Ambassador Sean Penn wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Summit Award
Sean Penn gets Peace Prize
(AP) 26 April 2012 - Sean Penn gave an emotional speech Wednesday as he accepted an award from a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates for his humanitarian work in Haiti, urging the world community to help the earthquake-ravaged country. |
| Photo: Reuters |
He used his speech at the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates to urge the world community to remember Haiti and invest in the country's future and President Michel Martelly, who took office in May 2011.
"We have a very short window to support this team of the Haitian people's choosing," Penn said.
Papers in Penn's hands shook and he became emotional at times during his speech as he described conditions in Haitian refugee camps or told the story of a Haitian police officer who lost his family in the earthquake. Penn also warned that if Haiti fails it could become a harbor for narcotics trafficking and terrorism near the United States.
Penn has become a major player in efforts to rebuild Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the island nation. Penn spends at least half his time in Haiti.
"He actually exchanged his home in Malibu for a tent," Udo Janz, United Nations high Commissioner for Refugees, said when he introduced Penn to accept the award. "Think of it as the Oscar for your humanitarian commitment Sean." - Associated Press
See photos of Sean Penn and other Nobel prize laureates present at the summit.
"It would take a poet laureate to describe for you the courage and the dignity of (Haiti's) people," Penn said on Wednesday, after accepting an award at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates for his humanitarian work in Haiti.
"There are no people on earth more willing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps," Penn said.
"But as Dr. Martin Luther King said, it's fine to tell a man to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, but evil to tell a man to do so without boots."
The situation for many Haitians remains horrific more than two years after the devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake that flattened large parts of Port-au-Prince and damaged much of the south of the country, Penn said.
"Take a look at Cite Soleil some time, where 240,000 Haitians -- men, women and children -- following every light rain, sleep in a black water solution of sewage and toxins, garbage and pigs," Penn said, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Where rape and gun violence are a daily occurrence."
The magnitude 7.0 quake killed 250,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. According to UN figures, the quake killed, injured or displaced one in six of the Caribbean nation's entire population of almost 10 million.
Penn, who has been named Ambassador at Large for Haiti, expressed confidence in Haitian President Michel Martelly, who is trying to ramp up stalled reconstruction efforts.
"We have four years to solidify the seeding of institutions that can create sustainable democratic solutions. Four years that without a reinvigorated surge of support will leave the people's will up for grabs," Penn said.
"It's quite a task, but a doable one with investments in agriculture education, health care, housing, clean water and recognizing it's a country of nine million people, but it's also only nine million people."
Designated prime minister Laurent Lamothe told AFP last month that his country was seeking another $12 billion in aid.
But the head of the UN mission to Haiti has said that the political situation there remains "fragile" and that delays in forming a new government are hindering the recovery and economic development.
"Every time that Haiti is without a government, a prime minister and cabinet... violence and the feeling of lack of security grow," Mariano Fernandez, head of the MINUSTAH peacekeeping force, said in March.
Even before the earthquake Haiti was the poorest country in the Americas.
Penn insisted that failure is not an option and that the United States has a vested interest in Haiti's success.
"There is the human cost of poverty," Penn said.
"But if that on its own is not compelling, note that increased instability that attrition may bring to a Caribbean island (nation) an hour and half off our shores would be an open invitation to a new explosion of narco-trafficking, terrorist influences and paramilitaries." Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.
Sean Penn urges more aid for Haiti
CHICAGO — (AFP) Actor and activist Sean Penn urged more aid for Haiti as it struggles with the "enormous task" of recovering from the devastating 2010 quake."It would take a poet laureate to describe for you the courage and the dignity of (Haiti's) people," Penn said on Wednesday, after accepting an award at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates for his humanitarian work in Haiti.
"There are no people on earth more willing to pull themselves up by their bootstraps," Penn said.
"But as Dr. Martin Luther King said, it's fine to tell a man to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, but evil to tell a man to do so without boots."
The situation for many Haitians remains horrific more than two years after the devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake that flattened large parts of Port-au-Prince and damaged much of the south of the country, Penn said.
"Take a look at Cite Soleil some time, where 240,000 Haitians -- men, women and children -- following every light rain, sleep in a black water solution of sewage and toxins, garbage and pigs," Penn said, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Where rape and gun violence are a daily occurrence."
The magnitude 7.0 quake killed 250,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. According to UN figures, the quake killed, injured or displaced one in six of the Caribbean nation's entire population of almost 10 million.
Penn, who has been named Ambassador at Large for Haiti, expressed confidence in Haitian President Michel Martelly, who is trying to ramp up stalled reconstruction efforts.
"We have four years to solidify the seeding of institutions that can create sustainable democratic solutions. Four years that without a reinvigorated surge of support will leave the people's will up for grabs," Penn said.
"It's quite a task, but a doable one with investments in agriculture education, health care, housing, clean water and recognizing it's a country of nine million people, but it's also only nine million people."
Designated prime minister Laurent Lamothe told AFP last month that his country was seeking another $12 billion in aid.
But the head of the UN mission to Haiti has said that the political situation there remains "fragile" and that delays in forming a new government are hindering the recovery and economic development.
"Every time that Haiti is without a government, a prime minister and cabinet... violence and the feeling of lack of security grow," Mariano Fernandez, head of the MINUSTAH peacekeeping force, said in March.
Even before the earthquake Haiti was the poorest country in the Americas.
Penn insisted that failure is not an option and that the United States has a vested interest in Haiti's success.
"There is the human cost of poverty," Penn said.
"But if that on its own is not compelling, note that increased instability that attrition may bring to a Caribbean island (nation) an hour and half off our shores would be an open invitation to a new explosion of narco-trafficking, terrorist influences and paramilitaries." Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.
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Haiti
Jimmy Carter
Mikhail Gorbachev
Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Prize
peace
Sean Penn
Summit of Nobel Laureates
Col. David J. Wright
Col. Wright works for Globcal International as the executive administrator and a cooperative contractor authorized by its charter. On the behalf of the Commonwealth of Kentucky he is a Kentucky Colonel and formerly international cooperation ambassador of goodwill for the city of Caracas in Venezuela. He pioneered Goodwill Ambassadors of the World, published in 2009, from Goodwill Ambassadors, Inc. est. 1992. He is the executive commissioner of the Goodwill Ambassador Foundation, est. 2013.
