Friday, June 04, 2004

I fell asleep at 7pm and I just woke up ... so this is gonna be an all nighter.
I've been reading Noam Chomskys Profits Over People recently and I think it's a pretty great book. It's got a few things going for it: 1) unlike some of Chomskys other work, it's pretty easy to read. 2) It's got a lot of interesting side-notes and statistics scattered throughout, and most importantly 3) It's short. I like books that are under 200 pages. At least then I can easily finish a book in a weeks worth of bus rides. for those of you who don't ride the bus with me every day (ie; everyone) that's about 3 or 4 hours, give or take.

here's some interesting stuff about Cuba:

In late February 1996, while the United States was in an uproar over Cuba's downing of two planes of a Florida-based anti-Castro group that had regularly penetrated Cuban airspace, dropping leaflets in Havana calling on Cubans to revolt, the wire services were running different stories. AP reported that in South Africa "a cheering, singing, crowd welcomed Cuban doctors" who had just arrived at the invitation of the Mandela government "to boost medical care in poor rural areas"; "Cuba has 57,000 doctors for its 11 million people, compared to 25,000 in South Africa for 40 million people." The 101 Cuban doctors included top medical specialists who, if they were South African, would "very likely be working in Cape Town or Johannesburg" at twice the salaries they will receive in the poor rural areas where they go. "Since the program of sending public health specialists overseas began in Algeria in 1963, Cuba has sent 51,820 doctors, dentists, nurses, and other medical doctors" to "the poorest third world nations," providing "medical aid totally free of charge" in most cases. A month after the South African welcome, Cuban medical experts were invited by Haiti to study a meningitis outbreak.

A leading West German journal rported in 1988 that third world countries regard Cuba as "an international superpower" because of the teachers, construction workers, physicians, and others involved in "international service." In 1985, 16,000 Cubans worked in third world countries, more than twice the total of Peace Corps and AID specialists from the United States. By 1988, Cuba had "more physicians working abroad than any industrialized nation, and more than the UN's World Health Organization." Most of this aid is uncompensated, and Cuba's "international emissaries" are "men and women who live under conditions that most development aid workers would not accept," which is "the basis for their success." For Cubans, the report continutes, "international service" is regarded as "a sign of political maturity" and taught in the schools as "the highest virtue." The warm reception by the ANC delegation in South Africa in 1996, and the crowds singing "Long Live Cuba," attest to the same phenomenon.

This all seems pretty interesting, but I remember seeing some thing on television a while ago about how doctors in Cuba were quitting their practices to go work as bellhops in hotels so they could pick up tips from Canadian, European and American tourists (I'm not sure what the deal is with American tourism to Cuba. There are like grace periods or something, from time to time, where American tourists are allowed to travel there ... You can always become a terrorist suspect and go there for free courtesy of the FBI though.) I guess, with the exchange rate, service jobs where you get tips are some of the most well paying jobs in Cuba. I don't really know though, so don't take my word for it. I'd just like to be able to go visit Havana sometime. Havana seems like a pretty kick ass place. Plus they just call "Cuban Cigars" cigars there, so there's always that.

oh yeah ... here's a really great interview Slate ran a while ago with Oliver Stone about a film (actually two) he did for HBO about Castro. Good stuff.