The Miami Herald.
February 11, 2002.
Castro waiting for U.S. medicine
HAVANA -- (AP) -- President Fidel Castro says Cuba is awaiting offers from
American pharmaceutical companies for U.S. medicine and medical supplies after
signing contracts for $35 million in American food -- the first commercial sales
of U.S. agricultural products to Cuba in nearly four decades.
''We could still buy an amount similar to what we have acquired in food,''
Castro told reporters after the inauguration of an international book fair here.
As for food products, "we have acquired almost all the food for this
year.''
Cuba has said it would entertain new offers for American medicine and
supplies to restock its reserves following Hurricane Michelle in the same way it
has bought American agricultural products to restock its food supplies.
The 40-year-old U.S. embargo against the communist country allows sales of
American medicine and medical supplies, but prohibits U.S. financing for those
transactions.
Some vendors say the accompanying rules and regulations are onerous.
A U.S. law passed in 2000 allowed direct purchases of U.S. food, but barred
Cuba from obtaining financing from the U.S. government or private sector.
Because of those financing restrictions, Cuba refused to take advantage of
the law until Hurricane Michelle caused heavy damage to the island in early
November.
Castro said Cuba imports nearly $1 billion in food each year. ''We are not a
large market, but . . . we import large amounts of wheat, large amounts of
rice,'' he said.
As for American medicine, ''the offers still aren't there,'' he said.
Castro said that prices for U.S. medicines are much higher than those
worldwide, but said that American pharmaceutical companies "have talked
about analyzing well the offers they could make.''
Illinois Gov. George Ryan pitched his state's medicine and medical supplies
last month during a visit here with Castro. It was the second visit here by
Ryan, who in 1999 became the first American governor to visit Cuba since the
1959 revolution that brought Castro to power.
Related stories
Promise of cures
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languish in warehouse as they are needed in hospitals / APSIC
FROM CUBA: Medicines,
Surplus Or Scarcity? / CPI
FROM CUBA / Doctors
forbidden to write prescriptions for medicines donated by catholic charity /
Cuba-Verdad
FROM
CUBA / Medicines Spoiling In Storage / Lux InfoPress
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Without Dollars for Cancer Patient / Héctor Trujillo
Ecotourists going to Cuba will find this specialized field guide helpful
By Georgia Tasker. gtasker@herald.com
The world's smallest bird, the bee hummingbird, is a Cuban native.
Other birds found only in Cuba include the orange-legged Zapata rail, a
secretive marsh denizen, and the colorful Cuban trogon, a medium-sized bird with
purple head, white throat and breast, vermilion belly and wings of blue, black,
green and white.
These are among the 21 species unique to Cuba. In all, 354 bird species have
been noted on the Caribbean's largest island.
As ecotourists return to Cuba to see the country and its plants and animals,
they may well wish to take along Orlando Garrido and Arturo Kirkconnell's
Field
Guide to the Birds of Cuba (Cornell University Press, $29.95).
Bird descriptions and paintings are useful and often imaginatively helpful.
The sound of the black-throated blue warbler, which also migrates through
Florida, is described as "A dull chip or tip, like a water drop hitting a
leaf.''
(Until someone invents a scratch-and-listen bird guide, the descriptions of
birdcalls remain the most creative, if subjective features, of field guides.
What is a ''nasal enk'' or a ''muted pewt'' or a ''buzzy ree-bee-o?'' A ''loud
peep,'' on the other hand, is perfectly clear.)
Thumbnail habitat descriptions include lists of birds typically found there.
If you go to mangroves in Cuba, expect to see the clapper rail, yellow warbler,
West Indian whistling duck, the Cuban green woodpecker and Cuban Pewee. These
last two also can be seen in the higher rain forests, along with the rare giant
kingbird.
The ivory-billed woodpecker, which has for decades been considered extinct,
was reportedly spotted in Cuba in 1987, while Bachman's warbler and a
hook-billed kite may have disappeared. Garrido and Kirkconnell cite hunting;
habitat destruction from ranching, logging and urban development; rats and feral
pigs; illegal trade in birds for pets; and chemical pollution among the adverse
effects on the environment -- and the birds.
Coral Gables bird expert David Lysinger said the book "has the
potential to be one of the leading birding field guides. If the species
accounts, range maps and illustrations prove to be accurate, it will be.'' | 
