I don't recall hearing any of these facts in the "liberal" media:
<<< . . . Cuba's health program is now recognized as one
of the most effective in the world. Infant
mortality, at 6.5/1000 live births, is tied with
Canada for the best record in the western
hemisphere. Life expectancy is up among the
industrialized high income countries. Cuba has
the highest number of physicians per capita in
the world, the most complete coverage of infant
immunizations, the most equitable access to
medical care. Cuban health education includes
an active pushing of increased vegetable use,
while urban gardens provide 3 million tons of
fresh produce per year for 11 million people. An
outbreak of dengue fever, now a major scourge
in the world tropics, was contained by mass
mobilizations to eliminate breeding sites for
mosquitoes.
Cuban vaccines such as the one against
meningitis are widely used in Latin America.
Cuba has been able to send public health teams
abroad, to Central America and Africa, and
receives patients from all over the world in their
specialized hospitals and clinics including some
11,000 Ukrainian children injured by the
Chernobyl meltdown.
After a period of trying out high-tech
industrialized approaches to agriculture, Cuba is
rapidly advancing toward ecologically sound
organic production. Chemical fertilizers are
being replaced by the use of nitrogen-fixing
bacteria, fungi that mobilize soil minerals,
earthworms, compost, animal manure and
recycling the residues from processing of the
harvests. Pesticides are being replaced by
polyculture (the mixed plantings that confuse or
obstruct herbivores), natural enemies
(predatory ants, mites, ladybugs, lacewings and
others), parasites of insect pests (mostly wasps
and flies), fungus infections of the pests, and
the application of natural products such as
neem or mineral oil. In increasingly diversified
farms, goats and horses contribute to weed
control.
Almost all the urban vegetable and about half
the total food production is organic.
Cuba leads the world in active compliance with
the environmental agendas of Rio and Kyoto.
Freon is being replaced in Cuban refrigerators
by a Cuban coolant derived from sugar cane in
order to protect the ozone layer. Special
programs aim at the protection of the fragile
mangroves along the coast, resistance to
desertification, and integrated development of
the mountains. Forests covered some 14% of
Cuba's land at the time of the revolution. It has
now increased to some 21% and the target is
around 27%. The press often reports the
completion of local reforestation and clean-up
programs.
These three programs are the cores of Cuba's
biological weapons program. The policy
question is, how can the international
community respond? The United States, on its
own, as the one world super-power, can warn
Cuba that if they persist with their public health
strategy the US will provide universal health
care for all residents and offer women 11
prenatal clinic visits free. If they do not
dismantle their national parks and reserves we
will forbid oil drilling in the Alaskan Wildlife
Refuge. If they continue to push organic
agriculture we will progressively ban the most
toxic pesticides and fund an organic research
program comparable to the Human Genome
Project.
The Cuban scheme to reduce primary school
class size to 20 students per teacher is a
dual-use program aimed at educating all
children in the sciences and humanities, and is
capable of producing scientists capable of
producing more weapons. With 2 % of the
population of Latin America they already have
11% of the scientists, and if this trend
continues for 400 years almost every scientist
south of the border will be a Cuban! . . . >>>
counterpunch.org |
