The New York Times, staying true to form in support of dictator’s everywhere, publishes yet another front page fluff piece on Cuba and the magnanimity of fidel castro vis-a-vis American students in Cuban Medical schools.
You can read the whole vomit inducing thing below the fold.
It’s not enough that the castro regime indoctrinate sCuban students, but now dumbass American kids are being brainwashed while our government succumbs to the entitlement bullshit of the Congressional Black Caucus and Pastors for Peace.
Hat tip Ray Sand.
Hippocrates Meets Fidel, and Even U.S. Students Enroll
By MARC LACEY
Published: December 8, 2006
HAVANA, Dec. 7 — Anatomy is a part of medical education everywhere. Biochemistry, too. But a course in Cuban history?Students from many countries at the Latin American School of Medical Sciences, founded by Fidel Castro, on a campus just outside Havana.
The Latin American School of Medical Sciences, on a sprawling former naval base on the outskirts of this capital, teaches its students medicine Cuban style. That means poking at cadavers, peering into aging microscopes and discussing the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power 48 years ago.
Cuban-trained doctors must be able not only to diagnose an ulcer and treat hypertension but also to expound on the principles put forward by “el comandante.”
It was President Castro himself who in the late 1990s came up with the idea for this place, which gives potential doctors from throughout the Americas and Africa not just the A B C’s of medicine but also the basic philosophy behind offering good health care to the struggling masses.
The Cuban government offers full scholarships to poor students from abroad, and many, including 90 or so Americans, have jumped at the chance of a free medical education, even with a bit of Communist theory thrown in.
“They are completing the dreams of our comandante,” said the dean, Dr. Juan D. Carrizo Estévez. “As he said, they are true missionaries, true apostles of health.”
It is a strong personal desire to practice medicine that drives the students here more than any affinity for Mr. Castro. Those from the United States in particular insist that they want to become doctors, not politicians. They recoil at the notion that they are propaganda tools for Cuba, as critics suggest.
“They ask no one to be political — it’s your choice,” said Jamar Williams, 27, of Brooklyn, a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany. “Many students decide to be political. They go to rallies and read political books. But you can lie low.”
Still, the Cuban authorities are eager to show off this school as a sign of the country’s compassion and its standing in the world. And some students cannot help responding to the sympathetic portrayal of Mr. Castro, whom the United States government tars as a dictator who suppresses his people.
“In my country many see Fidel Castro as a bad leader,” said Rolando Bonilla, 23, a Panamanian who is in his second year of the six-year program. “My view has changed. I now know what he represents for this country. I identify with him.”
Fátima Flores, 20, of Mexico sympathized with Mr. Castro’s government even before she was accepted for the program. “When we become doctors we can spread his influence,” she said. “Medicine is not just something scientific. It’s a way of serving the public. Look at Che.”
Che Guevara was an Argentine medical doctor before he became a revolutionary who fought alongside Mr. Castro in the rugged reaches of eastern Cuba and then lost his life in Bolivia while further spreading the cause.
Tahirah Benyard, 27, a first-year student from Newark, said it was Cuba’s offer to send doctors to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, which was rejected by the Bush administration, that prompted her to take a look at medical education in Cuba.
“I saw my people dying,” she said. “There was no one willing to help. The government was saying everything is going to be fine.”
She said she had been rejected by several American medical schools but could not have afforded their high costs anyway. Like other students from the United States, she was screened for the Cuba program by Pastors for Peace, a New York organization opposed to Washington’s trade embargo against the island.
Ms. Benyard hopes that one day she will be able to practice in poor neighborhoods back home. Whether her education, which is decidedly low tech, is up to American standards remains to be seen, although Cedric Edwards, the first American student to graduate, last year, passed his medical boards in the United States.
If she makes it, Ms. Benyard will become one of a small pool of African-American doctors. Only about 6 percent of practicing physicians are members of minority groups, says the Association of American Medical Colleges, which recently began its own program to increase the number of minority medical students.
Even before they were accepted into Cuba’s program, most of the Americans here said they had misgivings about the health care system in their own country. There is too much of a focus on the bottom line, they said, and not enough compassion for the poor.
“Democracy is a great principle,” said Mr. Williams, who wears long dreadlocks pulled back behind his head. “The idea that people can speak for themselves and govern themselves is a great concept. But people must be educated, and in order to be educated, people need health.”
The education the students are receiving here extends outside the classroom.
“I’ve learned to become a minimalist,” Mr. Williams said. “I don’t necessarily need my iPod, all my gadgets and gizmos, to survive.”
There are also fewer food options. The menu can be described as rice and beans and more rice and beans. Living conditions are more rugged in other respects as well. The electricity goes out frequently. Internet access is limited. Toilet paper and soap are rationed. Sometimes the water taps are dry.
Then there is the issue of personal space.
“Being in a room with 18 girls, it teaches you patience,” said Ms. Benyard, who was used to her one-bedroom apartment back home and described her current living conditions as like a military barracks.
Other students cited the American government’s embargo as their biggest frustration. The blockade, which is what the Cuban government and many of the American students call it, means no care packages, no visits from Mom and Dad, and the threat that their government might penalize them for coming here.
Last year Washington ordered the students home, but the decision was reversed after protests from the Congressional Black Caucus, which supports the program.
One topic that does not come up in classes is the specific ailment that put Mr. Castro in the hospital, forced him to cede power to his brother Raúl and has kept him out of the public eye since late July. His diagnosis, like so much else in Cuba, is a state secret.
Thank you for that post.
Makes it easier to fast for Farinas.
Lost my appetite.
Val,
There was an article in this past Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer reagrding American students who are studying medicine in Cuba.
Talk about making a deal with the devil.
I do not think I would want any profession that badly to study in Cuba.
Sadly, this is a very effective propaganda tool. Perhaps not so much in this country, where the students who choose this route are viewed as “not competent enough to get into a real medical school.”
Nevertheless, in Latin American and Africa, this has proven to be very effective.
I don’t think it’s going to be so easy for those young docs to get licensed here in Florida. I met a Cuban doctor who was working as a waiter at Los Ranchos.
The motto of the New York Times: “All the news that’s fit to print” is really “All the fits that’s news to print.”
Is it only me that doesn’t see this as an article that support castro’s regime?, I even doubt it will be showed on “La mesa redonda” this afternoon.
Val, could you read it again, and show me that parts you found “vomit inducing”, maybe is my bad english, but I found more critics to the program, maybe not in a straight way, than support.
And LittleGator, do you think Cuba doesn’t has “real medicals school”?, You know, I cannot desagree more with you, our doctor are great! sure, I don’t think it is because they are inspired by “our great leader”, I think it is something like a read a few days here, that cuban people have this feeling that they should take anything they can from this regime, and medical education it is something that it doesn’t has gone througth the toilet, at least not yet.
BTW this is not an “oda” to our health care system, that sucks, but again I really think our doctor are great!.
Conductor, if you know one doctor that hasn’t pass the “rebalidacion de su titulo”, I kwow many that has. Give this person a good english course, and then come back and tell me his history.
regards,
DotCu
DotCu, you do not live in the United States. You don’t have a clue about the context of Val’s comment. Maybe the article doesn’t sound positive to you since you have lived in the regime and have been brainwashed to not read critically. But I can assure you of one thing: this article is only the latest attempt by the New York Times to paint the disaster that is castro’s Cuba in a way that is benign and inviting. It may not sound like it, but that’s the reality.
DotCu
Cuba does have good (or maybe even great) medical schools. I have personal knowledge of three very good ones. They all love what they do, and try their best to serve their patients with all the limitations imposed by the system. I know that Cuba does have good medical schools and many good doctors.
The point I was trying to make, somewhat inartfully, is that the American students who are studying in Cuba are those who did not have the grades or the ability to get into American medical schools. And, they probably could not get into Cuban medical schools either if their admission were based on merit. They are selected by politicians and special interest groups here to advance an agenda.
My apologies for my poor choice of words. Be safe.
DotCu,
and discussing the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power 48 years ago.
What does discussing the revolution have to do with medicine? Were there no doctors in Cuba prior to the revolution?
but also to expound on the principles put forward by “el comandante.”
Again, what do the “principles” of “el comandante” have to do with medicine?
even with a bit of Communist theory thrown in.
So not only do Cuban get indoctrinated with communist theory, but now American students as well? What kind of an education is that? Do you think they teach democracy and its theories there as well?
Cuban authorities are eager to show off this school as a sign of the country’s compassion
Compassion? Compassion like actos de repudio? compassion like the stifling the individual’s opinions? Compassion like that shown to Dr. Elias Biscet? Dr. Farinas? El 23 de Marzo?
Do you think for one minute that Cuba taking in foreign students is really about “compassion?”
“She said she had been rejected by several American medical schools.”
LG,
You are absolutely correct. These willful idiots are not in Cuba out of any political conviction (OK, maybe some are) but because they can’t hack it in US schools — not even with affirmative action!
DotCU,
You have to understand that Pastors for Peace and the CBC are not for creating a battalion of doctors. They are, as Val says, pushing a political agenda, and in a sense, trying to create an entitlement program amongst their constituency. I wouldn’t let these misguided American kids to even take my temperature!
Val,
Next time you post one of these articles, let it be after breakfast has settled.
Oh, and one last thing: Nobody is placed on earth to fulfill the dreams of anyone, much less the perverted dreams of the coma-dante. Life is about fulfilling your own dreams. Hopefully, once Cuba is free, the dean of the school and all of the regime’s bootlickers will realize this.
“The electricity goes out frequently. Internet access is limited. Toilet paper and soap are rationed. Sometimes the water taps are dry.”
Is there no Plumbers For Peace that can fix the water mains?
The New York Times: a subsidiary of the Cuban Communist Propaganda Machine.
In regards to the quality of physicians in Cuba, aging ballerina Alicia Alonso proved to know best when in need of eye surgery years ago. She sought American doctors in New York rather than her comrades in Havana.
Two years ago, Fidel Castro’s chief physician, Eugenio Selman-Housein Abdo, said that Castro would live for another 60 years. “He is heading for 140 (years) and I am not exaggerating because now with the scientific progress and the development of embryo stem cells, man will become immortal,” said the doctor, who described Castro’s health as “formidable.”
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/fidel/castro-fall.htm
If that is the best the revolution can produce, imagine what their other medical prognostics are like.
I’m so sorry my shift ended and I couldn’t post early.
Val, all I see in the comments you select are true and if you ask me, they represents critics to the program, although I was wrong by saying it weren’t “vomit inducing”.
From my point of view, this journalist report is accurate, he isn’t saying any lie, he isn’t even softing the true, and more important he isn’t making his point in the article, he is just reporting, the way you say a journalist should always do.
Sorry folks, but what I see here, is someone reporting the rude true of this program, I go further by saying that you should try to give this article to a US student thinking to enter to this program, and the ask him if after reading it, he is more or less inclinate to aply.
regards,
DotCu