US physicians demand that ABC rectify lies on Cuba (Stossel's "Sick in the US, healthy in Cuba?")

[Mika]

US physicians demand that ABC rectify lies on Cuba
http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2007/10/20/6520/us_physicians_demand_that_abc_rectify_lies_on_cuba.html

In a letter sent to ABC a dozen eminent US physicians criticized the biased documentary by John Stossel "Sick in the US, healthy in Cuba?

A prestigious association of US physicians demanded that ABC News rectify falsehoods it transmitted about public health in Cuba and defended the program of health attention on the Island.
In a letter sent to David Westin, ABC News president, a dozen eminent US physicians criticized the biased documentary by John Stossel "Sick in the US, healthy in Cuba?" They wrote that as doctors involved in teaching they have traveled to Cuba often and strongly object to the information in the Stossel report broadcast on the 20 20 program and they were horrified by the falsities reported.

They added in the text that in Cuba medical assistance manages to do much with little and obtains results that are comparable to indicators in the United States at a fraction of the cost.

Furthermore, a Gallup poll revealed that 96 percent of Cubans declared that they always have access to medical assistance regardless of their economic situation.

The letter adds that the fundamental lesson of Cuban medical experience is to reach out to the poorest or distant societies or communities and provide access.

The ABC sham lists as its only source of information the Central Intelligence Agency, which by the way, only differs with the Cuban government on life expectancy by less than a year.

They added that they have witnessed competent gathering of health statistics in Cuba and are directly aware of the work of the Public Health Ministry and the Analysis and Tendencies Unit, the note adds.

The document was signed by Peter Bourne, from Oxford, Alfred Brann, professor of Pediatrics, Harry Douglas, from California, Dabney Evans, Master in Public Health, and Jean Handy, doctor in philosophy of North Carolina, among other renowned professors.

[donsu]

1. Stossel is right

US docs have drank the kool aide

[Crunchy Frog]

3. Links? n/t

[TheBaldyMan]

18. maybe donsu is missing the sarcasm smiley n/t

[Mika]

4. Well, Stossel would know better than doctors who have actually been involved w/Cuban h-c

As the letter points out..

They wrote that as doctors involved in teaching they have traveled to Cuba often ..

====


Just gotta love the Cuba "experts" who have never been there to make actual observations. :eyes:

[Bread and Circus]

2. Stossel is the king of FUD

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

His M.O. is to create the sense that any sort of collective social endeavor is fraught with waste and incompetency so that in the minds of the audience any motivation to challenge the status quo (that of a well moneyed oligarchy) is quashed. He uses the disguise of an "honest skeptic" grounded in "common sense" but his real aim is to take out the underpinnings of liberalism in the minds of his viewers. To your average educated and intelligenced viewer, he seems to speak their language of "hey, wait a minute here..." but he's really promoting the interests of the elite.

He's a corruptive force propped up by the corporate media he serves.

On another note, I still wouldn't want to live in Cuba though. Don't mistake the good things about liberalism with totalitarian regimes. Regimes like Castro's still rule at the point of a gun.

[Mika]

5. And you've been to Cuba when?

Jeez, I've been to Cuba many times (I'm a doctor) to teach and learn. I've been almost all over the island on education and personal trips.
I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING DONE THERE AT THE POINT OF A GUN!

Your comment is as out of touch as Stossel's evaluation.

[donsu]

6. I was saying True to the part of Cubans being healthier then US

just that part.

[Mika]

7. I was saying False to the part of your 'on another note'..

.. about 'Castro's ruling at the point of a gun'.


That part.

[Bread and Circus]

12. You are either stupid or naive...

I'm also a doctor... so I assume you are not stupid.

But when one guy rules as long as Castro has, it's by military edict.

You don't have to go to Cuba to have common sense.

I'm not saying Cuba is shitty to live in but nonetheless it's still a dictatorship. And dictatorships rule by force, whether you've seen examples of it or not.

Been liberal doesn't mean embracing totalitarian regimes and I hate how people on DU get fooled by guys like Putin, Castro, and such just because they are also adversaries of Bush.

However, they are not your friends.

I'm not saying they are necessarily your enemy either.

But despotism, fascism, totalitarianims, militarism, and the like are the enemy of democracy.

[Mika]

15. One should go to Cuba to learn about Cuba.

True, that you don't have to go to Cuba to have common sense, but one should go to Cuba to gain an uncommon sense about what Cuba is really about. Common sense is based on realistic information and experience. Unfortunately, this 'common' sense doesn't seem to apply when it comes to American's perception of Cuba.

No one has fooled me, because I have actually been there to experience it for myself. I have been an admirer of Cuba since the mid 70's. Plus, I have personally witnessed an entire election season in Cuba. Something that one should see prior to making uninformed pronouncements about Cuba's democracy.

[Judi Lynn]

8. It's great some people who know otherwise stepped forward to comment on Stossel's lies.

He's been a right-wing blowhard forever, and probably figured no one would dare to contradict him, when so much time and effort over the years have been spent keeping the lies about Cuba in place, for the benefit of people who have never dared to travel there to find out for themselves what the truth is.

He undoubtedly imagined he was home free, since so few people even suspect, apparently, they've been told whoppers about Cuba, and about U.S. policy all over Latin America. It's tremendous to see these men, who have nothing particular to gain from it, setting the record straight.

Sometimes people have to be blunt with Stossel before he "gets it!"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=828223391486008640
Stossel sued the guy. I don't know what the outcome was.

The U.S. has painted itself into a corner with all the decades of yarns spewed about Cuba, all the pointing and yammering about what a "threat" these 11,000,000 people have been. If things continue to improve with Cuba, which is very likely, they are going to be faced, one day, when a Democratic Congress finally overturns the travel ban, with the awareness there WILL be a sudden wave of U.S. tourists headed for Cuba who will all find out at the same time that their legs have been pulled by some of the most perfideous liars in the world, once they see the Cuban people, and talk with them a lot, and get to know what has been going on all these years the U.S. government has refused to let anyone from the States go there: BANNING THE ENTIRE U.S. POPULATION FROM TRAVEL TO CUBA FOR DECADES.

This means they are going to have to come up with something extreme, to distract everyone, or they are going to be suddenly illuminated as the colossal liars they are, and that's going to look awful.

I saw some of Stossel's ravings, too, and thought at the time that it's a shame he has the chance to lie like that, considering how few people actually know the truth about Cuban medicine in the States. As with all the other lies about Cuba, this lie can be cleared up by allowing the people to go there and check for themselves.

We HAVE had Americans who have gone there and used their facilities: both the tourist medical care centers, and some have also been taken, while visiting friends, family, to their own care facilities and gone through the citizens' treatment centers, and they ALL indicate their system works very, very well.

On edit: Why is it we never hear any of the millions of tourists who visit Cuba annually from the REST of the world sustaining these whoppers, anyway? Most U.S. citizens haven't even been aware that Cuba is a vacation spot to people in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Canada, Africa, etc. They simply struggle along thinking it's CUBA keeping us out.

On edit, again:Until _Bush stole the Presidency, and tightened up the travel ban even far more, LOTS of Cuban "exiles" came and went between the U.S. and Cuba to visit, see old friends, to go on vacation, contrary to the picture which has been painted of people "fleeing" in fear for their lives!

[pansypoo53219]

9. stossel

is a crime against journalism.
libertarian whore.

[Mika]

10. Correct. Neoliberals & Neocons hate the people in control of their government..

.. and making it work, according to their needs and priorities - as Cubans have done.

[Judi Lynn]

11. Related article:Havana's Operation Miracle helps eye patients see light

Havana's Operation Miracle helps eye patients see light
TOM FAWTHROP
IN HAVANA

THE upmarket tourists and their luxury yachts that once swarmed the idyllic Marina Hemingway complex in Havana now find everything is booked out for months ahead. More than a dozen Havana hotels have been temporarily closed to tourists.

The reason is not a political crisis but a massive influx of a different kind of visitor to Cuba as Venezuela's petro-dollars fund "Operation Miracle" - a remarkable undertaking to take planeloads of the poor to Cuba for eye-surgery.

"I can see again," shouted a headline in the Jamaican Gleaner, a newspaper which carried an accompanying story about 23 poor patients from Jamaica who had just returned from successful eye operations in Cuba.

Jamaican Raymond Sterling, was elated just after his cataract was removed. "After going there , I could see again like before," he said. "Everything was like heaven."

Since July 25, more than 3,000 people from ten Caribbean countries have had eye operations in Cuba funded by oil-rich Venezuela. Other patients from Central and South America bring the total to 100,000 free eye operations this year.

More:
http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=2305142005

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was originally attempting to post this more recent article I found a short time ago, and it suddenly developed a "The page cannot be found" sign, 2 of them, which had not been there a few minutes earlier.
Hmmmm.

Mathaba News Network
Cuba helps save sights of thousand of Nicaraguans
Posted: 2007/10/19
From: Mathaba

Operation Miracle plans to run free of charge operations on some 6 million Latin American patients affected by curable eye diseases in the next ten years.

Havana (VNA) – An eye hospital in Nicaragua has saved the sights of some 10,000 people with the help of Cuban specialists.

The healthcare facility, based 15 kilometres northeast of the capital Managua, in Ciudad Sandino and opened in April this year, is part of the Operation Miracle eye-surgery project promoted by Cuba and Venezuela as part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), regional integration programme.

Operation Miracle plans to run free of charge operations on some 6 million Latin American patients affected by curable eye diseases in the next ten years.

The Cuban government will open two other ophthalmologic centres in two Atlantic autonomous regions in Nicaragua mostly inhabited by ethnic groups, Prensa Latina news agency reported.


More:
http://mathaba.net/news/?x=567765

[Judi Lynn]

13. Mika, another U.S. medical student: Alameda woman becomes doctor with help from Cuba

Alameda woman becomes doctor with help from Cuba
By Angela Woodall
STAFF WRITER

Article Launched: 10/12/2007 03:04:08 AM PDT


There is one thing Kenya Bingham lacks that most newly minted doctors have -- more than their share of: debt.
Instead of attending a U.S. program where the average graduate leaves $115,000 in debt, the Alameda native went to medical school in Havana, becoming one of the first U.S. citizens to graduate from the free program sponsored by the Cuban government.

The program is called the Latin American School of Medicine, an internationally certified medical school that started in 1999 to help Latin American countries devastated by hurricanes Mitch and Georges.

Along with eight fellow U.S. citizens (three from California, four from New York and one from Minnesota), Bingham studied medicine with a full scholarship.

More:
http://www.mercurynews.com/alamedacounty/ci_7157646?nclick_check=1

[Judi Lynn]

14. Cuban article on Kenya Bingham: Free medical degree obtained in Cuba by an US young East Bay woman

Free medical degree obtained in Cuba by an US young East Bay woman

East Bay Student among first to graduate from Cuban Program. Now she just has to pass the tests in her country that will enable her to continue to pursue her dream.

A young East Bay woman is anxious to get started on her career in medicine, and she has Fidel Castro to thank for it. She was part of the first graduating class of American med students who studied in Cuba under a free, full-ride scholarship.

The offer was for a full six-year scholarship to the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba.

"I thought it was a great opportunity, almost too good to be true," says Kenya Bingham.

Twenty-nine-year-old Kenya Bingham eagerly seized the opportunity. Her only obligation was to return to the United States and practice medicine in an underserved community.

"It's a verbal oath. It's not anything that we signed, and it's written. It's kind of like your own conscience," explains Bingham. "Once you become a doctor and you haven't paid anything for it, I mean, there are expenses, but your actual tuition, room and board is free, and think that. Then you, you know, it's just humanity, you want to give back and try and change. That's why you're a doctor."

More:
http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2007/10/20/6524/free_medical_degree_obtained_in_cuba_by_an_us_young_east_bay_woman.html

[Mika]

16. What a great story, Judi.

Thanks for posting this uplifting info.

===

Of course, 'common sense' informs us that people have to have high quality education and health care forced upon an unwilling population by a dictatorship.
:crazy:

[yurbud]

17. kick