Medical school is propaganda tool

Originally created Wednesday, March 7, 2007

CUBA: Medical school is propaganda tool

Tonyaa Weathersbee's column titled "Medical students turning to Cuba for
education" was filled with admiration for President Fidel Castro's
doings but sadly lacking in factual information.

There are now, in fact, two medical schools in Havana: the one that has
existed since the 19th century, open to Cuban and foreign students (not
mentioned) and the Latin America School of Medicine created by Castro
exclusively for foreign students.

I am a graduate of the first one (1956), and tuition then was only
nominal, at a time when the per capita income in Cuba was one of the
highest in Latin America.

Today, Cuba has become the poorest country in Latin America, except for
Haiti.

The government doesn't charge tuition for medical school. However, many
natives who want to become physicians are denied entrance to their own
university if they do not fulfill the government's ideological
requirements. They are not free to choose their "free" education.

In addition, upon graduation, Castro sends his physicians to work abroad.

He is paid directly by the host government, while the physicians receive
a minimal stipend and their families remain behind in Cuba as hostages.

Participating in this slave trade are Venezuela and Bolivia, among others.

The Latin America School of Medicine was not born out of Castro's
altruism and compassion, as Weathersbee would have us believe.

In reality, it is a propaganda tool that is already paying handsome
dividends.

This tool is needed and used by a totalitarian regime to hide one of the
most horrendous human rights records in existence today.

A week ago, Cuban press authorities told Havana correspondents for The
Chicago Tribune, the British Broadcasting Corp. and Mexican newspaper El
Universal that their press credentials were not being renewed.

They were told that their stories were too negative and that their
reporting was "not the most convenient for the Cuban government."

Is Weathersbee in danger of suffering the same fate? Not a chance.

RAFAEL E. GOMEZ JR., M.D., Jacksonville

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/030707/opl_8422788.shtml