There's a program running on some of the HBO channels lately called, "Chernobyl Heart" that is a gut wrenching account of the fallout after the nuclear plant disaster, and its effects on children and generations to come. Worth seeing, but make sure you have tissues on hand. The program reminded me of an experience in Cuba.
My first time in Cuba, I was shown a facility called TARARA which was established by the Republic of Cuba to treat victims of Chernobyl, and which had formerly been a school facility. I saw the nurses and therapists playing on the beaches with the young children, children who were bald, burned, deformed, clearly affected by chemotherapy and illness, but who were, nonetheless, playing and smiling despite their grim circumstances.
Since April, 1986, Cuba has hosted this treatment facility for the "Chernobyl children" that has treated approximately 20,000 patients with the most intensive care available. Cuba reports that they could and that they want to treat more, but that the impact of the US embargo limited access to treatment and resources so that the number of victims to be treated and the types of treatment to be rendered is constantly changing. Despite the withdrawal of Soviet funding that fed Cuba's infrastructure, despite Cuba's own deficits, and despite Cuba's own shortcomings and needs, Cuba has operated this facility and treated patients continuously throughout their 'special period' that defined the difficult economic times that followed the Soviet withdrawal. Many patients go there for 45-day treatment regimens, but some reside there permanently.
This is an interesting story, and one we don't hear about. Surely, we hear about how the Cubans steal children from their homes and make them work for years in sugar cane fields (in actuality, all school children go to a camp a week or two per year during their secondary school years to work the fields, gain respect for the land, pride in their country, and to gain a sense of contributing to their society...nobody is stealing anyone...it's a sleep-away camp everyone attends, and it does breed resourcefulness while doing a lot of good)...we hear about the human rights violations (while refusing to point an accusatory finger to the systematic violations of rights domestically...so how can WE be a judge?)...we hear about many things negative with respect to Cuba...things that get filtered to us through the jaundiced news of the so-called 'exile' community which has proven time and time again that it will do and say anything to save face when it comes to Castro, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of unfortunate Cubans are in their way. But do we hear about Tarara? Do we hear about the doctors that Cuba sends to poverty and disaster stricken places to provide relief to flood, mudslide, hurricane and disease victims? Maybe...but we don't hear enough.
Check it out. Find out about this Tarara and it's impact on the world that came to be after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Check it out...do a little research...see for yourself another side of Cuba that we don't get to hear about often enough.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER! VIVE CPD!
Posts: 10301 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
I agree that the national media are simply cowards. The day of reporting the news is gone. The new day or making the news is here. Even NPR has fallen on its sword and is in the myth-making business. Personally, my last cent of helping out NPR through membership donations stopped when they no longer cared about being objective. NPR now stands for National Pimp Radio in my books.
But the flip side is worse. Russia, a democratic country, controls its media. So were not there yet but its still in sorry shape because though the government doesn't control our media, a far worse entity, the bottom-line corporation does. So be wary about what the media hypes.
Just a question. Why did the soviet Union send these people to Cuba?
Mike
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. John Stuart Mill
Posts: 5955 | Location: Cincinnati | Registered: May 02, 2002
they were not exiles. there were not refugees. they were invited by the Cubans because the Cuban government set up a place that was dedicated to treating such victims, and offered it to the victims. Imagine that...the Godless, evil Cuban regime doing something to contribute to the world. Perhaps those concepts are foreign to some, which was sort of my point in making this post in the first place. Much is said about what is supposedly so bad about Cuba and the Castro regime (and there's plenty of fodder for that), but we don't hear about the other side too often.
The opportunity took took victims from a European winter, and plopped them into the jewel of the Caribbean, where sun, sand and ocean contributed to the health and rehabilitation of the victims. I don't know about you but I'd much rather treat for an illness in an environmant conducive to alleviating my symptoms.
___________________ Santa Cabilla...patron saint of Quericæstan. VIVE COULTER! VIVE CPD!
Posts: 10301 | Location: Avenida de las Nalgas, Quericæstan | Registered: May 02, 2002
Tchernobyl is in the Ukraine which has winters akin to winters in Montreal. Bitterly cold and very long. So the children came from there. Needless to say the Ukraine does not have much money for well insulated and well heated public facilities.
I heard that there are plans to grow medical tourism. Cuba has many educated people and many of them are medical doctors and other medical professionals. A extraordinarily high proportion. Thus tourists needing high quality medical procedures at affordable prices could get them done in Cuba.
I cut my foot last time I was in Santiago. I was very well taken care of at no cost. It was at the hotel infirmary which was staffed by three people.
The week before a Canadian died in bed. The guy croaked of old age or a heart condition. There were helicopters, army jeeps and police jeeps here for a few hours. It seems that Cuba does not want any suspicious international incidents.
Even the beaches. The red flag and life guard whistles when there is the least bit of surf. Don't want a German drowning in Varadero do we? Yet you go to many North American beaches and the red flag is up all the time even in dead calm (so the beach won't get sued) and there are people in the water with six foot breakers (its freedom).
QM Quality does not occur by chance. It is the result of intelligent activities.
Posts: 7946 | Location: Cigar land | Registered: March 10, 2003
