CUBAN
REVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE
Because
of my long association with Cuba and its excellent Public Health System as well
as Tertiary Care at the National Institute of Endocrinology and Centre for
Attention for Diabetes, I have absorbed a lot of the finer ethical and
aesthetic aspects of the Cuban Revolutionary Medicine.
That
combined with the Jewish concept of Mitzvah (kindness towards humanity), has
defined my professional life as a Physician Anthropologist that has taken me
around the world since I qualified to become an Endocrinologist. I have
formally or informally practiced Medicine in all continents, from Rapa Nui to
Tuvalu, from Tsumkwe to Bogor.
All
places that I have been in connection with my humanitarian activities, there
are some commonalities: poor, isolated, marginalized communities, which could
do with some culturally oriented medical help. But no single people have given
me more pleasure in my (Cuban Revolutionary, Jewish Mitzvah) humanitarian work
as the Native Indians of the Americas.
Cuba
sends out close to 70 000 doctors most of them trained in General Internal
Medicine and Family Practice and some specialists all over the world, from the
poorest and needy to the rich and needy. The entire shortage of medical doctors
to provide medical care in rural and isolated counties in the United States
(which has 35 times as much population as Cuba) can be solved if the US
Government accepted Cuba’s offer of sending doctors and nurses on short and
long term contracts.
I
left the lush green island of my heart and affections, Cuba and with multiple
air connections and rental cars and Uber; I reached my destination in a
reservation of the Indians.
Just
because they are isolated, marginalized and poor, they are not poor spiritually
and in their enthusiasm for innovation and care and the team that provides
medical care to this small tribe is deeply involved in it.
Because
of the visionary thinking of the previous head of the tribe, we have some new
technology and I bring the innovation from Israel and also the best
psychosocial approach to chronic disease from Cuba. There are no
Endocrinologists for 200 miles when I am here and of course there are no
practicing Medical Anthropologists for a 1000-mile radius.
The
humane approach to medical care for the deserving people whether along the
Amazon River in Brazil or the slums of Caracas or the high mountains of Bhutan
or the sand dunes of Qatar is the everlasting legacy of the Cuban Revolution. I
am so happy to be a part of this legacy.
I
am spending this week with the Native Indians of the United States and in one
week, you will find me 10 000 miles away (thank you Qatar Airways!)
As
Sadhguru had mentioned somewhere, it is possible to love humanity and not just
a man or a woman. Cuba has made that philosophy come to life for me.
(dressed for work in an Indian Reservation)
