chevere

Whats your view on the medical/health education in Cuba?

It seems that they produce loads of medicos, mostly physicians/GPs I think, that are reasonably well regarded in other countries - I mean going by the registration hoops they can jump - and they seem to churn them out  cheaply.

Some people who I have spoken to who are familiar with Cuban medicos in say, East Timor, speak well of them, but I assume the cost issue is a bit opaque because of a general lack of transparency in a regime like Cuba.

OK, let's look at this rationally rather than emotionally.
First look at the press in each of those countries. There is NO freedom of press in Cuba so whatever info comes out is highly edited, embellished, and curated.
Even in Jamaica people can sing and write about how they are oppressed, and cry about it in front of the world to the encomiums of bien pensants all over. In Cuba, you do that you're screwed, and if you go outside the country to do it your family back home pays the price. So very few with family behind criticize the system. I do know such individuals, and if they speak up even the money they send home gets messed with.
Secondly, political dissent. Anybody here who believes the elections in cuba with 99% vote for the communist party are on the same level as the most corrupt Caribbean nation other than Cuba is an out and out idiot. The price of dissent in Cuba is beatings for the dissenter plus severe restrictions for the family of the dissenter so there is a strong internal pressure not to make things worse for your relatives.
And life in Jamaica IS better than in Cuba. Yuca, your Cuban friend has choices precisely because he is a fanboy of the government and I suspect his family is well placed in the Party. For the vast majority of Cubans traveling out of Cuba is a lengthy and delicate affair with repercussions to your family. In Jamaica, if you can get the money, you got your ticket out. Lifting of travel restrictions in Cuba was for foreigners with money coming in, not for natives to leave.
And the oh so unbeatable argument of "getting screwed by the US" is persuasive to those in the choir but not to the millions of people who live in the Caribbean. The drama of indigenous culture and national pride vs economic "rape" and "cultural subjugation" is played out in Puerto Rico every 4 years. Not surprisingly through many election cycles, taking a good look of what lies around them, Puerto Ricans keep aligning themselves to the US all the while proclaiming loudly their national pride and disdain for inferior gringo culture. It's sad, but a common phenomenom in Latin America. Blame the US, but suck whatever you can out of them.
Cubans are no different, and they have always been living off somebody else's tit (officially first Russia, now Venezuela, and unofficially all the money, medications, and goods US expats send), meanwhile bragging about whatever they can brag about. They are not despicable, they are just like any other island in the region, but worse off. Their brief relaxation of their borders came in the interval between the fall of the Soviet empire and the influx of Venezuelan subsidies. Look for Cuba to open up more when Venezuela implodes and the free money flow stops.

Last edited by Chévere (2013-06-27 05:57:59)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6wo2wpT2k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGxL2uNr7bk

Of course, Cuba under the mob was a terrible place too, but all this putting Cuba on a pedestal and pretending it's a bulwark against US imperialism, isn't helping the real situation at ground level, which is pretty grotty and shitty.

I've yet to meet a middle class or champagne socialist who wasn't lusting after power reinforced with a strong hatred of the toiling classes.

Much like the present UK NHS then, an endless cavalcade of horror.

An ex-colleague of mine left the oil & gas industry and took to management in the NHS in one of the Leeds hospitals, her verdict that it is absolutely as bad as the gutter press portrays it: a focus on fudging the KPIs and performance stats, lame old boys network management without a shred of decency and shiatsu massages at lunch, not forgetting the endless days out on team building events for the pen pushers. Like the Met police, there's an awful stink coming off the NHS, I am thankful I had appendix out here in the Netherlands last year, and that is saying something!

Funny you should say you will save the story of your wife giving birth in UCH London, Chevere, as I have my old story of our first born here in the Netherlands, it ends with me delivering our first born. Thankfully, my wife has child bearing hips that saved the day.

Last edited by 4F Hepcat (2013-06-27 12:06:37)

Of course the NHS is worth saving.

There is peace of mind in knowing that illness will not mean financial ruin.