MDG eight is an interesting one to say the least. The other seven goals are pretty matter-of-fact, to the point: end hunger, education for everyone, equal rights, increase child and maternal health, combat AIDS and sustain the environment. And then finally lucky number eight: Develop a global partnership for development… how vague, it even has the word “develop” in the six word title twice. That means 66% of the goal’s title is repetitive… but I digress.
Choosing to tell a story relating to this goal could not have been a heftier task. First of all, I’ve never written anything political and didn’t really know how to deal with officials. Olivia initially got rejected from the Israeli Embassy in D.C. and then I got denied by the Consulate General of Israel‘s office yesterday. Through hours of automated voices telling me to dial 1 for English, 3 for the office of media relations, and 8 for a free pen, I found myself lost at sea. I left Ariel Roman-Harris a couple of messages, but to no avail. What surprised me most was that there was no human operator to speak to; dialing zero just restarted the automated messages telling me what to press for a free pen. I admit, I did get frustrated.
Fortunately though, Ruth Behar gave Olivia and I an excellent interview and helped us gain a true direction for our story. There were many angles we could have tackled it from, but Jewbans who immigrate to Israel either for religious reasons or simply an exit strategy from Cuba have to go through a lot before they are greeted with open arms in their true homeland.
