Monday, February 2, 2009

And This is in Haifa - Wow

The original aim of this blog was to look at the issues in the north of the country. With the attention being diverted to the south over the last year, many of the postings reflected topics not specifically devoted to the north of Israel.

Last week, I was invited to meet an organisation in Haifa that I feel is totally under reported and, together with my wife, we had an exhillerating experience.

The visit was to MASHAV, the arm of the Foreign Office, the Center for International Cooperation, http://mashav.mfa.gov.il/mfm/web/main/document.asp?SubjectID=17267&MissionID=16210&LanguageID=0&StatusID=0&DocumentID=-1

In this visit we attended the closing ceremony of a 3.1/2 week course dealing with problems in early childhood education. The course language was Spanish on this occasion and as certificates were presented to the participants, we saw representatives from Equador, El Salvador, Guatamala, Panama, Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, Honduras, Peru, Paraguay, Dominican Republic and Uraguay. Many of the certificates were presented by the Ambassadors of the countries concerned and the atmosphere was electric.

The MASHAV center is the home where participants live, work, explore new ideas and form friendships. They learn from each other and alos learn about the backgrounds, cultures and traditions of the participants countries.

Seeing all these countries in the same room with Israeli specialists in their field made the present international political climate against Israel seem so far away.

Lunch followed the closing ceremony and we found ourselves sitting with the Director of the Center and the Kenyan Ambassador who had "popped in" to say goodbye before returning home after a 5 year tour of duty in Israel.

At events like this, we realised how much Israel has to offer the world in such a positive way. The conflict in the south seemed so far away.

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