WHY DOCTORS FROM IMPOVERISHED AND BACKWARD CUBA IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD

[El Presidente]

Some interesting numbers and an excellent follow up to last weeks thread. 

 

https://kozweek.com/why-doctors-from-impoverished-and-backward-cuba-is-the-best-in-the-world/21751/

WHY DOCTORS FROM IMPOVERISHED AND BACKWARD CUBA IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD

Stone | December 4, 2018 | Health | 0 Comments

Attractive face? of the authoritarian regime.

This week, hundreds of Cuban doctors who worked in Brazil, I Packed my bags and went home – less than two weeks after their government in Havana, ordered them to stop participating in the program “More doctors”. About 1,300 8 300 Cuban doctors from Brazil have already left, according to Time.

Cuba stated that the decision was due to “aggressive and threatening” comments newly elected President of Brazil. He called the doctors who have to send most of his wages to its Communist government and said that their presence in Brazil “feeds the Cuban dictatorship.”

This political move was an unprecedented attack on the most profitable export in Cuba: not the tobacco or sugar, and doctors.

Leasing medical professionals annually brings in about $ 11 billion, making it a larger source of revenue than the entire tourism industry of the Caribbean Islands.

Currently, some 50,000 Cuban doctors working in 67 countries, “army of white coats” as they are called Cuban officials. But as Cuba, an isolated authoritarian regime, which is experiencing a constant shortage of basic goods, becomes a world leader in the “production” of health personnel?

Why is Cuba such a good health?

Medical export business in Cuba is rooted in the years after the 1959 revolution, when rebel leader Fidel Castro overthrew the ruling dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and established a Communist regime.

Universal healthcare and free education was fundamental for the project, Castro. “It was two big investment in the revolution, says mark Keller, the expert on Cuba. “Thus, in Cuba there are indeed educated people and a surplus of doctors.”

Life expectancy on the island is higher than in the United States, and the Cubans have almost three times more physicians per capita.

How doctors serve the international interests of Cuba?

During the cold war, Cuba began to use their doctors as a diplomatic tool to overcome political isolation.

In 1963, a year after Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States, she sent her first medical mission abroad in Algeria, and 56 of Cubans was replaced by French doctors who have left the African country after 1962, it gained independence from France.

This has strengthened the link between the two revolutionary countries, and today they maintain a close relationship.

According to Keller, the diplomatic benefits of sending doctors to developing countries continue to help Cuba in international relations.

“Small African or Caribbean countries that can’t afford to pay for doctors, get them from Cuba,” he says. “They will be more lenient to Cuba, when she was under pressure from Europe and the USA”.

Sending doctors abroad with the humanitarian goal is good PR for the country. Cuban doctors have won praise in the international media for their efficiency and dedication after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and during the crisis with Ebola in West Africa in 2014.

This helps to create “an attractive person” an authoritarian regime that violently suppresses dissent, restricts the rights of its citizens to travel and carry out thousands of arbitrary detentions every year.

 

As sending doctors abroad affect the Cuban economy?

And it’s not just about altruism. “When you have a very educated population, and there is a shortage of cash and goods, you want to find a way to monetize it,” says Keller. A few years later after Venezuela held its own socialist revolution in 1998, two left the country joined in a symbiotic relationship.

Oil-rich Venezuela sends Cuba cash and subsidized oil supplies to the island in exchange for highly educated professionals, including not only doctors, but also officials of the intelligence and athletic trainers, says Keller.

Officials say that Venezuela still has 21 700 Cuban professionals, despite the massive economic and humanitarian crisis that it experienced in the last five years.

Cuban deal in 2013 with then-President Dilma Rousseff has made Brazil the second largest client of Cuba. Brazil paid about $ 3,600 per doctor per month. This represents about $ 360 million a year for 8 to 300 people.

Recently, Cuba has signed agreements with Algeria, Kenya and Uganda.

What does this mean for doctors?

Cuba is in dire need of cash, and foreign countries find the necessary specialists, but also doctors themselves have a clear incentive to work abroad. The monthly minimum wage in Cuba is about $ 25, and doctors it is around $ 50.

According to Keller, in Brazil, even when the Cuban government, receiving a large portion of their salaries, they continue to receive about $ 1000 per month, which allows them to feed their families. “With a shortage of consumer goods, which means that many products are only available in stores, sold only in dollars,” he says.

“And if you have a family member abroad, which earns the dollars, you will live a completely different life.”

Working conditions for Cubans abroad, but that is not always easy. They are not welcome by local doctors, who see Cubans as a way for local authorities to avoid addressing the fundamental problems with its own personnel.

The Cuban government also tends to cling to the doctors. In 2017, they have tightened restrictions on doctors working in Brazil, forbidding them to take the Brazilian medical exam and coercing pregnant women to return to Cuba after 22 weeks of pregnancy, to children not born in Brazil and received Brazilian citizenship.

What do you think the doctors themselves?

Not all doctors working abroad, satisfied with the arrangement. In 2017, about 150 of them in Brazil have filed lawsuits in local courts, challenging the agreement and trying to get away from the Cuban government to independently practice in Brazil.

November 29, several physicians lodged complaints to PAHO, saying that the UN Agency spent 73 million dollars for the work of the Cubans and supported the conditions that violate the international laws on forced labour.

About 2,000 Cubans will remain in Brazil despite their government, said a Brazilian diplomatic source. Keller says that some Cubans might try to go to the USA, where historically welcomed Cubans who turned away from the regime.

It Bolsonaro is another reminder that ideology is always be a strong influence on the international relations of Cuba, said Keller. But having contracts with 67 countries, Cuban doctors are not going anywhere. “It’s a massive program, he says. “This is one of the main things that Cuba has to offer the world.”

One can only wonder calm themselves Cuban doctors who actually are in slavery! Was it love of country?

FIA Mont.

[OZCUBAN]

Mybe they should be running Habanos ?

[BellevilleMXZ]

Interesting......I knew Cuba did this, but not to that extent. That's ALOT of doctors....wow