All posts by JaimeM

Blockade and Coronavirus

Washington blocks shipment of medical donation from Chinese company Ali Baba to Cuba

Washington blocks shipment of medical donation from Chinese company Ali Baba to Cuba

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Beijing, April 1 (RHC)–The Cuban ambassador to China, Carlos Miguel Pereira, denounced Wednesday that the economic, financial and commercial blockade by the United States prevents the Alibaba company from making a donation to the island to combat the COVID-19.
According to the diplomat, the U.S. firm contracted to transport to the Caribbean nation a batch of face masks and diagnostic kits of the deadly disease, at the last minute declined to make the delivery, arguing regulations of the blockade.
“The noble, enormous and commendable effort of the founder of Alibaba and of the Jack Ma Foundation, which has managed to reach more than fifty countries around the world, could not touch Cuban soil, no matter how necessary those resources might be in support of the battle being waged by the small and besieged Antillean island,” Pereira said.
On behalf of his government, the Ambassador expressed his deepest gratitude to the Chinese businessman for the donation and the efforts underway to get it to its final destination, Prensa Latina reported.
‘Again, the unjust, arbitrary and illegal blockade disrupts everything. Things will always be more difficult for Cuba, that’s why every achievement, every small step forward, becomes a huge triumph against the demons’, the Ambassador concluded in an opinion article.
Last March 22, Jack Ma announced on Twitter the shipment of two million masks, 400 thousand diagnostic reagents, and 104 ventilators to 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba, to support the confrontation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One World, One Struggle,” he wrote, adding that they would soon ship the cargo to Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic and Peru, among other countries in the region.

Studying Medicine in Cuba

Meet the Americans Studying Medicine on the Cuban Government’s Dime

Meet the Americans Studying Medicine on the Cuban Government’s Dime
The Cuban government has been paying Americans through a little known program to study medicine in order to return to the United States and serve underprivileged communities.

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Medicine students look through microscopes at a laboratory of the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana.

by Alan Macleod
mintpressnews.com
March 31st, 2020
It’s a medical school like no other: the largest of its kind in the world. The Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, Cuba hosts students from well over 100 countries and every year, dozens of American students are paid to go there to train as doctors. Paid, that is, by the Cuban government on the proviso that they return to the U.S. and serve underprivileged communities. Generally, students come from underprivileged backgrounds themselves and would not have been able to attend medical school in the U.S. for financial reasons. The average cost of in-state training at am American public college runs to nearly $35,000 per year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, with private universities charging well over $50,000. Women and people of color make up the clear majority of applicants.
Cuba is constantly demonized by both the U.S. government and the media. Washington made its opposition to the 1959 revolution immediately clear, attempting an ill-fated invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Decades of illegal blockades have since sapped the country’s strength and wealth. Nevertheless, it remains ideologically committed to opposing American imperialism and providing similarly poor countries with medical relief. While the U.S. sends troops to other countries, Cuba invariably sends medical professionals. Continue reading Meet the Americans Studying Medicine on the Cuban Government’s Dime →

Cuba Coronavirus

Díaz-Canel: In facing Covid-19, everyone depends on each one of us

Díaz-Canel: In facing Covid-19, everyone depends on each one of us
Díaz-Canel emphasizes majority support for measures adopted and recognized the hard work of health personnel in Cuba and around the world
Author: Leticia Martínez | informacion@granma.cu
march 27, 2020 09:03:18

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Photo: Ismael Batista

During yesterday’s meeting to review the Covid-19 situation in Cuba, President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez commented, “To the degree that everyone understands the responsibility of each one of us to others, we will be able to more efficiently confront the new coronavirus pandemic.”
Presiding the meeting to evaluate implementation of the country’s prevention and control plan, along with Prime Minster Manuel Marrero Cruz, Diaz-Canel insisted, “Each of us depends on everyone, and we all depend on each one.”
He also emphasized majority support for measures adopted and recognized the hard work of health personnel in Cuba and around the world.
Minister of Public Health José Ángel Portal Miranda presented the daily update on Covid-19 in the country, indicating that the total number of confirmed cases has reached 67.
A total of 1,539 persons have been admitted to isolation centers for observation, including 1,423 Cubans and 116 from abroad; while 36,056 persons are being monitored in their homes by primary health care teams.
Also discussed was work being carried out by the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) and Committees for the Defense of the Revolution at the neighborhood level. Teresa Amarelle Boué, Party Political Bureau member and secretary general of the FMC, reported that community leaders and health brigades have visited more than 642,560 families to ensure they have the support needed to confront the health emergency.

Cuba and Coronavirus

Our Doctors,Excerpts of speech by Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro

Doctors, not bombs
Excerpts from Fidel’s 2003 speech in Buenos Aires: Our country does not drop bombs on other peoples… our country does not possess nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, or biological weapons. Our country’s tens of thousands of scientists and doctors have been educated in the idea of saving lives

Author: Fidel Castro Ruz | internet@granma.cu
march 26, 2020 10:03:37

Excerpts of speech by Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro, in Buenos Aires, in May of 2003.

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Photo: Granma
Since I am an optimist, I think this world can be saved, in spite of the mistakes made, in spite of the immense, hegemonic powers that have been created, because I believe ideas prevail over force.…

Our country does not drop bombs on other peoples, nor does it send thousands of planes to bomb cities; our country does not possess nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, or biological weapons. Our country’s tens of thousands of scientists and doctors have been educated in the idea of saving lives. It would absolutely contradict this concept to put a scientist or a doctor to work to produce substances, bacteria or viruses to kill other human beings.

Allegations that Cuba is doing research on biological weapons have even been made. In our country, research is conducted to cure diseases as severe as meningococcal meningitis and hepatitis, to produce vaccines with genetic engineering techniques, or, something of great importance, to discover vaccines or therapeutic formulas through molecular immunology; some of which can prevent and others cure. We are moving forward along this path. This is the pride of our doctors and our research centers.

Tens of thousands of Cuban doctors have provided internationalist services in the most remote and inhospitable places. I once said that we could not and would never carry out preventive or surprise attacks against any dark corner of the world; but rather that our country could send needed doctors to the darkest corners of the world. Doctors, not bombs. Doctors, not smart weapons.