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MARIO J. TORRES
The traps of distinction
The medical profession brings about
a special distinction in the hispanic culture in which the doctor is given a
unique cult that cannot be compared with the respect paid to professionals
from other fields or branches. A doctor is like a God, a main character and
a superior being. The peculiar 1959 Cuban revolution gave the people the
opportunity to massively make their dreams to be doctors come true, some did
it to satisfy a vocation or predisposition, others for the sake of being
respected or admired and many chose it still undecided to take up any
college career, but behind this generous gift, an implicit sale of souls to
the devil is hidden as way to pay for the favor, for this reason, to start
with, the initial conditions necessary to join this group once select but
now massive, are clear: to show or at least to pretend faithfulness to the
regime in theory with slogans, mottos or political messages and in practice
participating in political meetings, concentrations and parades but most of
all becoming a member of the Young Communist League, which is the straight
passport to a potential success and a good position in the future.
Cubans, who know the rules of the game quite well, do not need to be
reminded that this requirement plus that of going to give their services
wherever the revolution sends them, becoming a repetitive parrot of the
interests and policies of the system even though they do not like or believe
in them and also walking carefully on the tight rope knowing how to keep
themselves "clean", imply the price of their career in place of the money
they did not have to pay to study it. This is the beginning of an oath or a
pledge of slavery to the system like that of till death do us apart. The
destiny of a Cuban medicine students is, at the end of the journey of 6 long
years of sacrifice, with a lot of work, study, bad nutrition and living
conditions is first, to own a Chinese bicycle for their transportation to a
hospital if they were favored in being located in their home towns, to work
in a distant countryside location with bad conditions or finally and with
even much more luck, to be able to get a consulting room-apartment; housing
is also a big problem in the island, to live and work in it, being available
24 hours a day with no rest or private life in the so called family doctor
plan, where they will have no resources, scarce medications to prescribe,
nor conditions to treat their patients and in which they will also be
miserable slaves of the state, without clothes, food, and sunk in power
outages and lack of running water as the other servants exploited by the
master.
But young Cubans, eager to be "someone" in a country with few opportunities,
are not intimidated by these obstacles and have joined Faculties of Medicine
in the nation and these have become full of students of all kinds, vocation
and quality. This massive incorporation, which seems generous at first
sight, is beforehand foreseen for their manipulation and hides other plans
and purposes of the Caribbean nation's owner such as:
1- Create a propaganda for countries overseas that in Cuba anyone can become
a doctor and the career is free.
2- Impress the world with the seemingly excellent Cuban health system as one
more achievement of the regime where there is one doctor for a reduced
amount of inhabitants, even though this doctor may not be able to practice
medicine properly due to lack of resources and conditions.
3- Send these doctors to mandatory "internationalist" missions to other
countries so as to use them as ambassadors of the government's propaganda,
as penetrating elements of the communist ideology and as potential exporters
of Cuban-style revolutions. These doctors will be isolated in their work and
from society, looked down on and they will lose any type of rank or category
if they dare refuse to fulfill those orders but on the contrary, they are
rewarded with a Russian car, an apartment and obtain the prestige of being
respected by the system, if, as the majority does for fear or in quest of
better standard of living, they give an affirmative answer.
4- Use them as part of a business, signing agreements with other countries
so that they may pay the Cuban government with dollars for the service of
Cuban doctors who will see very little of these earnings.
5- Send resources or medications to other countries taking them away from
the nationals in the island and announcing to the world that these are
leftovers from the Cuban system and also leave doctors' positions empty to
send those to different parts of the world.
6- These doctors, wherever they go, will be strictly watched and controlled
for their expressions, activities and behavior as if they were in Cuba
having a repressive chief of mission of the communist party as their watch
dog with the so called "base committee" that will watch all their moves,
will give them "tasks" to measure their allegiance and will make sure they
will not desert.
Examples of this "internationalism" have been the sending of doctors to
Nicaragua, Angola and some other Asian and African countries and lately to
South Africa and Venezuela.
In the case of South Africa, the government looked for doctors who had
knowledge of English and who were bright in their specialty and for these
selections, rigorous exams, supervised by South African specialists were
given. Many doctors strove to pass these exams since passing meant being
able to travel overseas and get paid in dollars which implied a real
improvement for their household economy or also the opportunity of staying
in a third country and not coming back as many did. At first glance, once
again, it all seemed like a gift from the government to these doctors but in
fact it was a business done by the government in which it retained a huge
cut of the pay and the doctors would only receive a small amount for living
2 years out of their homes and facing sometimes a wild environment and so,
they were once more, manipulated by the system, although it was an alimony
they had to be grateful for.
The present case of Venezuela, where a large number of doctors have been
sent, the regime's manipulation has several objectives: a trade of doctors
in exchange of the oil of that rich country, so doctors represent the Cuban
merchandise, to again emphasize, in the display of a great propaganda, the
scope of the powerful and mighty Cuban Public Health system, even though
empty positions for the attention of Cuban patients have been left, by
sending this personnel overseas and finally for the penetration of communist
ideals in that South American country, this time supported by its president.
This new opportunity for Cuban doctors also implies to get out of
confinement and repression and try to escape or "betray" the system, a word
that clearly illustrates the serious commitment fallen into, and for this
reason, most pretend alignment and allegiance to Castro and make believe
they are convinced revolutionaries in order to deserve being chosen and
afterwards, once out, as many have already done, flee or at least try to do
it, trying to reach shelter in the US.
Castro regards doctors as patrimony or property of the country, as objects
he personally owns, custom made by him and who have the obligation and are
condemned to do and comply whatever he says or commands and who can have no
right or will to make their own decisions. This is the clear essence of this
free Medicine career because its payment is made with a total and
unconditional submission to everything the system asks from them, so doctors
will never have a debt of any sum of money, but, what is worse, they will
have a debt in body and soul for life with the communist state and its
ruthless leader, which brings about an unappealable pledge or a strange and
forced gratefulness as that given by slaves to their master and this fact
ties these professionals to one man's whims and fancies, leaves them without
a personal criterion and with no liberty or choice to do with their lives
what they wish to do and turns them into prisoners of a huge jail without
walls or bars.
MARIO J TORRES
DECEMBER 2004
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