Tweet
Cuba sends doctors, not soldiers
Monday 25 January 2010
Fidel Castro
Two days after the catastrophe in Haiti which destroyed that neighbouring sister nation, I wrote: "In the area of health care and others the Haitian people has received the co-operation of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded country.
"Approximately 400 doctors and health-care workers are helping the Haitian people free of charge. Our doctors are working every day at 227 of the 237 communes of that country. On the other hand, no less than 400 young Haitians have graduated as medical doctors in our country.
"They will now work alongside the reinforcement that travelled there yesterday to save lives in that critical situation. Thus, up to 1,000 doctors and health-care personnel can be mobilised without any special effort - and most are already there willing to co-operate with any other state that wishes to save Haitian lives and rehabilitate the injured.
"The head of our medical brigade has informed that 'the situation is difficult but we are already saving lives'."
Hour after hour, day and night, the Cuban health professionals started to work non-stop in the few facilities which were able to withstand the earthquake, in tents and out in the parks or open-air spaces that became home to Haitians fearing aftershocks.
The situation was far more serious than originally thought. Tens of thousands of injured people were clamouring for help in the streets of Port-au-Prince. Innumerable people lay dead or alive under the rubble of clay and sand used to construct the homes in which the overwhelming majority of Haitians lived. Even the most solid buildings had collapsed.
It was amid the devastation that the search took place for the Haitian doctors who had graduated at Cuba's Latin American Medicine School and were scattered across the destroyed neighbourhoods. Many of them were affected, either directly or indirectly, by the tragedy.
Images of the catastrophe shocked the whole world. Governments across the planet announced that they would be sending rescue experts, food, medicines, equipment and other resources.
Medical staff from different countries - Spain, Mexico and Colombia, among others - toiled alongside our doctors at the facilities that they had improvised. Organisations such as the Pan American Health Organisation and friendly countries like Venezuela supplied medicines and other resources. The impeccable behaviour of Cuban professionals was absolutely without prejudice and remained out of the limelight.
Cuba would have done the same when Hurricane Katrina caused huge devastation in the city of New Orleans and placed the lives of thousands of US citizens in danger.
More than 1,000 doctors of the Henry Reeve contingent were mobilised and readied to leave at any time of the day or the night, carrying with them the necessary medicines and equipment. It never crossed our mind that the president of that nation would reject the offer and let a number of US citizens who could have been saved die.
The mistake made by the US government was perhaps the inability to understand that the people of Cuba do not see in the US people an enemy. It does not blame them for the aggressions our homeland has suffered.
Then, as with the Haiti disaster, our country immediately responded to the US authorities' request to fly over the eastern part of Cuba as well as other facilities they needed to deliver assistance as quickly as possible.
These are the ethical principles that guide Cuba's behaviour. They have been the ever-present features of our foreign policy. And this is known only too well by whoever have been our adversaries in the international arena.
The tragedy that has taken place in Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, is a challenge to the world's richest and most powerful countries.
Haiti is a net product of the colonial, capitalist and imperialist system imposed on the world. Haiti's slavery and subsequent poverty were imposed from abroad. That terrible earthquake occurred after the Copenhagen Summit, where the fundamental rights of 192 UN member states were trampled upon.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, a competition has unleashed in Haiti to hastily and illegally adopt boys and girls. UNICEF has been forced to introduce preventive measures against the uprooting of children.
More than 150,000 people have died. A high number of citizens have lost their arms or legs, or have suffered fractures requiring rehabilitation that would enable them to work or manage their own.
Eighty per cent of the country needs to be rebuilt. Now Haiti requires an economy that is developed enough to meet its needs according to its productive capacity.
The post-WWII reconstruction of Europe or Japan, which was based on the productive capacity and the technical level of the population, was a relatively simple task as compared to the effort that needs to be made in Haiti.
There, as well as in most of Africa and elsewhere in the Third World, it is imperative to create the conditions for sustainable development.
In only 40 years time, humanity will be made up of more than nine billion inhabitants. Right now it is faced with the challenge of a climate change that scientists accept as an inescapable reality.
In the midst of the Haitian tragedy, without anybody knowing how and why, thousands of US marines, 82nd Airborne Division troops and other military forces have occupied Haiti. Worse still is the fact that neither the United Nations nor the US government has offered an adequate explanation about this deployment of troops.
Several governments have complained that their aircraft have been refused permission to land in order to deliver human and technical resources that have been earmarked for Haiti.
Other countries have announced that they too will be sending troops and military equipment.
In my view, this will create chaos that hinders international co-operation, which is already in itself complex. It is necessary to seriously discuss this issue. The UN should be entrusted with the leading role it deserves.
Cuba is undertaking a strictly humanitarian mission. To the best of its abilities, it will contribute the human and material resources at its disposal. The will of our people, who take pride in their medical doctors and co-operation workers who provide vital services, will rise to the occasion.
Any significant co-operation that is asked of our country will be considered, but its acceptance will fully depend on the importance of the assistance that is requested from the human resources of our homeland.
It is only fair to state that, up to now, our modest aircraft and the important human resources that Cuba has made available to the Haitian people have arrived at their destination without any difficulty whatsoever.
We send doctors, not soldiers.
Monday 25 January 2010
Fidel Castro
Two days after the catastrophe in Haiti which destroyed that neighbouring sister nation, I wrote: "In the area of health care and others the Haitian people has received the co-operation of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded country.
"Approximately 400 doctors and health-care workers are helping the Haitian people free of charge. Our doctors are working every day at 227 of the 237 communes of that country. On the other hand, no less than 400 young Haitians have graduated as medical doctors in our country.
"They will now work alongside the reinforcement that travelled there yesterday to save lives in that critical situation. Thus, up to 1,000 doctors and health-care personnel can be mobilised without any special effort - and most are already there willing to co-operate with any other state that wishes to save Haitian lives and rehabilitate the injured.
"The head of our medical brigade has informed that 'the situation is difficult but we are already saving lives'."
Hour after hour, day and night, the Cuban health professionals started to work non-stop in the few facilities which were able to withstand the earthquake, in tents and out in the parks or open-air spaces that became home to Haitians fearing aftershocks.
The situation was far more serious than originally thought. Tens of thousands of injured people were clamouring for help in the streets of Port-au-Prince. Innumerable people lay dead or alive under the rubble of clay and sand used to construct the homes in which the overwhelming majority of Haitians lived. Even the most solid buildings had collapsed.
It was amid the devastation that the search took place for the Haitian doctors who had graduated at Cuba's Latin American Medicine School and were scattered across the destroyed neighbourhoods. Many of them were affected, either directly or indirectly, by the tragedy.
Images of the catastrophe shocked the whole world. Governments across the planet announced that they would be sending rescue experts, food, medicines, equipment and other resources.
Medical staff from different countries - Spain, Mexico and Colombia, among others - toiled alongside our doctors at the facilities that they had improvised. Organisations such as the Pan American Health Organisation and friendly countries like Venezuela supplied medicines and other resources. The impeccable behaviour of Cuban professionals was absolutely without prejudice and remained out of the limelight.
Cuba would have done the same when Hurricane Katrina caused huge devastation in the city of New Orleans and placed the lives of thousands of US citizens in danger.
More than 1,000 doctors of the Henry Reeve contingent were mobilised and readied to leave at any time of the day or the night, carrying with them the necessary medicines and equipment. It never crossed our mind that the president of that nation would reject the offer and let a number of US citizens who could have been saved die.
The mistake made by the US government was perhaps the inability to understand that the people of Cuba do not see in the US people an enemy. It does not blame them for the aggressions our homeland has suffered.
Then, as with the Haiti disaster, our country immediately responded to the US authorities' request to fly over the eastern part of Cuba as well as other facilities they needed to deliver assistance as quickly as possible.
These are the ethical principles that guide Cuba's behaviour. They have been the ever-present features of our foreign policy. And this is known only too well by whoever have been our adversaries in the international arena.
The tragedy that has taken place in Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, is a challenge to the world's richest and most powerful countries.
Haiti is a net product of the colonial, capitalist and imperialist system imposed on the world. Haiti's slavery and subsequent poverty were imposed from abroad. That terrible earthquake occurred after the Copenhagen Summit, where the fundamental rights of 192 UN member states were trampled upon.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, a competition has unleashed in Haiti to hastily and illegally adopt boys and girls. UNICEF has been forced to introduce preventive measures against the uprooting of children.
More than 150,000 people have died. A high number of citizens have lost their arms or legs, or have suffered fractures requiring rehabilitation that would enable them to work or manage their own.
Eighty per cent of the country needs to be rebuilt. Now Haiti requires an economy that is developed enough to meet its needs according to its productive capacity.
The post-WWII reconstruction of Europe or Japan, which was based on the productive capacity and the technical level of the population, was a relatively simple task as compared to the effort that needs to be made in Haiti.
There, as well as in most of Africa and elsewhere in the Third World, it is imperative to create the conditions for sustainable development.
In only 40 years time, humanity will be made up of more than nine billion inhabitants. Right now it is faced with the challenge of a climate change that scientists accept as an inescapable reality.
In the midst of the Haitian tragedy, without anybody knowing how and why, thousands of US marines, 82nd Airborne Division troops and other military forces have occupied Haiti. Worse still is the fact that neither the United Nations nor the US government has offered an adequate explanation about this deployment of troops.
Several governments have complained that their aircraft have been refused permission to land in order to deliver human and technical resources that have been earmarked for Haiti.
Other countries have announced that they too will be sending troops and military equipment.
In my view, this will create chaos that hinders international co-operation, which is already in itself complex. It is necessary to seriously discuss this issue. The UN should be entrusted with the leading role it deserves.
Cuba is undertaking a strictly humanitarian mission. To the best of its abilities, it will contribute the human and material resources at its disposal. The will of our people, who take pride in their medical doctors and co-operation workers who provide vital services, will rise to the occasion.
Any significant co-operation that is asked of our country will be considered, but its acceptance will fully depend on the importance of the assistance that is requested from the human resources of our homeland.
It is only fair to state that, up to now, our modest aircraft and the important human resources that Cuba has made available to the Haitian people have arrived at their destination without any difficulty whatsoever.
We send doctors, not soldiers.
Comment