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A few days ago, while analyzing the
expenses involved in the construction of three
submarines of the Astute series, I said that
with this money "75,000 doctors could be trained
to look after 150 million people, assuming that
the cost of training a doctor would be
one-third of what it costs in the United
States.” Now, along the lines of the same
calculations, I wonder: how many doctors could
be graduated with the one hundred billion
dollars that Bush gets his hands on in just one
year to keep on sowing grief in Iraqi and
American homes. Answer: 999,990 doctors who
could look after 2 billion people that today do
not receive any medical care.
More than 600,000 people have lost their
lives in Iraq and more than 2 million have been
forced to emigrate since the American invasion
began.
In the United States, around 50 million
people do not have medical insurance. The blind
market laws govern how this vital service is
provided, and prices make it inaccessible for
many, even in the developed countries. Medical
services feed into the Gross Domestic Product of
the United States, but they do not generate
conscience for those providing them nor peace of
mind for those who receive it.
The countries with less development and
more diseases have the least number of medical
doctors: one for every 5,000, 10,000, 15,000,
20,000 or more people. When new sexually
transmitted diseases appear such as AIDS, which
in merely 20 years has killed millions of
persons, -- while tens of millions are
afflicted, among them many mothers and children,
although palliative measures now exist-- the
price of medications per patient could add up to
5,000, 10,000 or up to 15,000 dollars each
year. These are fantasy figures for the great
majority of Third World countries where the few
public hospitals are overflowing with the ill
who die piled up like animals under the scourge
of a sudden epidemic.
To reflect on these realities could help us
to better understand the tragedy. It is not a
matter of commercial advertising that costs so
much money and technology. Add up the
starvation afflicting hundreds of millions of
human beings; add to that the idea of
transforming food into fuels; look for a symbol
and the answer will be George W. Bush.
When he was recently asked by an important
personality about his Cuba policy, his answer
was this: “I am a hard-line President and I am
just waiting for Castro’s demise.” The wishes
of such a powerful gentleman are no privilege.
I am not the first nor will I be the last that
Bush has ordered to be killed; nor one of those
people who he intends to go on killing
individually or en masse.
“Ideas cannot be killed”, Sarría
emphatically said. Sarría was the black
lieutenant, a patrol leader in Batista’s army
who arrested us, after the attempt to seize the
Moncada Garrison, while three of us slept in a
small mountain hut, exhausted by the effort of
breaking through the siege. The soldiers,
fuelled by hatred and adrenalin, were aiming
their weapons at me even before they had
identified who I was. “Ideas cannot be killed”,
the black lieutenant kept on repeating,
practically automatically and in a hushed voice.
I dedicate those excellent words to you,
Mr. W. Bush.
Fidel Castro Ruz
May 28, 2007
6:58 p.m.
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