[Marxism] Is the US Following Cuba's Example?

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Is the US Following Cuba's Example?
By Circles Robinson*

On Monday, April 9, The Los Angeles Times ran a report entitled
"Catching up in medical diplomacy." The article featured Jason Vogt,
a US dentist on a three week mission in Panama.

According to the newspaper, "Jason was part of a 350-strong U.S.
military task force called New Horizons that last month spent two
weeks bivouacked in the remote jungle of Bocas del Toro, Panama,
helping the poor and buffing the image of the United States."

Meanwhile, a doctor named Jose from Baracoa, Cuba, has been working
for more than three years in Venezuela. No newspaper headlines
celebrate his dedication, but he is one among tens of thousands of
Cuban physicians and teachers working abroad.

Cuba has maintained a program of medical assistance in African and
Latin American nations begun over four decades ago. Currently more
than 20,000 doctors are on one to four year missions in Venezuela,
Honduras, South Africa, Guatemala, Angola, Gambia, Ecuador, Bolivia,
Algeria, Ghana, Haiti, and a host of other nations.

The Times article continues: "[Jason is] helping Uncle Sam score
points in a high-stakes goodwill campaign playing out across Latin
America in poor towns like this one [Norteno, Panama]. The objective:
challenging the socialist campaigns of Cuba's Fidel Castro and
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and winning over people."

On the one hand, it's good to know that Washington has noticed that
its free market policies have left many without even the most basic
services. Certainly, any attempt by the US to rectify years of
neglect in Latin America, should be well received. However, the scope
of the occasional US medical assistance to the poor in Latin America
can not be compared with the ongoing large-scale Cuban effort in the
region.

One fundamental difference between the brief US humanitarian voyages
and the comprehensive Cuban effort is that the Cuban physicians live
for years in remote communities. There, they not only treat existing
ailments but also stress a host of preventive public health measures
including appropriate sanitation and water use, and pre-and-post
natal care among others.

When cataracts or other eye diseases are detected, operations are
provided either in a host country clinic, often built and staffed
with Cuban assistance, or via flights to Cuba or Venezuela. Since
2004, several hundred thousand people from Latin America and the
Caribbean have recovered their vision.

The US medical personnel will also perform some eye operations and
distribute glasses during their brief goodwill missions.

COMPETING TO TRAIN DOCTORS

The L.A. Times report notes that "the US will underwrite a four
million dollar regional medical training center in Panama City and
that Americans will help staff the center."

Such an effort should be welcomed as a modest attempt to do what Cuba
does on a large scale: provide full scholarships to low-income Latin
Americans to study medicine on the island, a program that graduated
2,910 doctors in 2005 and 2006.

Currently over 10,000 students from low-income families in 29
countries are studying at the Havana-based Latin American School of
Medicine (ELAM). In the year 2000, Cuba also extended the scholarship
offer to include students from the United States. Currently, around
90 are at the med school.

However, graduating doctors is not enough to guarantee assistance to
the millions of Latin Americans without health care, the target group
of the long-term Cuban project.

So, besides teaching medicine, the Cuban program seeks to instill a
commitment in the students to serve in their poor rural or urban
communities upon returning home. It also encourages their local and
national governments to provide a public health slot to facilitate
their efforts.

The L.A. Times goes on to make the claim that the Cuban program is
some how flawed because a small percentage of its doctors take up the
Bush administration's highly publicized brain drain proposition that
makes any Cuban medical professional sent abroad eligible for
immediate entrance and residence in the US.

However, just like the occasional boxing champ or baseball player
that opts for the big bucks, Cuba has shown it is prepared to replace
those doctors who swallow Washington's hook in hope of a higher
salary.

IF BUSH IS SERIOUS ABOUT HELPING HERE'S HOW

William Eaton, the US Ambassador to Panama said President Bush's
recent trip to the region was evidence of the new emphasis Washington
is placing on improving Latin American relations. Healthcare has
become an important part of the U.S. "relations focus," said the L.A
Times article.

If we give the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt and
applaud anything that stresses human well-being, there is another
pending health calamity where Washington could lend a big hand.

In 2001, Cuba offered the United Nations 4,000 doctors to work year
round in the African countries most affected by HIV/AIDS if the US,
Europe and other developed nations would supply the anti-retroviral
medicines, equipment and material resources need for prevention
programs and treatment.

Year after year, the offer has been repeated, and year after year it
has fallen on deaf ears. Be it to shore up an uncaring image or for
humanitarian reasons, now would be the perfect time for the US to
join Cuba and make a significant difference in so many people's
lives.

*Circles Robinson is a US journalist living in Havana. His reports
and commentaries can be read at: www.circlesonline.blogspot.com


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