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Thursday, 01 December 2005 05:36 |
While visiting Asheville over Thanksgiving, I picked up and enjoyed your newspaper. One of your stories by Stephanie Thomas (?®Cuban health system tops U.S., acitvist claims,?∆ Nov. 23) reporting on a lecture by Katrina Sommers demanded my quite different observation of life in Cuba be shared with your readers.
I was there six years ago on my boat for almost a month with my son and two other friends. Two of us speak fluent Spanish.
While having repair work done on the boat, we were able to travel throughout Cuba by private car, visiting many small towns and two cities other than Havana. We had several first-hand experiences with Cuba??s medical system, the first being next to another boat of a Florida man who regularly visited Cuba and on this trip was about to have major elective surgery.
We met his girlfriend, a surgeon, spending several afternoons with them. He was to have his operation soon by a friend of hers in another specialty. He had to bring all necessary supplies, including anesthesia, antibiotics and fluids, as while the surgery was free, they could not guarantee the availability of those supplies even for emergency operations.
It is apparently correct that Cuba has many doctors, but almost no
medicines. It turned out that my medical chest aboard was better
equipped than most clinics ?? the envy of his girlfriend and her
friends.
We hired three men to help work on our boat at, for them, a great wage
of $10 a day, even after having to kickback 20 percent to the marina
supervisor.
One of those men was a baker, having lost his job due to an injury on
the job ?±?± a rod being driven through his chest. The resultant
infection caused him to be out of work six months. Again he had no
medicine, had lost his lifetime job and had to find day labor to
survive.
Another time, our driver on a countryside tour asked if we could stop
in every village where there was a medical clinic to look for medicine
for his 6-year-old daughter. She had a respiratory infection but could
get no medicine in Havana at her neighborhood clinic.
Later, one of my crew came down with strep throat as we cruised along
the coastal towns on our way out of Cuba. The doctor there made a ?®boat
call,?∆ but could not do a definitive diagnosis, as he said no lab
testing was available ?? although tourists were at the top of the list
in medical priorities nationwide. He could only offer two antibiotic
pills, and when we showed him our supply was thrilled to be able to
help us in a medically proper way.
We gave him some of our supplies to have for other local patients.
There are several other medical stories, but since space is limited, I
will offer other experiences instead. We found the Cuban people
friendly. We had no government guides, so found all open and many
candid.
One particularly interesting man was a guide at the main Havana
cemetery, a retired high school history teacher who was there when
Castro came to power and is a good witness to it all. He continues to
be impressed with Castro??s initiative regarding universal literacy.
There was no real criticism of the government ?? just wishes for a
better life. Almost all the young people we spoke to wanted to emigrate
to the U.S. The older ones were happy in Cuba, but worried about their
pensions, etc. ?? not unlike here, just a different scale.
There are many other observations from the trip, but my main one is the
general view of socialism vs. capitalism. Cuba can trade with the rest
of the world, and our embargo should not have that much effect on them,
but they need something to trade with.
Another day, in an old Woolworth store building, a flea market offered
for sale or trade bent nails, partially stripped screws and scrap
lumber.
The only people who seemed to be inspired to work were those who had a
chance to get cash in the form of U.S. dollars. We came across many
examples of bureaucratic inertia, and some of corruption.
The everyday, ordinary people have to scramble to get by ?±?± not like
the poor I saw in Haiti, but very poor by our standards. We visited
Puerto Rico soon after Cuba, and saw first-hand what a similar island
with similar resources, cultural backgrounds and climates could do
under the capitalistic approach.
JAMES BULLOCK
Callao, Va.
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