[NYTr] "Salud!" - The Story of Cuba's Medical Internationalism

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by Jane Franklin

Seven Oaks via Z Mag - Sep 13, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=60&ItemID=13763

Salud! tells the story of Cuba's medical internationalism

by Derrick O'Keefe
Seven Oaks

Michael Moore’s "Sicko," an incendiary expose of the for-profit health
care system in the United States, generated some predictable backlash
from right-wing pundits. More than anything else in the film, what
tended to get them especially enraged was the role of Cuba in the
documentary.

After comparing and contrasting the US system with health care in
Canada, Britain and France, Moore delivers the coup de grace by taking
a number of 9/11 rescue workers to Cuba to get treatment for
work-related illnesses that the U.S. system would not cover. These
scenes feature friendly Cuban medical professionals providing free,
quality care to the sick 9/11 heroes so shamefully neglected by their
own government. Contrary to the hysterical claims of Moore’s critics,
these acts of generosity were not mere propaganda set-ups; in reality,
the provision of free treatment for the 9/11 workers only scratches the
surface of Cuba’s exemplary medical internationalism.

Director Connie Field’s "Salud!" picks up from Moore’s "Sicko" with a
documentary that examines Cuba’s long and elaborate history of
exporting the gains of socialized medicine. In addition to telling an
inspiring story that has received next to no mainstream media coverage
in the western world, "Salud!" also presents an important debate,
counterposing two very different philosophies as to what it means to be
a physician.

Field’s documentary begins with some of the basic history of the Cuban
revolution. The dire state of health care, especially in the
countryside, was a factor in bringing about a mass movement and
fuelling support for the guerrilla army that toppled Batista in 1959.
In the early 1960s, free health care became a right for all Cubans, and
a rapid process of training new health professionals was undertaken.
Within only a few years, Cuba began to send brigades of medical
volunteers to allies and various needy Third World countries. The
extent of Cuba’s “doctor diplomacy,” as it has been called, is truly
staggering. Over the past five decades, more than 100,000 Cuban medical
professionals have served abroad, often in the most remote, isolated
and impoverished locations.

"Salud!" covers a lot of ground for a medium-length documentary,
highlighting the accomplishments of Cuba’s doctors in The Gambia, South
Africa, Central America, and Venezuela. To its credit, the documentary
lets the story unfold primarily through the observations of the doctors
and patients themselves, supplemented by some experts in the field,
such as the innovative and tireless internationalist Dr. Paul Farmer.

The segments in Africa are particularly poignant. We see experienced
Cuban doctors literally reduced to tears by the extreme poverty and
suffering of their patients. In The Gambia, the Cubans have helped to
build a basic health care system from the ground up, beginning with
simple measures to reduce the scourge of malaria. In many cases,
following their community health model, Cuban doctors live in small
villages that have never before had the benefit of medical attention.

In South Africa, while many of the local doctors and private
practitioners live like kings, the country’s health care system is
stressed beyond its limits by the AIDS crisis and a lack of personnel
and funding. In one scene, we see a Cuban physician who has “defected”
from his compatriots’ team in South Africa. Now in private medicine,
the born-again capitalist happily shows off his mansion and boasts of
his new lifestyle in “a white neighbourhood.” A Cuban medical official
explains that only roughly 2% of all of their internationalist
physicians have left to pursue this more lucrative type of medicine.
South African and other African health officials, for their part,
complain of a much higher percentage of “brain drain” with their
graduates, as they watch helplessly as doctors are lured by contracts
from North America and Europe.

In Venezuela, too, the film demonstrates the clash of medical
philosophies between the Cubans and the local physicians. When the
government of Hugo Chavez initiated community health clinics in the
poorest barrios, Venezuelan doctors refused to sign on, so the
government called in thousands of willing Cubans to do the job. Now,
for the first time, the barrios around Caracas have doctors living and
working in poor communities.

The last segment of "Salud!" covers the incredibly ambitious efforts of
Cuba to offer free medical training to students from throughout Latin
America, Africa, and – believe it or not – even the United States. Some
of the most delightful interviews in the film are with these young
students. In two notable cases – a young man from rural Honduras and a
dynamic young woman from a barrio in Caracas – the students tell of
being inspired to become doctors after witnessing the selfless efforts
of Cuban doctors in their communities.

The thousands of students receiving medical training in Cuba represent
a real hope for developing a ‘New Doctor’ for the 21st century, not
driven by a desire for money or social status, but instead motivated to
serve those in need and live as an equal with those in his or her
community.

"Salud!" is an important documentary, and not just because it deals with
one of the great and almost unknown accomplishments of the Cuban
revolution. The film also confronts crucial issues about our collective
right to health care in a world where so many still die needless,
preventable deaths because of the greed or indifference of others.

Note: "Salud!" will be screened twice at the upcoming Vancouver
International Film Festival: Wednesday, Oct 10th 7:00pm at Empire
Granville 7 Theatre 2, and Friday, Oct 12th 1:15pm at Vancity Theatre.
The screenings are sponsored by the Canada Cuba Friendship Association.
For ticket information, visit http://viff.org/.