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Reflections of Fidel Castro: We send
Doctors, not Soldiers
HAVANA (Prensa Latina) - Prensa Latina transmits as
follows the article titled: "We send doctors, not
soldiers", by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel
Castro, Publisher by digital website Cubadebate.
WE SEND DOCTORS, NOT SOLDIERS.
In my Reflection of January 14, two days after the
catastrophe in Haiti, which destroyed that neighboring
sister nation, I wrote: "In the area of healthcare and
others the Haitian people has received the cooperation
of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded
country. Approximately 400 doctors and healthcare
workers are helping the Haitian people free of charge.
Our doctors are working every day at 227 of the 237
communes of that country. On the other hand, no less
than 400 young Haitians have been graduated as medical
doctors in our country. They will now work alongside the
reinforcement that traveled there yesterday to save
lives in that critical situation. Thus, up to one
thousand doctors and healthcare personnel can be
mobilized without any special effort; and most are
already there willing to cooperate with any other State
that wishes to save Haitian lives and rehabilitate the
injured."
"The head of our medical brigade has informed that the
situation is difficult but we are already saving lives."
Hour after hour, day and night, the Cuban health
professionals have started to work nonstop in the few
facilities that were able to stand, in tents, and out in
the parks or open-air spaces, since the population
feared new aftershocks.
The situation was far more serious than was originally
thought. Tens of thousands of injured were clamoring for
help in the streets of Port-au-Prince; innumerable
persons laid, dead or alive, under the rubbled clay or
adobe used in the construction of the houses where the
overwhelming majority of the population lived.
Buildings, even the most solid, collapsed. Besides, it
was necessary to look for the Haitian doctors who had
graduated at the Latin American Medicine School
throughout all the destroyed neighborhoods. Many of them
were affected, either directly or indirectly, by the
tragedy.
Some UN officials were trapped in their dormitories and
tens of lives were lost, including the lives of several
chiefs of MINUSTAH, a UN contingent. The fate of
hundreds of other members of its staff was unknown.
Hait's Presidential Palace crumbled. Many public
facilities, including several hospitals, were left in
ruins.
The catastrophe shocked the whole world, which was able
to see what was going on through the images aired by the
main international TV networks. Governments from
everywhere in the planet announced they would be sending
rescue experts, food, medicines, equipment and other
resources.
In conformity with the position publicly announced by
Cuba, medical staff from different countries -namely
Spain, Mexico, and Colombia, among others- worked very
hard alongside our doctors at the facilities they had
improvised. Organizations such as PAHO and other
friendly countries like Venezuela and other nations
supplied medicines and other resources. The impeccable
behavior of Cuban professionals and their leaders was
absolutely void of chauvinism and remained out of the
limelight.
Cuba, just as it had done under similar circumstances,
when Hurricane Katrina caused huge devastation in the
city of New Orleans and the lives of thousands of
American citizens were in danger, offered to send a full
medical brigade to cooperate with the people of the
United States, a country that, as is well known, has
vast resources. But at that moment what was needed were
trained and well- equipped doctors to save lives. Given
New Orleans geographical location, more than one
thousand doctors of the "Henry Reeve" contingent
mobilized and readied to leave for that city at any time
of the day or the night, carrying with them the
necessary medicines and equipment. It never crossed our
mind that the President of that nation would reject the
offer and let a number of Americans that could have been
saved to die. The mistake made by that government was
perhaps the inability to understand that the people of
Cuba do not see in the American people an enemy; it does
not blame it for the aggressions our homeland has
suffered.
Nor was that government capable of understanding that
our country does not need to beg for favors or
forgiveness of those who, for half a century now, have
been trying, to no avail, to bring us to our knees. Our
country, also in the case of Haiti, immediately
responded to the US authorities requests to fly over the
eastern part of Cuba as well as other facilities they
needed to deliver assistance, as quickly as possible, to
the American and Haitian citizens who had been affected
by the earthquake.
Such have been the principles characterizing the ethical
behavior of our people. Together with its equanimity and
firmness, these have been the ever-present features of
our foreign policy. And this is known only too well by
whoever have been our adversaries in the international
arena.
Cuba will firmly stand by the opinion that the tragedy
that has taken place in Haiti, the poorest nation in the
western hemisphere, is a challenge to the richest and
more powerful countries of the world.
Haiti is a net product of the colonial, capitalist and
imperialist system imposed on the world. Haiti's slavery
and subsequent poverty were imposed from abroad. That
terrible earthquake occurred after the Copenhagen
Summit, where the most elemental rights of 192 UN member
States were trampled upon. In the aftermath of the
tragedy, a competition has unleashed in Haiti to hastily
and illegally adopt boys and girls. UNICEF has been
forced to adopt preventive measures against the
uprooting of many children, which will deprive their
close relatives from their rights. There are more than
one hundred thousand deadly victims. A high number of
citizens have lost their arms or legs, or have suffered
fractures requiring rehabilitation that would enable
them to work or manage their own.
Eighty per cent of the country needs to be rebuilt.
Haiti requires an economy that is developed enough to
meet its needs according to its productive capacity. The
reconstruction of Europe or Japan, which was based on
the productive capacity and the technical level of the
population, was a relatively simple task as compared to
the effort that needs to be made in Haiti. There, as
well as in most of Africa and elsewhere in the Third
World, it is indispensable to create the conditions for
a sustainable development. In only forty years time,
humanity will be made of more than nine billion
inhabitants, and right now is faced with the challenge
of a climate change that scientists accept as an
inescapable reality.
In the midst of the Haitian tragedy, without anybody
knowing how and why, thousands of US marines, 82nd
Airborne Division troops and other military forces have
occupied Haiti. Worse still is the fact that neither the
United Nations Organization nor the US government have
offered an explanation to the world's public opinion
about this relocation of troops.
Several governments have complained that their aircraft
have not been allowed to land in order to deliver the
human and technical resources that have been sent to
Haiti.
Some countries, for their part, have announced they
would be sending an additional number of troops and
military equipment. In my view, such events will
complicate and create chaos in international
cooperation, which is already in itself complex. It is
necessary to seriously discuss this issue. The UN should
be entrusted with the leading role it deserves in these
so delicate matters.
Our country is accomplishing a strictly humanitarian
mission. To the extent of its possibilities, it will
contribute the human and material resources at its
disposal. The will of our people, who takes pride in its
medical doctors and cooperation workers who provide
vital services, is huge, and will rise to the occasion.
Any significant cooperation that is offered to our
country will not be rejected, but its acceptance will
fully depend on the importance and transcendence of the
assistance that is requested from the human resources of
our homeland.
It is only fair to state that, up until this moment, our
modest aircrafts and the important human resources that
Cuba has made available to the Haitian people have
arrived at their destination without any difficulty
whatsoever.
We send doctors, not soldiers!
Fidel Castro Ruz
January 23, 2010
5:30 p.m. |
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