The Cuba Conundrum

The Cuba Conundrum
Parsing the myths and the realities of Cuba
—By Bennett Gordon, Utne.com
June 28, 2007 Issue

In the wake of Cuban President Fidel Castro's transfer of power to his brother Raúl last year, many in the press have rekindled a love affair with the island nation. Stories abound heralding Cuba's exemplary organic farming and health care systems. Take, for example, Yes! magazine's Summer issue, which joined the ranks of socially conscious indie publications praising the quality and humanitarianism of the Cuban health care system. Michael Moore has brought his similar take on the issue to the mainstream media with his latest documentary. Cuba plays a prominent role in Sicko, in which the incendiary filmmaker takes ailing 9/11 workers to Guantánamo Bay and Havana in search of health care that's better than anything the workers could find inside the United States.

Such visions of a health care utopia don't ring true for Bella Thomas, who recently returned to the island after living there for years in the late 1990s. Writing for the British magazine Prospect, Thomas wonders whether the reporters enamored by the Cuban health care system have ventured beyond state-approved hospitals to other facilities, such as one Thomas describes as being "in a state of filth and decrepitude." According to Thomas, "continuing hostilities with the US have played into Castro's hands," solidifying his power and allowing him to transfer it smoothly to his brother, without improving living conditions for ordinary Cubans. The island has changed little since Raúl took power and it remains a country dominated by a repressive dictatorship. A Cuban friend tells her "es exactamente igual"(It's exactly the same as it was).

As media-makers from all points on the political spectrum wrestle with Cuba's image, others are looking beyond the symbolic squabble to future realities. According to the Nation's Julia Sweig, the present situation in Cuba presents a unique opportunity for the United States to improve relations with both Cuba and the rest of the world. A silent majority in Congress is experiencing "regime-change fatigue," according to Sweig, and they're more than willing to end US sanctions on Cuba, including the travel ban.

A logical first step, Sweig reports, would be to give Guantánamo Bay back to the Cubans. The military base has become "a global icon of what's gone wrong with America," Sweig writes, and giving it back would signal a significant change in US foreign policy. The problem is that most politicians don't want to anger the sizeable and vocal pro-embargo Cuban-American constituency. "Nevertheless," Sweig writes, "the time to make that case is now."

http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2007_305/news/12641-1.html
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Relevant Pages

  • THE MYTH OF CUBAN HEALTH CARE, MICHAEL MOORE GIVES IT A POWERFUL BOOST
    ... CUBA: THE MYTH OF CUBAN HEALTH CARE, MICHAEL MOORE GIVES IT A POWERFUL BOOST ... The Left has always had a deep psychological need to believe in the myth of Cuban health care. ... The equipment that doctors have to work with is either antiquated or nonexistent. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Healthy in Cuba, Sick in America?
    ... Anyone who's seen Michael Moore's film "Sicko" will recall the scene in which he shouts with a bullhorn as his boat takes a group of people, including Sept. 11 workers, to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he says prisoners get better health care than Americans. ... Moore says in the film, "I asked to give us the same exact care they give their fellow Cuban citizens. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: Invitation to journalists - Remarkable health care in Cuba
    ... Not so "remarkable "health care for Cubans though: ... source of revenue in 2005," said Garcia, who directs the Cuban Economy Study ... Source:"Cuba's medical services becoming major moneymaker", ... These medical services are rendered both within Cuba and outside as doctors ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)
  • Re: Mission accomplished +5
    ... The US has the best health care in the world. ... Cuban-born Dr. Jose Carro, who interviews Cuban doctors who have moved ... George Utset, who writes The Real Cuba Web site, says Moore and his ... physician was transferred to another clinic to replace a doctor sent ...
    (rec.bicycles.racing)
  • Cuba: "i am my own reporter"
    ... NEW FROM CUBA ... A reporter in Cuba with a tourist visa again: ... Chapter Six of Cuban Notebooks), and because both The Nation and the ... must be true and because tourists he's talked to say so. ...
    (soc.culture.cuba)