"I don't have to live inside a tent to prove I am for the Haitian people," Wyclef Jean said in response to Sean Penn's criticism of his decision to run for president of Haiti. "My country is not a city of tents."

Updates: On Aug. 20, the elections council in Haiti disqualified Jean's application because he has not lived in Haiti consecutively for five years. "Though I disagree with the ruling," Jean wrote, "I respectfully accept the committee's final decision." However, on Aug. 22, Jean said he would challenge the decision: “I will be seeking a solution through legal channels, and I urge my countrymen to be patient." On Aug. 25, Penn wrote at HuffPo: "He doesn't have to live in a tent. But it would be nice if he visited once and awhile... These elections are crucial, and I have no part in them. Neither should Mr. Jean." On Sept. 21, Wyclef withdrew his challenge. On Sept. 26, suffering from stress and fatigue, Wyclef was hospitalized in New Jersey.

Penn has been managing a camp in Port-au-Prince since the January earthquake. This appears to be the source of the tension between the two celebrities.

Penn has called Jean a "non-presence" in Haiti.

"I am not absent in Haiti," Jean told The Gayle King Show. "Maybe the tent city Sean Penn is in, I'm absent from that."

Jean apparently has never visited Penn's camp at the Petionville Golf Club that houses 50,000 people.

The main argument against camps or tent cities is that they discourage people from leaving and becoming self-sufficient again. They're also breeding grounds for crime and disease.

"He says he hasn't seen me for six months," Jean continued about Penn. "I've been going to Haiti for more than five years. When the hurricane of Gonaives toppled Haiti (in 2008) I was the first one there. When Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted out of the country (2004) I was the first one there negotiating with the gangs in getting things to change. If I did not create Yele Haiti (his charity) to start stopping the violence even him coming to Haiti would not have been possible today."

Jean did not discuss Penn's charge that $400,000 in charity money raised by Yele Haiti has not been unaccounted for.

Also see:
Wyclef Calls Penn a Cokehead
Sean Penn Criticizes Wyclef
Wyclef: 'Legalize Marijuana'
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