By William Arthur. Wired News. June 7, 2001 PDT
HAVANA, Cuba -- Since Fidel Castro's declaration in the 1970s that his
country would be a world power in medicine, health care has been a high priority
in Cuba.
But there have been obstacles along the way. The fall of the Soviet Union
saw Cuba's economy plummet and like all other facets of government, the Public
Health Ministry's budget suffered.
For example, Cuba's National Center for Medical Sciences Information (CNICM)
–- responsible for sustaining modern technology within the medical system -–
saw its budget curtailed from $1 million to $35,000.
Enter USA/Cuba InfoMed , a nonprofit in San Jose, California, which is
responsible for donating the majority of a technological infrastructure that
helps Cuba's 65,000 physicians and medical professionals to locate journal
articles, pharmaceutical data and medical alerts at medical schools, primary
care facilities and hospitals island-wide.
David Wald and Dr. Juan Reardon, the outfit's cofounders, support public
health development in Third World countries, especially Cuba, by delivering
second-hand computers and other materials donated by Bay Area businesses.
According to Wald, since the organization's inception in the mid-'90s, they
have transported 2,135 workstations and several hundred printers and disk drives
under license from the U.S. Department of Commerce to help maintain and expand
Cuba's medical information system. But InfoMed's work is not merely motivated by
sympathetic American philanthropy, Wald said.
"We're not in the charity business. Our outlook is essentially one that
seeks to advance and protect Cuban society. We've chosen Cuba because it is
under siege and we believe it is vital for Third World countries to have Cuba
remain on the scene."
In 1993, the Public Health Ministry and CNICM initiated Project InfoMed, a
network that links outlying areas to provincial servers and a central database
in Havana in hopes of cutting the cost of purchasing medical information -–
mostly from the United States -– in hard copy form. The system has worked
so far, freeing up dollars to purchase more hardware for the network from
European countries and Canada.
Pedro Urra, responsible for the overall design of the network, said his U.S.
InfoMed counterparts have played a substantial role, especially where the Public
Health Ministry did not have new equipment to install.
"U.S. InfoMed, as a movement against the embargo and for solidarity, is
really important to us," Urra said. "In terms of quantity, they have
made a great contribution."
More than 90 percent of USA/Cuba InfoMed's computers come from several
well-known Bay Area businesses that Wald declined to name. He says they know
exactly where their donations end up.
Alameda County Computer Recycling Center was the organization's largest
benefactor in 2000 and remains so this year. James Burgett, ACCRC's executive
director, says Wald sought him out after reading a write-up in Wired magazine.
"They demonstrated they had permission to send computers to Cuba,"
Burgett said. "You can free people with computers or you can oppress them.
I'm going after the people that free them."
Burgett has no problem saying he has very little respect for Castro,
referring to him as "just another asshole in charge." But providing
medical information and medical capabilities to the world in general is
something ACCRC is quick to support. Some of ACCRC's other beneficiaries include
the Cambodian government, the Russian space program and the probation and parole
departments of Latvia and Estonia.
"Frankly, I don't give to Cuba," Burgett said. "I give to
InfoMed and InfoMed gives to Cuba. As long as what they're doing is legal and
approved by the government, I don't have a problem with it."
With a society such as Cuba's –- one where 99 percent of the population
is considered educated -– USA/Cuba InfoMed has confidence that their hard
work is put to good use.
"Without us, they wouldn't have nearly as advanced a network as they
have now," said Peter Bell, a USA/Cuba InfoMed volunteer. "On the
other hand, they know more about the network than we do. We don't teach them
about their network; they teach us. It's very important to keep in mind who the
boss is. It isn't us."
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