Cuba Counters Prostitution With AIDS Programs -NYT

[Rose Siding]

snip>
María, who is 36 and insisted that her last name not be published, said she worried about contracting AIDS and forced her clients to use condoms, every time. She is knowledgeable about the disease, having learned about it through the government's anti-AIDS program, and she was tested twice during a stint in jail last year for prostitution. Since then, she said, she voluntarily gets tested regularly at the free health clinics.

A decade after an economic collapse forced thousands of young women and men into prostitution, Cuba has become something of an anomaly in Latin America: a destination for sex tourists where AIDS has yet to become an uncontrollable pandemic.

Cuba has the lowest infection rate in the Western Hemisphere, less than 0.1 percent of the population, according to the World Health Organization. The infection rate in the United States is six times that in Cuba, and Cuba's rate is far below that in many neighboring countries in the Caribbean and Central America.
...
For more than a decade, the government has run an intense public-education campaign in schools and on state-owned television and radio stations, promoting the use of condoms and informing people about how H.I.V., the human immunodeficiency virus, is transmitted. The system of free primary care clinics in Cuba, a Communist country, has also led to the early detection of the virus in many people, Cuban and United Nations officials say.
...
A decades-old United States embargo on selling Cuba many medical supplies has crimped the country's ability to provide drugs to patients, but the government has replicated some advanced retroviral medicines used to fight AIDS, providing them at no cost. This, too, has slowed the epidemic

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/26/international/americas/26havana.html

[ret5hd]

1. those goddamned communists...

treating common prostitutes like they are human! Whatever is the world coming to?

[ogradda]

5. exactly. and don't they know

only dirty socialist countries have free health care? and actual sexual education tsk tsk sounds like satans playground to me:eyes:

[Axo1ot1]

2. Cuba does a lot of things better than us

I wonder which country has the worse human rights record at this point? We invade other countries unprovoked and torture the people we imprison there. Cuba has progressive social policies and makes the best of the shitty situation they find themselves in. We've had two presidential elections stolen now. Cuba has one of the most democratically active populations in this hemisphere (if not the most). Who's the banana republic?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. a system of free clinics

for primary care....wouldn't that help us with all our health care problems? But of course, that would mean the rich corporations couldn't get richer, so we can't have that....

[pinerow]

4. What barbarians...treating AIDS as a disease instead of

a curse from some invisible cloud being...

[Judi Lynn]

6. This article was prompted by yet another attempt by the Bush propagandists

to push the idea of Cuba as a sex destination. They've been trying it cyclically, alternating with Cuba as a country producing dual-use medical products, a potential biological W.M.D. source, harboring terrorists, etc., etc. These yarns were NOT in play during the previous administrations (outside the reach of the Miami gusano right-wing terrorists/extremists).

I'm trying to avoid over-using my computer until I get transferred to a new one, as my current one is wobbly, and I don't want to lose everything in a crash, so I can't provide links today. I simply had to respond to the very idea the N.Y. Times is distributing this crap.

Americans who have been to Cuba who live in Florida say that MIAMI HAS A GODDAMNED FAR WORSE PROBLEM WITH PROSTITUTION THAN CUBA.

Prior to the revolution in Cuba, Cuba was a complete hell-hole for prostitution, and a "leave destination" for the U.S. Navy. It was called the "Whorehouse of the Caribbean" a LONG time ago, although the Miami hardliners have pretended this has applied to modern Cuba.

On edit: I'm posting some links, after all, as they bring far more authority to this pathetic charge than one lone poster far away from the area in question. It's too important to show the lie up.

I will link one site, with articles about Cuba as a destination written BEFORE the revolution. They are very odd, and should be self-explanitory. I am pleased to say they were discovered and shared years ago with those of us at the old US-Cuba Relations message board at the now defunct CNN message board system, by a man who has been immersed in travel throughout Latin America over decades. We had a good laugh then, completely unaware that right around the corner Cuba would be accused of running the same kind of operation now (!):

SIN - With a Rhumba Beat
Prostitution, Politics, Casinos Cuba 1950
http://cuban-exile.com/doc_201-225/doc0208.html




REF: Cabaret Yearbook, Winter Resort Number, Volume One, poss 1956, p20]

HAVANA The sexiest city in the world -- that's what Havana has been termed by world travelers. In the shadow of the presidential palace, in the capital's narrow ancient streets, there is indeed the open practice of the world's oldest profession. But sex in Havana is not cheap and tawdry. Sex is rather in the beat of city life, in the tropical scent of this vast metropolis, in the cosmopolitan outlook of its people. For Havana is a woman, and fickle female that she is, must be entertained. And so cabaret life is rich and exciting, different from anything found in the U.S. It has a rhythm and gaiety all its own -- all but an hour by plane from Miami.
(snip/...)

http://cuban-exile.com/menu1/%21entertain.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SHANGHAI THEATER
WORLD'S RAWEST BURLESQUE SHOW
HAVANA CUBA 1956
More on Shanghai Theater

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_176-200/doc0198.html


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NIGHT CLUB IN THE SKY
Cubana Airlines' Tropicana Special 1957




NIGHT CLUB IN THE SKY

Patrons of novel high-flying bistro enjoy the show and
drinks while 10,000 feet above ocean on way to Cuba.


http://cuban-exile.com/doc_201-225/doc0201.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If more info. is needed, anyone can find it in a search. More could be done to bring more info. on pre-revolutionary, sex-trade Cuba out for our enlightenment. Don't just let the _Bush propaganda machine roll over you without taking the time to do some checking to determine if you're being told the truth or not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's an article written when they pushed this story in 2003:

October 18 / 19, 2003

Concerned About Prostitution, Mr. President? Try Reno
Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade"
By NELSON P. VALDES

Fraud and falsehood only dread examination.

Thomas Cooper

On October 10, 2003 President George Bush spoke to about 100 rightwing Cuban exiles at the Rose Garden. There he stated his commitment to bringing about "regime change" in Cuba. At one point during his brief speech he stated that, "A rapidly growing part of Cuba's tourism industry is the illicit sex trade, a modern form of slavery which is encouraged by the Cuban government. This cruel exploitation of innocent women and children must be exposed and must be ended. " He used the accusation as the reason to make travel to the island as difficult as possible.

This article will examine the charge and respond to it by noting that although Cuba is not a serious case of prostitution or illicit trafficking of women and children, the United States is.

First, however, we should be conscious of the lack of clarity in the presidential declaration. The statement conflated prostitution and the trafficking of women and children for sexual purposes, as if they were one and the same thing. The disingenuous phrase "illicit sex trade" suggests that sexual prostitution and the "sex trade" are the same thing, which they are not. Prostitution (or sex work) could be consensual. The world wide trafficking in women and children, using force and coercion, is a profoundly different phenomena.

Moreover, the statement accuses the Cuban government of "encouraging" both. But where is the evidence of government "encouragement"? None was presented by the White House, which apparently wants us to assume that the mere existence of prostitution implies "encouragement." If that is the case, then we would have to say that the US government, and all state and city governments in the United States, encourage prostitution -- and that's not even counting Nevada, where the "oldest trade" is legal!
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/valdes10182003.html

[Rose Siding]

7. Thanks for those

I italicized the line that presented the erroneous given in the NYT article for emphasis, but this kind of back up is so important. Once quotes that support a lie (misconception, exaggeration, etc) are found in the NYT, the bushies can pull them out to make their convoluted case just like in Iraq.

Bush painted Venezuela with similar charges on the floor of the UN, didn't he? It's almost funny that in making the case this time, they also publicize Cuba's strengths (education and health care) as well as our faults (policies that prevent people from receiving medicine)

I don't have much faith that truth will win against Bush's assault, but it's good to try.

edit- The timing of the NYT piece is interesting, too; Castro announced the oil discovery on Friday.

[Judi Lynn]

8. So typical of these cheap crooks

You probably remember, then, that _Bush's State Department sent John Bolton to give a speech at the Heritage Foundation on a Friday prior to the well-publicized (well in advance) trip to Cuba at the request of Fidel Castro.

Bolton seized the opportunity to tell the dipsticks at the Heritage Foundation that Cuba was creating dual-use biological weapons. When Jimmy Carter got to Cuba, he informed the people there that he had personally asked people in the State Department who were consulting with him prior to his trip about any of the charges they had previously made about Cuba's potential to use it's excellent medical advances to conceal biological weapons. He told the Cubans that our State Department denied to him that they had any evidence to lead to that conclusion.

Fidel Castro invited him to bring any number of people he'd like to inspect their laboratories with a fine-toothed comb.

Just like true propagandists, when you try to pursue their charges, they simply drop the subject, or bring up a different charge. They NEVER have proof, do they?

Thanks.

[ngant17]

10. stats: aids in Florida vrs. Cuba

The last statistics I recall of aids cases in Florida, this was a number of years ago, I think it listed Belle Glade, Fl, which has a high population of immigrant/transient workers, the highest aids population/per capital of all cities and town in Florida. That's near Miami and the Everglades in S. Fla.

I've read that Tampa area is high, maybe higher than Miami.

As for Cuba, I would think that their health experts would be capable of better quarantines to keep their numbers down, they live on an island, pretty much a self-contained system. Hard to keep track of the tourist variables, though.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

9. Paging all rabid closet Batistist pitbulls.

Your opinion on this matter is requested. :evilgrin: