“…it is essential, fundamental that the states and governments adequately concern themselves and give priority to public health”.
Quotes
“In Cuba, the social and human nightmare denounced in 1953, which gave rise to our struggle, had been left behind just a few years after the triumph of the Revolution in 1959. Soon, there were no longer (…) undernourished, barefoot, parasite-ridden children, without schools or teachers, even if their schooling took place beneath the shade of a tree. They no longer died in massive numbers from hunger, disease, from lack of resources or medical care. No longer were the rural areas filled with unemployed men and women.”
The “Henry Reeve” Brigade has been created, and whatever tasks you undertake in any part of the world or our own homeland, you shall always bear the glorious distinction of having responded to the call to assistance our brothers and sisters in the United States, and that nation’s humblest children especially, with courage and dignity.
Let’s go forward, generous defenders of health and of life, winners over pain and death itself!
"The blind market laws govern how this vital service is provided, and prices make it inaccessible for many, even in the developed countries. Medical services feed into the Gross Domestic Product of the United States, but they do not generate conscience for those providing them nor peace of mind for those who receive it".
"Bush is discovering that the economic and political system of his empire cannot compete with Cuba in vital services, such as healthcare and education, although this country has been attacked and blockaded for almost 50 years. Everyone knows that the United States’ specialty concerning education is the brain drain".
"Nowadays rehabilitation acquires special and new meaning as it relates to life. (...) The service is of benefit to all the inhabitants of the country, where today they are born having a life expectancy of 77 years and which continues to increase".
"Our doctors and all the other Cuban health professionals and technicians are an exceptional powerhouse. No other country has anything like it; just like our island’s internationalist soldiers, they were trained in combat. Their missions overseas abide by strict ethical standards. Their services are offered free of charge, or they are commercialized according to the host country’s circumstances. They are not exportable. However, we do not have enough books. It is not sufficient that our libraries have ample numbers of books to be used for the constant reference requirements. Each one of our health professionals should possess a classical textbook covering their own specialty and if this person carries out or practices two, three or more assignments in the hospital or polyclinic, he or she ought to have at their disposition one classic copy for each of them".
"A health professional without a specialized textbook at his fingertips is like a Christian without a Bible".
"In East Timor, where genocide was committed before independence, internal conflicts arose supported by Australia, a United States ally, who took over the natural gas fields in the proximity of the Timor coastline. Under no circumstances did the Cuban doctors abandon their patients who were all inhabitants of that small nation. The personnel replacing them have remained there. These are indeed Cuban doctors and graduates, of which there are thousands, the same ones which the empire tries to bribe away making unmentionable efforts, but to very little effect. No other country in the western hemisphere or in the world has such wealth. Today we are training hundreds of young people from East Timor in our medical schools. The doctors who have just returned set an example of what conscience can do".
" It is a real fact that Bush and his group are much more trapped in their foreign policy errors than even Nixon when he resigned in 1972. The bloody Iraqi War and its rejection by the U.S. people, the toll in human lives, the extremely high number of wounded and maimed for every death in the military adventure, all reveal a situation full of contradictions: the deteriorated image of the United States and the impossibility of giving up the wars of conquest for raw materials, the dollar and the price of gold, currency devaluations and inflation, consumerism and the inability to supply themselves with consumer goods, production of ethanol and the world shortage of food, fascist methods and democratic demagoguery, torture practices and secret prisons and human rights, maximum environmental pollution of the country and the species’ right to survival, the benefits of science for health and the use of the same to massively liquidate or invalidate human beings, the brain drain and underdevelopment of poor countries, the price of oil and the ever-greater wasting of energy, the November elections and growing numbers of Latinos dying on the border. The list would be endless. It is, in essence, a contradiction between life and death".
"Perhaps the most significant aspect of our medical cooperation efforts is the training of (...) young Bolivians who currently study medicine in Cuba, (...) at the Latin American School of Medicine, which has seen three graduations with excellent results, (...) in the new program. I am not exaggerating when I say that the relatives of the young people who study this specialty in our country are the firmest and most combative friends of Cuba in Latin America, including, of course, Bolivia".
"This will be an acid test for all Latin American governments and peoples. So it will for all of our doctors and educators who carry out their lofty and peaceful work in that country, no matter what may happen there. Should they face any risky situation, they will not abandon their patients or students".