Cuba sells snake oil to visiting Congressmen
Published Tuesday, June 6, 2000, in the Miami Herald
One would hope that the members of the Congressional Black Caucus who concluded their five-day visit to Cuba yesterday cannot be so naive as to take seriously Fidel Castro's offer to provide free training in Havana to a dozen or so American medical students who would then return to the United
States to provide care to some of this nation's neediest.
Granted, the American medical establishment does poorly in enticing U.S. physicians to practice in rural America and in inner cities. It should be embarrassed that the Cuban dictator can score public-relations points at our expense.
But this failure won't be cured by Castro's absurd offer. As a practical matter there is no way that such a Cuban-run program would find participants. Rare would be the American student qualified to attend medical school in Havana (where the curriculum is in Spanish) who couldn't also find a
place in a U.S. medical school. Moreover, that student -- like all foreign-trained graduates -- would have to pass U.S. medical exams, then serve intern and residency training here, before practicing.
Finally would come the issue of how the Cuban government could enforce the requirement that this doctor serve in a needy community. In this country, unlike Cuba, people are free to choose where to apply their skills.
Yet Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said he liked Castro's idea and promised to study it upon his return to Capitol Hill. That's no surprise. Mr. Thompson upon his arrival last week said that, ``We should not be condemning [Cuba] because they have a different government than we
do.''
Different? Does Mr. Thompson believe that a totalitarian dictatorship is merely another form of government, like, for example, a parliamentary system?
His traveling companion, Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, seemed surprised that during his first two days on the island he had seen no evidence that Castro abused his people. He beseeched a government handler to tell him how he should handle those colleagues who might point out that
``Cuba [is] a place where there is no freedom of speech, where there is no freedom of education. So they feel we should not reward Cuba by lifting the blockade. How do we respond?''
Instead of seeking guidance from the Cuban government, Mr. Meeks might ask why the U.S. State Department includes Cuba on its list of seven terrorist nations, or why the U.N. Commission on Human Rights brands Cuba a violator.
Castro has been selling snake oil for 41 years, but lawmakers shouldn't be so eager to buy it.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |