A site that I read on occasions (www.blackcommentator.com) has featured an article that focuses on a program sponsored by Fidel Castro to train more doctors for the poor in America. This article uses this program as a way to accuse America for not doing more to train doctors here in the United States for not doing the same thing.

Excerpt from article entitled “Affirmative Action, Cuban Style”

“Twenty-five percent of the U.S. population is black, Hispanic, or Native American, whereas only 6.1 percent of the nation’s physicians come from these backgrounds. Students from these minority groups simply don’t get into medical school as often as their majority peers, which results in a scarcity of minority physicians. This inequity translates into suffering and death, as documented by the Institute of Medicine. Poorer health outcomes in minority populations have been linked to lack of access to care, lower rates of therapeutic procedures, and language barriers. Since physicians from minority groups practice disproportionately in minority communities, they are an important part of the solution to the health-disparities quandary.

In her third year, Glover is negotiating the classic passage from the laboratory to the clinic. But her school isn’t in the United States. She is enrolled at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM, which is its Spanish acronym) in Havana – a school sponsored by the Cuban government and dedicated to training doctors to treat the poor of the Western hemisphere and Africa. Twenty-seven countries and 60 ethnic groups are represented among ELAM’s 8000 students.” (more…)

Wow! Someone that deeply has a concern for the poor in America? Hey, why not? However, let’s take a closer look at how Castro REALLY treats the people in his own country:

…Castro’s regime has created the most repressive police state apparatus in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba is an Orwellian nightmare set in the tropics with Big Brother sporting a beard and cigar. Cuba has refused to ratify any major international law enshrining fundamental human rights. It has refused to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. (full article)

Now let’s look at the effectiveness of his medical program in Cuba:

…The Castro regime’s response to the AIDS crisis has been mandatory nation-wide testing with forced incarceration for anyone who tested positive for the HIV virus. In addition, Castro has had a long tradition of imprisoning homosexuals and transsexuals as “undesirables.” Imprisonment is often based on mere suspicion and rumor. Recently it was reported that young people in Cuba are purposely “shooting up” with HIV infected blood so that they can go to these camps to avoid forced labor. (full article)

Is the “struggle” for Blacks in this country for increased medical help so insurmountable that we are willing to be used as pawns by a dictator that suppresses his own people? What does that say about “our” cries for justice and equality? Do the thousands of Cubans that are denied safe passage into our country every year after practically swimming the Atlantic benefiting from this same “wonderful” health initiative by Castro?

Somewhere, character has to count for something.

We cannot continue to put up with people who refer to our beautiful women as nothing more than hoes and bi*****, while at the same time we support them and look to them as heroes just because they “give back to the community.” (Thank God for Essence Magazine for addressing this issse! Please read “Essence Magazine Takes On Hip-Hop Misogyny“)

We have to stop looking the other way when we are benefiting from the “hook-up”. Anytime someone gets a “hook-up” someone else suffers as a result. Although this country has a way to go before the same type of medical facilities that are found in the suburbs are in the inner-cites, there have been great strides in the past few years that have been implemented to fix this problem. The one part of Bush’s Faith Based Initiative that I do agree with has to do with empowering non-profit organizations that are already embedded in these communities with the funding and resources that they need to provided these services. Another thing to consider this that there are also discount clinics (I know that sounds a little scary, but after looking into it, the only thing that is missing with these particular clinics is that although they can handle most medical issues, they are primarily ran by registered nurses, not doctors [why they are referred to as discount]–emergencies are forwarded to the local hospital. Otherwise, they do sound like a very good option [basically, I would use them]) that are sprouting all over low-income areas across America. Is this the best solution? For now, yes. I believe that these are very good starting points. This is not about America being too proud to accept help from another country. Instead, this is about Castro leading by example in his own country.

Also read “Castro and Aristide: Cousins of “The Struggle””i>