Focused on his passion to help the ongoing Haiti relief efforts, Sean Penn participated in a discussion at the Brooking Institution in Washington, D.C. on Monday (January 10).
The discussion was focused on the current situation in Haiti, one year after the devastating earthquake had hit the Caribbean nation.
Opening things up, Penn said, "The time for action is now. Haiti cannot wait any longer. ... We can do this right and we owe the people of Haiti to do so."
The Oscar winning actor continued,"Once upon a time the United States was known for its capacity, for its willingness to take on visionary programs."
Having been spending time in Haiti since mid-January 2010, Sean said, "I came with a fresh eye, but not without experience. As you might be surprised to know that creating and sustaining an effective NGO is not at all unlike producing a film."
"In film, if we fail to provoke an audience, we fail a medium that is obliged to more than entertainment, with its power to be big cultural medicine. And when we fail, that is due to our reliance on clich�. So here's a clich� that you often hear in the NGO community, here's a clich� that is as Hollywood as anything I've ever seen and should be given its final coffin now: 'Don't give them fish, teach them to fish.'"
"What fish?" Penn asked. "What school? What building inspector? What building code? What materials? Of course we have to support Haiti with training, parallel training, but that can also be the smokescreen that teaches them to fish, the smokescreen that leaves hundreds of thousands of vulnerable in unsanitary camps."
The outspoken actor closed by saying, "We've got to put the fish there."
Source: http://gossipcenter.com/sean-penn/sean-penns-haiti-relief-discussion-455443
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