what I’m looking for.

If You are None of the Above  but just really dig the idea:

Pass the word along! Email it to people who may be interested via facebook, twitter, or whatever feels right to you. Feel free to email me with suggestions of bloggers or artists who I could reach out to personally.

Thanks for taking time to read this guys.

Now imagine I’m invited to dinner by Sir Charming above and I decide to invite my friend Jennifer. The two of them hit it off immediately and I can tell he thinks she’s cute, has an engaging personality, and is pretty smart too. As the dinner progresses somehow she mentions that she’s Cuban and I can see the glint of joy in my friend’s eyes. “ahhhh THAT’S why you were so flirtatious….of course!” He feels more confident about his chances of sleeping with her at some point in the near future. All of a sudden, his notion of her is colored by what he thinks he knows of Cuban women. Had she never mentioned her nationality his perception of her (and his own chances of getting nookie) would have been very different. And interestingly enough, this kind of shift was a not a result of what he got from Jennifer, but it was about a group she “belongs” to.

The power of stories about groups of people is subtle but undeniable. Stories are the foundation of our assumptions and our expectations for people we’ve not yet met. In our first interactions with people, much of the opinion we have of them is influenced by the stories we hold in our psyches about their “kind” of people. Just think about how much stories aid in your dating life. Whether you describe your new beau as “artsy” or a “typical blonde”, images ideas and experiences come together to tell a story about what that means . Outside of how stories are helping you get laid, they play remarkably large roles in development since stories govern much of our understanding of the developing world In the video below, Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Adichie, discusses how stories about Africa restricted her understanding of her own voice in literature and elicited a constant unwarranted attitude of pity from her American peers.

In the wake of Haiti’s earthquake, I find myself thinking about the stories that were told about Haiti up to this point. Let’s see, she’s poor, dysfunctional, corrupt, and with all her mysterious voodoo tendencies, is in desperate need of a Christening of sorts. She’s an oppressed version of Santana’s Black Magic Woman . These associations didn’t just fall from the sky. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has had a history of dictatorship with a fair share of government abuse. In an attempt to deconstruct why Haiti has such a stark degree of poverty compared to its neighbors, NYTimes columnist David Brooks asserts that we must consider the “progress-resistant cultural influences” that keep Haiti poor.  Of course there was mention of Voodoo, a lax attitude towards personal responsibility, and harsh child rearing practices.  Nicolas Kristoff further various understandings of Haiti’s impoverished state by noting that one of his readers decided Haiti was poor because of ““the low I.Q. of the 9 million people there,” and added: “It is all very sad and cannot be fixed.”

Is it that surprising that a Haitian music artist came under the most scrutiny for trying to orchestrate funds to aid his country men and women in the face of this tragic event? Unlike Brangelina, Wyclef is not Haitian by way of cute-3^rd-world-child-adoption. This is his country. These people who he personally went to pull out of rubble could very well have been his siblings or friends. Yes, we have every right to scrutinize the organizations we are pouring millions into, but I wonder what elicited the unique distrust of Wyclef when some of our most trusted organizations (like the Red Cross) have had records of mismanaged funds during the Tsunami and Katrina. It could have been the relative obscurity of Yele up to this moment. Or it could have been that the story of Haiti couldn’t allow us to collectively accept that an honest and capable leader could be born of such a twisted and tortured country?

I am very proud of the outpour of support that Americans have shown to Haiti in this moment. It is remarkable to see the millions of dollars pouring in from people all throughout the country. But years after our money has been spent, it is our stories that will remain. Perhaps another service we could do for Haitians (and citizens of other poor black countries…like umm…Africa) is to pay closer attention to the way we are telling their story in our media, in our conversations, and in our mind. Try to look past the contemporary economic shortcomings to see it is the first Caribbean country to release itself from the stifling grip of slavery.  Or rather than a sea of begging people to pity, begin to acknowledge the resilience required of Haitians to survive socioeconomic conditions many of us have never come close to experiencing ourselves. Like everyone else, I’m following the developments earnestly and hope to see Haitians rebuild their lives. But I also hope that this earthquake has also shattered what Adichie refers to as the “half-devil, half-child”story of Haiti and can begin to see them as fully human.