[Marxism] US Launches Medical Mission for the Poor

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

("Some critics question the long-term impact of the Comfort's
four-month voyage. The American ship only stays in port for 
a few days in each country and at the moment has no firm 
plans to return to the region.")

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Cuban doctors go and live in the country with the people they are 
treating. Aside from the simple human solidarity which Cuba's aid 
program represents, it provides an important socialist educational 
political lesson on health care as a human right. Cuban doctors 
are already there in Nicaragua and helping out in the aftermath of
Hurricane Felix. This boat is basically a PR operation, as can be 
easily seen by anyone. I wonder if part of their job isn't to work 
on the special subversion program to try to lure Cuban doctors to 
defect? Yes, there really is a special program targetting Cuban 
medical aid personnel based in the Cuban Adjustment Act.

The Wall Street Journal and others who believe that medical care
is to be reserved for those with money to pay for it have been
hystically opposed to cuba's medical aid program, though they
cannot match it. Wouldn't it be nice if they actually tried to
compete with Cuba in the provision of health care to people in
need? The US has so many more resources than Cuba does, but it
is guited by the "fee for service" and private profit ideologies
as their mantra, so naturally they can't get carried away with
providing such a good example. People in the United States, who
desperately need health care, would wonder why the federal
government is providing health care abroad when it refuses to 
do the same where it can, and should, right here at home?

WSJ: Castro's Medical Missionaries Blanket Honduras
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs070.html
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September 7, 2007
US Launches Medical Mission for the Poor
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:44 a.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Haiti-Doctor-Diplomacy.html

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- A huge U.S. Navy hospital ship brought
state-of-the-art medical care to the Western Hemisphere's poorest
country this week during a regional goodwill mission aimed at
countering leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's influence.

The USNS Comfort, a 900-foot-long floating hospital built for wounded
American soldiers, carries more than 600 medical volunteers who have
provided free vaccinations, eye exams, dental treatment and surgical
procedures to more than 85,000 patients in a dozen countries during
their tour of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The volunteers also train local doctors, build clinics and treat sick
animals, trying to generate goodwill in a region the Bush
administration has been accused of slighting as it focuses on
U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terror concerns at home.

''We are here to try and make a difference, not just in the short
term but in the long term as well. It's a win-win for all involved,''
Capt. Bob Kapcio, the Comfort's commanding officer, said during the
ship's arrival ceremony in Haiti.

Some critics question the long-term impact of the Comfort's
four-month voyage. The American ship only stays in port for a few
days in each country and at the moment has no firm plans to return to
the region.

''It is a clever move and likely to win the U.S. some goodwill in the
short term. But the big question of all these missions is
sustainability,'' Dan Erikson, a Caribbean expert with the
Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue.

In Haiti, the ship is an apparition off a coastline dotted with
crumbling shanties and smoldering trash piles. Fishermen paddling
homemade boats stare up in awe at the white ship emblazoned with red
crosses.

At Port-au-Prince's seaport, dozens of patients strapped on life
vests and boarded ferries to reach the Comfort, a converted oil
supertanker whose gleaming surgical center, dental ward and
pediatrics unit provide a level of medical care beyond most Haitians'
wildest dreams.

Haiti is so poor that public hospitals are strewn with patients on
floors for lack of beds. Private hospitals turn away even gunshot
victims who cannot afford to pay.

''If I went to a hospital in Haiti, this would have cost a lot of
money so this really is a miracle for me,'' said Gertrude Fortune,
49, laying on a hospital bed before undergoing hernia surgery.

The Comfort's mission has been earning rave reviews, from
impoverished villagers to heads of state.

In July, the Comfort stopped at El Salvador. About 1,000 farmers were
treated and some 15 operations were performed aboard ship. ''It's
helping the people a lot,'' Salvadoran President Tony Saca said.

When President Bush announced the Comfort's mission in March he
promised more U.S. help for health and education in a region oil-rich
Venezuela has been showering with aid. Chavez's government has
pledged more than $8.8 billion to the region this year, although it
isn't known how much has actually been delivered.

By comparison, $3 billion in American grants and loans reached the
region in 2005, according to the most recent figures available.

As Washington raises the profile of its assistance to the region, the
U.S. military is helping victims of natural disasters. On Wednesday,
it diverted the U.S. Navy amphibious ship USS Wasp from military
exercises off Panama to help Nicaragua recover from Hurricane Felix.
Venezuela also sent aid to Nicaragua, and 57 Cuban doctors and nurses
already established on the Miskito coast on medical missions were
helping as well.

U.S. military medics also rushed to Peru after last month's
8.0-magnitude earthquake devastated towns and villages.

The Comfort has visited nine countries so far -- Guatemala, Belize,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and now
Haiti. It sets sail next for Trinidad, Suriname and Guyana before
wrapping up its tour.

Haiti, in particular, has been the focus of U.S. aid.

Washington is Haiti's single largest donor, giving more than $850
million between 1995 and 2003, according to the State Department's
Web site. The U.S. has donated more than $390 million to help Haiti
rebuild since a 2004 uprising ousted then President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide.

But Chavez also has become a huge donor for Haiti, promising $221
million in aid projects so far this year.

Jean Francois Wisline said she could care less about the
U.S.-Venezuelan rivalry. She was simply grateful to be getting
surgery to remove a painful cyst in her chest.

''I'm just happy to finally get it taken care of because I've really
been suffering,'' Wisline said. ''I'll take any help I can get.''

As many as 1,000 Haitians lined up beneath a blazing sun outside
Port-au-Prince's University of Peace Hospital, hoping to see a team
of U.S. doctors and dentists who came ashore from the Comfort.
Mindful this may be their only chance for free medical care, there
was jostling as people struggled to keep their places in line.

''Seeing a doctor isn't easy in Haiti so I really I hope I get in,''
said Nobious Robert, a 24-year-old street peddler who arrived at dawn
to have a groin pain looked at.

Doctor diplomacy has long been practiced in Latin America, most
notably by Cuba's communist government, which each year sends
thousands of doctors to provide free care in poor countries in the
region. Venezuela funds a growing number of these missions. Many
students from the region also study for free at Cuba's School of
Latin American Medicine.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro himself criticized the Comfort's mission,
saying ''You can't carry out medical programs in episodes.''

But U.S. officials say the Comfort's mission is designed for maximum
effectiveness, with most medical procedures performed on patients
requiring little or no follow up. The also say that by training
medical staff and building clinics and schools, these countries will
be better able to help themselves in the future.
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Cuban Doctors Make an Impact on Honduras Health Levels

Havana, sept 7 (acn) More than 1.6 million Hondurans, most of them
living inaccessible parts of the country, have benefited from the
medical assistance provided by the Cuban Medical Brigades that
arrived in the nation in November, 1998.

The brigades are currently made up by 280 Cuban doctors, who first
came to Honduras after hurricane Mitch swept the country. The have
given more than 14 million consultations, and provided medical tests
to around 6 million minors under 15 years old.

Cuban ambassador, Juan Carlos Hernandez, gave a press conference
about the impact of the Cuban medical collaboration in that nation
since 1999 up to this year, 2007.

A Granma report says in the Honduran communities where the Cuban
doctors were providing assistance, the infant mortality rate has
fallen to 10 deaths per 1 000 live births, lower that in the rest of
the country, where the figure is 37 per 1 000 live births, according
to estimates of the health ministry.

Likewise, the diplomat said up to July, 2007, the maternal mortality
rate in labor is kept at zero thanks to the Cuban doctors. He went on
to say since their arrival in Honduras, the medical brigade has saved
the lives of nearly 232,000 people, and they have performed more than
350,000 operations, among other services, all of them free of charge.

The Cuban doctors, along with experts in other areas such as
agronomy, and education, are located in all 18 departments of
Honduras, including the town of Gracias a Dios (Thank God), where the
Tawacas indigenous people, an ethnic group that is on the brink of
extinction, receive medical assistance, said Hernandez.

Cubans are also collaborating in the area by the river Patuca, where
an expert on the culture of the region is helping to bring back their
folkloric traditions.

The ambassador said the support for the indigenous people had
increased their life expectancy to 40 years by the year 2,000, while
malnutrition levels that affected 92 percent of the population have
been reduced as well.


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