Friday 6 August 2010

Musicians taking over the world

First there was Peter Garrat - we know him from Midnight Oil but to many New South Walers in Australia he is also known as the Labour MP for Kingsford Smith as well as the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage & Arts.

Now there is Wyclef Jean running for President of Haiti and (growing) rumours that Youssou n'Dour will be the next leader of Senegal :)

3 comments:

Greg said...

I like Peter Garrat, but he a great example of how being a rockstar doesnt qualify you to be a politician. You'll notice he lost his front bench seat in a big scandal this year. That said, I dont think Haiti could be more fucked politically, so I'm eager to see what Wyclef can do for them. At least (on the surface) he appears to be honest, and thats a start.

Kez said...

what was the big scandal?

Greg said...

It's a long story, but basically he was minister in charge of the governments home insulation scheme (basically, people were given a govt rebate for the installation of 'thermal insulation' in their roof). In most cases this amounted to a couple of idiots throwing some insulation 'batons' into the roof space, which is simple enough, but the govt didnt monitor the situation properly (companies sprang up overnight offering to do the work), and few cowboys ended up falling through ceilings and electrocuting themselves. A few people died and the govt was rorted for what i guess is hundreds of thousands of dollars. Garret had to take the blame for the complete inability of his countrymen to do a simple task as he was minister in charge. There was an official enquiry I think, and if i remember correctly, Garrat admitted to not even reading the report - a sure sign of his political naivete. He's also been accused of selling out his Green roots by approving all manner of environmental raping and pillaging to appease big business.