So how come Cuba isn't helping Haiti despite being almost next door?

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So how come Cuba isn't helping Haiti despite being almost next door?

27 posts & 19 voices | Started 2 years ago by grumm | Latest reply from ernie_lynch

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grumm - Member

Oh wait they are:

HAVANA TIMES, Jan. 17 — Cuba now has 220 doctors and health staff working in the disaster relief in Port au Prince, Haiti along with ten tons of medicines flown in to meet the most pressing needs.

Numerous young Haitian doctors who studied medicine on scholarships in Santiago de Cuba have joined in the effort, including 37 who arrived from Cuba on Saturday.

Cuba News Agency reports on Sunday that planes carrying specialists in emergencies also bring shipments of medical supplies. On Saturday the equipment for three operating rooms arrived from Cuba to support the efforts of the medical brigade already working at several points in the Haitian capital.

Cuba has an ongoing program of treatment throughout Haiti under an agreement with the host government. Besides the doctors concentrated in Port au Prince for the earthquake relief effort, another 227 provide services throughout the impoverished Caribbean country.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=18365

Not seen anything mentioned on our news about it though - interesting...

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff01192010.html

Posted 2 years ago #
glenp - Member

Funny that - the political control over our media is massive. We just don't recognise it because we are inside it.

Posted 2 years ago #
IanMunro - Member

Not seen anything mentioned on our news about it though - interesting...

I've heard of Cuban help on C4 and R4, can't comment on other sources though.

Posted 2 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

I assume most major nations and those in the locality will be helping. I wouldn't expect a list of them all on every news bulletin. America, UK and other nations giving most help will be.

At least that is how I understand it to work.

Posted 2 years ago #
CaptainFlashheart - Member

I think it was Sky News this morning that had a lenghty piece on local support agencies doing far more than the international ones. Interesting stuff.

Seems the big international agencies are all bickering over a sort of turf war and having lots of meetings rather than actually doing anything!

Posted 2 years ago #
glenp - Member

I wouldn't expect a list of them all on every news bulletin. America, UK and other nations giving most help will be.
Fair assumption.

What one wouldn't assume is that Fox News were actually stating that Cuba weren't doing anything. Or that everyone failed to mention that Cuba was already giving huge mounts of medical aid before the quake (and continue to do so).

The Counterpunch link is worth a visit.

Posted 2 years ago #
mrmichaelwright - Member

cuba are letting them use guantanamo as a staging post

oh....wait

Posted 2 years ago #
5thElefant - Member

No mention of France that I've noticed. Odd in that it's a former French colony. Maybe they're still pissy about the whole revolution thing?

Posted 2 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

is that Fox News were actually stating that Cuba weren't doing anything

I haven't heard this but it would be odd if that was the case - quite inexplicable really.

Posted 2 years ago #
glenp - Member

m_f - like I say, read the counterpunch link.

Posted 2 years ago #
mastiles_fanylion - Member

Yeah I have done now. It doesn't say why Fox didn't report it - was it simply bad information or a deliberate attempt to undermine Cuba's position?

Posted 2 years ago #
IanMunro - Member

Fox news isn't a news channel though.

Posted 2 years ago #
glenp - Member

Not just that they failed to report it - they reported to the contrary! If it was a mistake they managed t make an error in line with their political leaning - so probably not a mistake!

Posted 2 years ago #
mr potatohead - Member

is this the right time to raise such issues.or should we just wait for the dust to settle...........

Posted 2 years ago #
B.A.Nana - Member

5thElefant - Member

No mention of France that I've noticed. Odd in that it's a former French colony. Maybe they're still pissy about the whole revolution thing?

That American guy who was rescued after spending several days trapped with his collegues (two of them died), they were rescued by a French search team.
Like someone else said, you can't expect a list read out on every news programme.

Posted 2 years ago #
D0NK - Member

is this the right time to raise such issues.or should we just wait for the dust to settle...........
If enough help isn't being given it's a damn good time to discuss it. Alternativley if that's an attempt at a bad joke go to the back of the class right now.

Posted 2 years ago #
aP - Member

One of the news reports last week which had been talking to the Brits who were waiting to be allowed into the country was stood in front of a French government Airbus at the Haitian airport.
Isn't it strange that although Murdoch is frantically campaigning to have press controls removed in the UK is also having his own family brief against Fox News...

Posted 2 years ago #
jond - Member

>Fox news isn't a news channel though

Sarah Palin's joining them as a contributor, if that's any indication...

Posted 2 years ago #
hora - Member

Seems the big international agencies are all bickering over a sort of turf war and having lots of meetings rather than actually doing anything!

That would explain the loads of aid/vehicles etc pilled at the airport with little aid getting out. One person blamed it on the lack of 'local people to help show us the way around the island' which confused me?!!!

Posted 2 years ago #
noteeth - Member

I should imagine they are pretty much overwhelmed. The logistics must be an absolute nightmare.

MSF sounded fairly pissed off at the US air traffic control, mind.

Posted 2 years ago #
mtbfix - Member

Too many cooks...

Posted 2 years ago #
5thElefant - Member

That American guy who was rescued after spending several days trapped with his collegues (two of them died), they were rescued by a French search team.
Like someone else said, you can't expect a list read out on every news programme.

I did wonder. Every other nation seemed to get a name check, I'd have thought the French would have been top of the list.

Posted 2 years ago #
mcboo - Member

Not seen anything mentioned on our news about it though - interesting...

Which is a criticism of our media I guess right? To illustrate your point you use a quote from that well know beacon of liberty and free speech....

......The Havana Times

Not forgetting something called the Cuban News Agency.....

Posted 2 years ago #
glenp - Member

Your opinion of the Cuban press is formed mostly by the picture painted by… our press, right?

Posted 2 years ago #
MussEd - Member

Haiti isn't next door to Cuba,{separated by sea} the Dominican Republic is.

NO mention of them on the news, they're probably all fawning over Brit tourists at all-inclusive hotels to worry about their neighbours suffering. Though I do hope in my heart, that these big hotels are giving up beds,food and water to the disaster relief and we'r just not haring about it...

Posted 2 years ago #
Wozza - Member

I dunno if Cuba are helping but these guys certainly aren't...

Solar-powered Bibles sent to Haiti

Posted Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:39pm AEDT

As international aid agencies rush food, water and medicine to Haiti's earthquake victims, a United States group is sending Bibles.

But these aren't just any Bibles; they're solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.

The Faith Comes By Hearing organisation says its Bible, called the Proclaimer, delivers "digital quality" and is designed for "poor and illiterate people".

It says 600 of the devices are already on their way to Haiti.

The Albuquerque-based organisation says it is responding to the Haitian crisis by "providing faith, hope and love through God's word in audio".

The audio Bible can bring the "hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy," a statement on its website says.

"The Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or ... even on the moon!"

Tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents are living outdoors because their homes have collapsed or they fear aftershocks following Wednesday's quake.

- Reuters

Source

I don't know what's worse, that they think a solar powered bible is of any use to anybody after an earthquake or that they think you can hear an audio book in zero atmosphere.

Posted 2 years ago #
ernie_lynch - Member

Cuba offered to send hundreds of specially "disaster-trained" doctors to help the US after it was struck by hurricane Katrina in 2005. They were all packed and ready to fly out, but the Bush administration said that they didn't need them.

DOCTORS URGE U.S. TO ACCEPT CUBA’S OFFER OF 1586 DISASTER-TRAINED DOCTORS

I don't know whether Fox News reported the story, but it certainly didn't get much news coverage.

BTW, apart from aid arriving by air, France has sent two warships to Haiti.

Posted 2 years ago #

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