Reflections by comrade Fidel: The main motivation of our effort
The yesterday in the Round Table TV program "Mesa Redonda" published photo reportage journalist Gladys Rubio on the cholera epidemic in Haiti was so impressive that I decided, on Monday announced my reflection on today to postpone Wednesday. The intent was the same in the other from a perspective seen from analysis of the impact of the dramatic shock of that earthquake of 12 January this year for the Haitian people, which was followed by almost ten months later, a widespread epidemic across the country and a hurricane.
These events took place in a country that had been the victim of the conquerors, of colonialism and slavery. Its native population had been destroyed by the conquest and the operation carried out with all his gold mining.
The roots of the Haitian nation, the several hundred thousand people that Africa was torn by European slave traders and sold to slavery-practicing farmers in Haiti for the production of sugar, coffee and other tropical products with which those in the nascent capitalist markets supplied. The Haitian people have
beginning of the 19th Century, the first social revolution in the history of this hemisphere above. It served as a model for those who have accomplished the feat, to free South America from English domination, and has been supported with weapons.
Our solidarity with the Haitian people is based on two roots of our ideas but also of our history.
After the social revolution which took place there, the English colonial Cuba, where countless snatched from Africa and lived as slaves sold Africans into the main suppliers of coffee, sugar and other tropical Converted products.
As a result of this process, the colony of Cuba than the English colonies of South and Central America, freed after a bloody and heroic combat, brought the English city of more net income than any of those countries from achieving their independence. This fact has influenced the destiny of our homeland almost all of the following two centuries crucial.
did two days ago I explained how the medical cooperation with Haiti, has begun to have the same thanks to hundreds of young people of that country's brother is studying medicine here and Cuban medical workers were sent there. It is not a Occurrence of pure chance.
The efforts of the United States and Europe to learn about the motivations of the actions of Cuba false to hide them and to spread lies about surprise, not even us.
A well-known British newspaper, The Independent, with unquestionable prestige in the liberal media in Britain - even if she does not enjoy the of Wikileaks in The Guardian and other four organs of the press given privilege, which have asked in Washington about the most sensitive points of the information received - published three days ago a bold article by journalist Nina Lakhani under the title "Cuban Doctors in Haiti shame the world. " That's what I wanted to analyze because of the boldness with which she calls a spade a spade on the subject. This does not mean that I agreed with all their assessments about the motivations of our behavior. I will do this by means of translation and so collectively illustrate possible.
"the real heroes" - she says - "the catastrophe because of the earthquake in Haiti, the human catastrophe at the doors of the United States, in the face of Barack Obama promised a monumental humanitarian U.S. mission to alleviate them. However, the aforementioned heroes of our citizens have achieved all of the known arch-enemy of the United States, that of Cuba, whose doctors and nurses that the efforts of the United States give reason to blush.
A medical brigade of 1,200 Cubans, part of the international medical mission of Fidel Castro, who has many friends in the Socialist State but won little international recognition works throughout Haiti, a country that was devastated by the earthquake and infected by cholera is. "
" ... The arrangements for the international assistance were in the fight against desertification alone those who caused the death of 250,000 people and approximately 1.5 million their home had taken. [...] Work Cuban medical workers arrived in 1998 in Haiti, [...] in the middle of the boasting and the publicity is about the arrival of aid from the United States and Britain, hundreds of additional Cuban doctors, nurses and therapists, without which no one mentioned it would ... "
" shows the statistics published in the last week that the Cuban doctors have treated since October in the 40 institutions spread across Haiti, more than 30,000 cholera patients. They are the largest foreign contingent and treat about 40 percent of all cholera patients. Recently when it became apparent that Haiti is intent on trying to fight against the epidemic that has already killed hundreds of people came another group of physicians of the Cuban Brigade 'Henry Reeve' to a team of specialists in disaster situations and emergencies. "
" ... Cuba has 550 doctors in Haiti's Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) has trained for free. This is one of the most radical medical initiatives in the country. Currently studying a further 400 in this school, a free education - they even get the books free of charge and the students get an allowance - for those offers that require a certain Level of education, but have not study medicine in their countries can afford.
John Kirk is a professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Dalhousie, Canada, which operates the research regarding international medical team from Cuba. He said: "The contribution from Cuba to Haiti is like the biggest secret in the world. They are hardly mentioned, although they do a great amount of hard work '.
This tradition dates back to 1960, when Cuba has sent a handful of doctors to Chile after Chile had suffered from a severe earthquake, followed by Cuba in 1963 has a team of 50 doctors to Algeria sent. That was four years after the victory of the revolution, seeing as they had, like almost half of the 7,000 doctors in the country to the United States left the country. [...] "
" ... The best-known program is the 'Operation Miracle', which began with eye doctors who have treated oil in exchange for cataract sufferers in poor Venezuelan villages. Thanks to this initiative, 1.8 million people in 35 countries to see again, even Mario Terán, Bolivian sergeant who killed Che Guevara in 1967.
The brigade 'Henry Reeve', rejected by the United States after Hurricane Katrina, was the first Team, which arrived after the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 and the last thing the country has left six months later. "
" ... According to Professor Kirk. '... This is also an obsession of Fidel and that he wins votes in the United Nations'. One third of the 75,000
Cuban doctors, along with other 10,000 employees of the health work, currently in 77 poor countries, including El Salvador, Mali and East Timor. Nevertheless, in Cuba remain one doctor per 220 people, one of the highest rates in the world, [...] the one doctor per 370 people in England is.
"Wherever they are invited to contact the Cubans their integral model, which focuses on the prevention at the center. They visit families at home, they pro-actively monitor the health of children and mothers. This one has "surprising results" achieved in some areas of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, where they reduced infant and maternal mortality and reducing infectious diseases, said the report of Professor Kirk, according to the same time remain the local staff better trained.
takes the medical training in Cuba six years - one year more than in the UK - [...] every new doctor is working at least three years as a family doctor. "
"This model has helped Cuba to achieve some of the most enviable improvements in world health, but Cuba last year, the data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only $ 400 per person compared to $ 3,000 of United Kingdom and has issued to the 7,500 U.S. dollars of the United States.
The infant mortality rate, one of the most reliable parameters of the health of the nation is, 4.8 per 1,000 live births, comparable to the United Kingdom and lower than in the United States. Only five percent of infants are born underweight, a key factor for long-term health ... "
" IMTI Choonara, a pediatrician from Derby, [...] of the annual workshops in Camagüey, the third largest city in Cuba, takes part, confirmed: 'The health sector in Cuba is wonderful and the key to the family doctors is [...] it focused on prevention ... The irony is that the Cubans have come to the victory of the revolution in the United Kingdom, to see how the NHS (National Health System) works. They have taken what they have seen, they have improved it and developed, now we move towards the U.S. model. "
"... the North American embargo [...] prevents many companies from the U.S. to engage in trade with Cuba, and moved to other countries to follow their example. The report of 2009-2010 includes drugs against cancer in children, HIV and arthritis, some drugs and chemicals necessary to diagnose infection and to store organs for transplants. "
" ... the Cubans are immensely proud of their contribution and support in Haiti and other poor countries, and are delighted with their work in the international field to put their weight class, successful strikes ... "
"Medical training is another example. Today there are 8281 students from more than 30 countries studying in the Latin American School of Medicine, the last month, its 11th Anniversary celebrated. The government is trying to teach the students a sense of responsibility difficult, in the hope that they will work for at least the next five years within their own poor communities.
Damien Joel Suarez, 27 years old, a student coming from New Jersey in the second year, is one of the 171 American students, 47 have already completed the study. He denied the allegations of that the Latin American School of Medicine, part of the machinery for Cuban propaganda. Of course, Che is a hero, but it is not necessary to honor him. "
Not all the things they say about Cuba are positive. The article also reviews, some of which we agree and sometimes we are even stricter than the Independent. It's about low wages and shortcomings. Whatever our faults, but not one mentioned the fact that our country was forced, while more than 50 years to invest blockade, aggression and threats, excessive energy, time and resources into it, to the blows of the most powerful empire to withstand all the time.
Nevertheless, the sincerity and clarity admirable, with the Nina Lakhani this courageous article argues and The Independent he published an article in which it becomes clear what the suffering people of Haiti means a tragedy that in its first stage of the life of nearly 3,000 victims, called for children, adolescents and adults, many of them suffer from malnutrition and other diseases, and have sometimes not even on the wood to boil their drinking water.
The report from that sister nation coming news that, as of today, Wednesday the 29th, another 717 people by the Cuban medical mission treated. There were five Days in a row does not list any deceased. The mortality rate among the sick, Cuba has provided medical treatment - a total of 48 931 patients already - was reduced to 0.55%. The official number of people affected by the disease amounted to 130 534 citizens, and the number of the dead 2761, representing a mortality rate of 2.1%. Man fights to that in all the institutions to combat the epidemic more effective methods are used. The number of troops of the brigade "Henry Reeve" - Cubans, Latin Americans and Haitians who have completed the ELAM - is already 42, and they can in any, even the most remote community isolated part of Haiti penetrate. They have well over 61 units for the treatment of cholera.
The effort of our country the benefit of human health, which has now begun with the victory of the revolution, as showing published by The Independent article, one can perceive in the fact that next year to complete in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 8000 doctors graduated to be trained in collaboration with Cuban health experts in theory and practice. Venezuela will also reach levels of health that will bring the country to the first places in the world. As encouraging results are the main motivation of our efforts dar.
Fidel Castro Ruz
29. December 2010
8.07 Clock
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