Palliative Treatments

Palliative Treatments / Jeovany Jimenez Vega
Posted on September 3, 2015

Jeovany Jimenez Vega, 2 September 2015 — Several weeks ago it was
rumored that the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba (MINSAP) has prepared
a series of measures for the benefit of its professionals. Viewed as a
whole, these proposals could be seen as a countermand to that other
policy from several months ago of widespread reprisals, within the
island and throughout the network, which amounted to a stupid and
unrealistic frontal assault against those who decided to leave the
country for individual contracts that were not part of any official
medical mission.

Certainly the previous "circular" from the minister bet heavily on the
hardline to discourage individual medical recruitment abroad by all
possible means: he began ordering the disqualification of all those
working in the sector who left without authorization from MINSAP to work
abroad on their own; he shamelessly applied pressure on other
governments, including through diplomatic channels, to prevent
individual contracting; he even ordered punishment of those who decide
to return to work in Cuba after working abroad, including the immediate
withdrawal of their passport at Customs (as an official collaborator)
upon returning to Cuba, among other crimes previously analyzed in my
blog Citizen Zero.

But this time other rumors—again nothing published officially—brought a
more conciliatory breeze from the island. Apparently someone more
clear-thinking and realistic, or simply more pragmatic, had to point out
that the previous measures would have little practical value, high
political cost, and would ultimately only succeed in discouraging the
potential return of professionals who had never decided to live
permanently away from Cuba.

As for being disqualifed from practicing on the island: how could being
deprived of a salary of $60.00 a month matter to someone who returns to
Cuba with tens of thousands of dollars? Prohibiting this professional
from practicing in Cuba would be ludicrous, particularly at a time when
the Cuban government is advertising openings because, after all, in
practical terms, where will they spend their money when they get back
but in Cuba? Who would be most affected in this fight: the reluctant
Ministry quite pressed for professionals, or the worker who could wait
for years with all the patience in the world, without any urgency, for
the Minister's replacement?

Almost every time the olive-green dictators have chosen one of the many
measures directed against the welfare and prosperity of my people they
have done so through a recognizable modus operandi: they ordered their
army of neighborhood informers to put out trial balloons and then return
to their masters with the views they heard about how the future crime
would be perceived by public opinion, to thereby forecast the reaction
that would follow once the edict in question was implemented.

So far, despite the undoubtedly positive way the presumed measures were
"announced"—aside from the fact that they are part of a containment
strategy in the face of a mass exodus of professionals due to the
failure to meet their expectations—it seems that these measures were
untimely taken; or better said in good Cuban … "that train has left the
station."

Now it will be much harder to dissuade a professional who in the first
month of work abroad has received remuneration significantly greater
than that received in ten whole years of work in Cuba. Hopefully there
will be some good news, but due to the long-proven track record of the
Cuban government in spreading rumors—it has now become one of their
favorite hobbies—I once again frankly doubt it.

Translated by Tomás A.

Source: Palliative Treatments / Jeovany Jimenez Vega | Translating Cuba
- http://translatingcuba.com/palliative-treatments-jeovany-jimenez-vega/