Last night's No Reservations, Anthony Bourdain's show on the Travel Channel, featured Haiti. If you missed it, there are clips up on the Travel Channel site and it will likely replay later this week.
Holy Carp. Looking out over a sea of tents, hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty. It's still so bad.
Working to make it better, Sean Penn went there after the earthquake intending to spend a week. He established the foundation J/P Hatian Relief Organization, to remove rubble, set up and manage tent cities, and providing medical supplies and treatment.
At the time of filming, Sean was still living in a tent, essentially the mayor of Pétionville Camp. He's my nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Here's a man who's made it in all the conventional senses: fame, career success, money. And he's giving back in such a humble and meaningful way.
Tony felt guilty eating at a roadside stand while hungry children looked on. So he bought up all the vendor's food and instructed her to give it out for free. A well-meant gesture, but it soon spun into a shoving match with older kids and adults bullying children out of the way. I think he was disturbed that his good intentions spurred such chaos.
The bright side was the artworks created by people living in the tent cities. Though there's no work, no income, and not much hope, there is art.
It was a depressing show overall. A year later, the crisis in Haiti is far from over. I couldn't help but think that some of those tents were donated by this community, and I was proud. Shelterbox has made a big difference there.