Hope ahead, hell behind
At dusk on Tuesday, an hour before a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) panel on life in Haiti since its devastating 2010 earthquake, a long line of audience hopefuls stretched down JFK Street. It was the kind of queue you might see at a movie premiere. And there was a movie star at the Institute of Politics (IOP), where the guests are usually pundits, politicians, and policymakers. Activist actor and sometime director Sean Penn was among three panelists for “Haiti: Progress and Challenges Three Years Later.” His nonprofit J/P Haitian Relief Organization coordinates local, rapid, and sustainable aid, including medical, engineering, and camp-relocation services. Three years ago, a 7.0-magnitude quake struck Haiti and was followed by a popping string of 52 aftershocks. The quake affected 3 million people, a third of Haiti’s population. At least 300,000 were killed, an equal number injured, and a million displaced. With Penn on stage at the John F. Kennedy...