Why does the U.S. government hate Cuba?

By Dr. Ridgely Muhammad
News Commentary | Last updated: Apr 10, 2006 - 9:30:00 AM

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (c) and the Millions More Movement delegation in Cuba with the island nation's medical students after his historic address to them. Photo: Kenneth Muhammad

The United States has an embargo against the import of anything from Cuba (especially her ideas). The government will not allow American citizens to buy anything from Cuba and bring it back to America.

Under the Helms-Burton Act, America revoked the licenses of ships to dock at American ports if those ships dared to transport goods to Cuba from another country. America has also ignored the 2004 UN resolution that demanded the lifting of the embargo against Cuba. Only after Hurricane Michelle devastated Cuba in 2001 did America even allow Cuba to purchase food and medicine from America. Cuba has imported food grains, but no medicine because she does not trust the American pharmaceutical industry.

Before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Cuba offered to send 1,100 doctors who spoke English to help the hurricane victims. America rejected the offer. Why?

America reluctantly returned 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba in June 2000, claiming that America wanted him to have a better life in America. Elian’s mother died at sea while she and other relatives were trying to reach America in a small aluminum boat in November 1999. Elian’s father stayed in Cuba and wanted his son to return and Elian wanted to return to his father. America would give the world the impression that the Cuban government has her people under house arrest and is denying her citizens the right to flee “tyranny” and escape to freedom in South Florida.

From March 19-28, I was a part of a delegation that visited Cuba with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. We saw that the blockade against Cuba had reduced the levels of consumption of luxury items in Cuba. However, Cuba had developed over 71,000 doctors. These doctors are paid very low wages compared to doctors in America. Therefore, the doctors in Cuba should be the first Cubans to flee Cuba if given the chance, so they could make big bucks in America, if money and luxury are what they want.

If America felt that her system was better than Cuba’s, she should be glad to allow the Cuban doctors to taste the “freedom and prosperity” of America. Instead, Fidel Castro offered the doctors and America refused. Hmmmmmm? Could it be that America knows that the Cuban doctors would have a better chance to convert the victims of Katrina to the Cuban way, rather than America convert the doctors from Cuba to the American way?

After America rejected the offer of Cuba to send doctors to aid the victims of Katrina, a massive earthquake struck Pakistan. Cuba sent these same doctors, called her “Medical Brigade,” to attend to over 100,000 extremely injured victims of that earthquake. Those doctors and technicians did not seek political asylum in Pakistan. They came back to Cuba after doing their humanitarian work. We met some of them on our tour and they shared their experiences of working alongside Turkish and American doctors in the mountains of Pakistan. Why did these doctors come back to Cuba? Why do the Cubans love their country?

During our visit, we saw a country of civilized, well-fed, well-mannered and happy citizens. Citizens receive free education from kindergarten through graduate school and a base quantity of staple food items. Cuba is reaching out to Black farmers in America to purchase food products to supplement what Cuba grows at home. Gasoline costs $0.80 per gallon.

The constitution guarantees the right to medical care and citizens receive free medical care including major surgery, eye surgery and dental surgery. Cuba has one doctor for every 156 of her citizens. According to the 1990 Census, there was only one doctor for every 1,449 Black people in America and only one doctor for every 415 White people in America. So the Cuban people have better access to medical care than do the American people, Black or White.

The life expectancy in Cuba was 45 years before the Revolution in 1959. Now her life expectancy is 77.8 years. She has eliminated measles and tetanus. Her infant mortality rate is between 5 and 6 percent. She has polyclinics available in every municipality and convenient to even the most remote mountainous area of the country.

Cuba not only has 71,000 doctors to serve her population of 12.2 million people, she is sending doctors around the world in 120 countries. She has deployed 28,200 medical doctors and technicians throughout the world and has set up medical schools in four countries. She has 3,000 foreign students on full scholarship in her medical schools, 82 of them are Blacks from America. This number is far short of the 500 full scholarships that Cuba has offered to Black high school graduates who want to become doctors to service their people back in America.

The entire continent of Africa only has 50,000 doctors, so Cuba has developed a strategy to set up 11 medical schools in Africa that should produce 20,000 students per year for the next 10 years, which should bring the total number of doctors to 250,000 in 10 years.

Under “Operation Miracle,” Cuban doctors have performed 250,000 operations to return sight to the blind. Eye surgery is free. She has established ophthalmology centers in Bolivia and Venezuela. Cuba’s goal is to cure most of the estimated 5 million blind people in South America. Cuba has even offered free eye surgery to 100,000 American citizens. We wonder if the American government will deny her citizens a chance to be given back their sight free of charge.

Why does the American government hate Cuba? Cuba allows her citizens to practice whatever religion they choose. According to the head of religious affairs in Cuba, some people even practice more than one religion. We even attended a Christian Sunday church service on the morning of Mar. 2.

Housing is free to every citizen. Farmers can own their own land. However, the farmers have learned to work together in production, credit and marketing cooperatives. There is no unemployment in Cuba, because either you have a job or you are in school.

In Cuba, everyone is their brother’s keeper. There is no person who is alone, lost or isolated. In the time of a natural disaster or the threat of invasion, everyone is prepared to act immediately to save the lives of Cuba’s citizens or protect them against aggression. Even the farmers keep in reserve a certain number of meat animals in case the city dwellers need to flee and retreat to the countryside for a period of time.

Why does the American government hate Cuba? Cuba is educating the ignorant, healing the sick and opening the eyes of the blind. Cuba’s governing philosophy is what she calls “The Cult of Human Rights.” It now seems that America does not want such a philosophy to spread to other countries. If Cuba were to be allowed to influence other governments, then these countries would be obligated to see to the needs of their citizens instead of pandering to the bloodsuckers of the poor, i.e. the international bankers, transnational corporations and the “merchants of death” that run pharmaceutical-biotech-agribusiness cartels.

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