CUBA I AM SO PROUD OF MY LITTLE ISLAND MI ISLA RICA

Cuban doctors fighting ebola: Heroes, not martyrs

Milena Recio • October 14, 2014

HAVANA — Several media with worldwide reach have reported on Cuba’s decision to send 165 health professionals to West Africa to fight the ebola epidemic.

Notable among the many media voices that have recognized that gesture was that of columnist Adam Taylor of The Washington Post, to whom the small island with only 11 million people has become “a crucial provider” of the medical participation in that region of the world, struck by a disease that has taken more than 4,000 lives and has begun to knock at the doors of Europe and the United States.

It was Taylor’s analysis that Cuba, although not a rich country, could manage this “exportation” of health care precisely because it has a universal, public and free health-care system, guaranteed by its Constitution.

More than 50,000 Cuban doctors are in 66 countries, supporting their health systems, especially in primary medical attention, often in communities that are hard to reach and have very little medical coverage.

This tradition of solidarity has existed for decades and only very recently has been translated into revenue for the country. For a few years now, an increasingly larger number of those missions have been organized through intergovernment contracts that financially benefit both the Cuban state and the health workers who participate in them.

With or without financial inducement, it is not the first time that Cuban medical workers expose themselves, in truly dangerous missions, to contact not only with highly lethal viruses and bacterias but also to living conditions that are uncomfortable and risky, such as stark poverty, filth, crime, and the post-traumatic stress sydrome that affects individuals after earthquakes, hurricanes and epidemics.

If in those cases there had been no need — much need — for a friendly hand, the intelligence and the heart of a doctor who saves and cures, Cubans of several generations would not have participated for decades in helping so many human lives.

Paraphrasing a well-known saying, the need was the mother of those children.

But what remains of the terrorist media machine against Cuba, already discredited, continues to insist on reducing to mere commerce the participation of this small group of 165 doctors who arrived last week in Sierra Leone.

Worse still, they’re trying to picture those doctors as a threat to the Cuban population (including, by rebound, the population of Miami), trying to convince their public that those doctors would inevitably introduce ebola into the island after being in contact with it.

They morbidly delight in the possibility of their death — touch wood and cross fingers — and try to unleash panic with the “long knives” of suspicion and uncertainty.

They even suggest that most people in Cuba will reject the missionaries or fear them, since allegedly Cubans don’t trust the methods and resources of protection that are used, or the care that the Cuban authorities and the World Health Organization provide to those medics.

However, not only the media on the island but also many others, such as CNN, have reported on the intense process of preparation that the doctors undergo in Cuba before leaving.

CNN TRANSCRIPT: 

Patrick Oppmann, CNN reporter: Cuban health workers suit up to fight ebola. Right now, it’s just practice, but soon they will be facing the real thing. This medical institute in Havana is the island’s ebola boot camp, providing a grueling two-week training course before workers head to the front lines of the epidemic in Africa. 

This is where the Cuban doctors and nurses practice treating patients infected with ebola. They have to repeat those procedures again and again, because a slight mistake on the field could have fatal consequences. 

Already, 165 health workers from the island have been sent to West Africa, with close to another 300 soon to join them. All are volunteers, officials say. For at least six months, they plan to treat people infected with ebola. Before they go, they learn to put on and take off several different pieces of protective equipment, leaving no gaps where ebola could enter. Despite the training, officials say, they will be in constant danger. 

Dr. Jorge Pérez Ávila, director, Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine: We’ve instructed them so that they will not get sick, but they are at great risk. It is our hope that none of them do get sick. We have the conviction that perhaps a few of them will fall ill, but the majority will not. 

Oppmann: The peril they face, Osmany Rodríguez says, will force them to stay focused. 

Dr. Osmany Rodríguez, a volunteer: To be afraid is not a big problem. I think that being afraid will help us to protect [ourselves] even more againt that viral disease, because if we feel that we’re so sure about everything that we do every day, it may be more dangerous than being afraid of the ebola disease. 

Oppmann: Cuba is, by its own government’s admission, a poor and small country but it has  taken the lead in fighting ebola. 

Dr. José Luis di Fabio, Pan American Health Organization: And we hope that Cuba’s example will take the scare that’s behind going to work in West Africa. Probably, people will be a little less scared and accept this health challenge to go and provide assistance to the African population. 

Oppmann: Cuban officials say they’re doing what they can, but to stop the epidemic from spreading further, the fight against ebola needs to become a wider effort.

****

We all fear for the doctors’ lives, of course. To deny that would be foolish or cynical. But we’re not looking at martyrs — we’re looking at heroes.

They have voluntarily entered a situation of risk, but they can come out of it unhurt while giving life to others. To slow down the pace of the infection will depend on ending the lack of care that most patients are suffering today. And to end the media’s lack of interest, of course.

Many people react with admiration to the honorable gesture of these Cubans. The mission will expand because the contingent will grow to more than 400 professionals in the next several weeks. They will remain in place for at least six months. Hopefully, the mission will serve as an example to mobilize those who haven’t mobilized and raise the awareness of those who are not aware.

Last Sunday, the newspaper The Guardian described it thus: “The small medical team on the front line against ebola has been a small island: Cuba.” Meanwhile, the paper said, the great powers remain intent only in stopping the spread of ebola at their own borders and shipping supplies — and troops — to West Africa.

“We need a mobilization 20 times larger,” said Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations. A mobilization of aid, consisting on field laboratories, vehicles, helicopters, protection equipment, capabilities for medical evacuation, and well-trained medical personnel.

Those who know ebola say that it must be stopped and reversed in Africa, along with the brutal poverty of the people, before the crisis becomes too late for an unthinkable number of people worldwide.

SYMBOLIC HEALING: LEARN FROM THE AMERICAN INDIANS

I wrote this while I was doing my post graduate studies in Medical Anthropology at the Brunel University of London, England 

photo taken in front of Beth Shalom Synagogue in la Habana, Cuba

PHILOSOPHICAL COUNSELING AMONG AMERICAN INDIANS

PHILOSOPHICAL COUNSELLING AMONG AMERICAN INDIANS

On my way over to the Indians, from Miami to Dallas, I was on American Airlines, and the flight attendants up front were very friendly. When I told them that I was going to see the Indians and described certain aspects of Indian way of thinking, the older of the two attendants, who were both Black said, what a pity, most of us, Americans, know nothing about American Indians!

Majority of the people, in whatever capacity they arrive to serve the Indians, from the Government or from Social or Medical Organizations, also know very little about the Indians. Indians are aware of that and over the years have come to expect very little from the outsiders, to their problems of social confrontation or emotional problems.

Today’s encounter at this remote clinic reinforced that in my mind. And serves as a metaphor for the humanitarian work done all around the world: Knowledge about Medicine alone is not sufficient to alleviate the suffering of an Indian.

Two Indians, Mrs B in her fifties and her daughter I, in her twenties had asked to see me, through the Pubic Health Nurse who keeps an eye on Mrs B who one year ago was diagnosed with Cancer of the Breast and treated with double mastectomy and chemotherapy.

I welcomed them both to the comfortable consulting rooms in the Clinic. They had obviously come to talk; I knew that when they settled on to the sofa.

Did you get a photograph from me, from Miami when the Cancer survivors and their families lit hundreds of candles around a lake? She had not, so I went on to describe the efforts of many volunteers including my sister, herself a multiple cancer survivor and her husband, organize an evening of remembrance around the lake in front of the Baptist hospital to raise money for cancer research. One buys a candle with an already imprinted paper cover with the name of the person you wish to celebrate or remember. I wanted to celebrate my Indian patients who had all survived the rigours of chemotherapy.

She was grateful and we talked about my sister and how I insist her being treated a little more kindly, even during times when she becomes overbearing or highly critical. My rationale is this: How does it feel to have these poisonous fluids going into your body through your veins once every three weeks for about six months, and you suffer interminable nausea, sickness and lethargy and lack of energy for months to come. If you have not experienced that, please be kind to my sister who had to go through it more than once and with medications so powerful that it can make any human sick.

That is when the young lady chirped in. I am finding very difficult to deal with my mother ever since she had her cancer, she has become more forgetful and also less tolerant and not interested in my opinion.

As my friend, Dr W was to tell me later: A very good question with a difficult answer.

This is where the lived in experience of having someone close to you suffering from this disease and you have spent time with them, to see the day to day changes. A doctor may prescribe the medication but it is not there to see the horrible reactions and the daily care that a cancer patient needs, including taking turns at night to wake the patient up to remind them to urinate so that the metabolites in the bladder will not cause cystitis and also reminding them to drink as much as possible.

It was my sister who said to me; truly the chemotherapy has fried my brain. She was referring to something very similar to what the daughter was talking about.

I decided to ease the anxiety and increase the knowledge of the situation of this young lady. It is easy enough to say, your mother has suffered and there is even a medical explanation to her behaviour. But she is interested in knowing, what is that I have to do? So the relationship is not damaged.

Relationship is something very sacred to the Indians. How do I bring the conversation in a medical consultation to a sacred plane and talk about spirituality? At the same time, find a way to help this young lady and her mother to calm down the misunderstanding or what is other wise may lead to a rupture in their good relationship?

The three different philosophical strains that I am familiar with are

American Indian Philosophy

Yogic Philosophy of Patanjali

The Buddhist Philosophy

Even though I am Jewish, well aware of our history and ways of thinking, I have not studied the Talmud or the mystical books of Luria and others. So I cannot resort to the Jewish Philosophy to help my patient, whereas the tribal nature of Jewish thinking does come in handy when you are dealing with American Indians.

I explained to the young lady that she has to learn to curb her ego. Her mother had suffered, including a double mastectomy, and has gotten back her health. The young lady is placing too much importance on herself in their confrontations, and if she would learn to decrease her Ego, the vicious cycle would be broken and a peace and tranquillity established between the two. This is not a competition between personalities; you are not competing who is a better person and who is right. You have to understand that for Indians, the relationship is sacred and Indians view the world much differently from others, even those who inhabit the same community.

Yes, she seemed to be thinking of the time when she lived in Chicago. Yes I was afraid to say I was an Indian, since the people had weird ideas about us and expected us to behave in a pattern to fit into their caricature of us!

Here I could introduce spirituality. Do you look at the trees and the clouds the same way as the White people do? What do you feel when you see an Eagle? And our brothers, the four legged ones.  Indians believe in the totality of things, not hierarchy or incompleteness of the world.

What are the defects in our ways of thinking that prevents us to achieve this completeness? (Here I briefly did think of the Jewish concept of Shekinah and reflection of the broken pieces uniting to becoming whole, as said in the Kabbalah but I did not mention it)

I named the five Kleishas that is enumerated in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra

Ignorance

Ego

Aversion

Attachment

Fear of Change

I went through each of these as it applies to the situation of her and her mother, the younger woman was taking notes!

How do I practice these? She laughed as she asked the question.

I talked to her about Mindfulness, being aware of the present and enjoy the moment. It is relevant to the cancer survivors as well, to enjoy the moment. My sister very often has tears when she shares a beautiful moment, such as the time when I was her tourist guide in Quiberon in Brittany in France

She would say: I never thought I would live to see this and especially to share it with my husband.

How to decrease the structural defects, the mechanisms are very well known to the Indians, if they are familiar with the Indian way of thinking

Be Grateful

Be Humble

Be compassionate

Be giving of yourself

These are some of the ways of decreasing these fires raging in your head and if you could practise these very human qualities, it would be good all around. It is you, the younger lady who has to make the changes and try to calm down and then you would see and enjoy the beauty of the changes that occur and it would affect your mother as well and she too will change, but don't force her to change, let the good qualities in you, make her change herself!

More than one hour had passed. I am an Endocrinologist to this tribe and neither of them had any medical problems that needed my Endocrine expertise, but you see, I am their friend who happens to be a doctor as well. They did not come for medications or referrals to other professionals, they came to talk and I have the time!

As they walked out of the room, they wanted to know when I would come back again, so that they can come and talk. I promised to send by emails some of the blogs I have written about Kleisha Reduction and Yogic Philosophy and also American Indian ways of thinking.

I had a nice sensation within myself as they left; I felt the strength of a human connection. and I felt grateful

Then, I thanked the people who enabled me to talk like this

My sister in Miami and her husband, my colleague Dr W in Miami for his moral support, MCY in KL who introduced me to Yoga Sutra.

Also souls in Bruselas, Teheran and Bogor.

THE NATURAL GENEROSITY OF CUBANS IN CUBA

I am preparing for Yom Kippur in Miami when I received this message from Cuba. I had sen an email detailing the unselfish sacrifice of 175 cuban medical professionals who would be going to Sierra Leone to help with the Ebola Crisis.

here is the message:
creo que la ayuda y voluntad de los cubanos en Sierra Leona es una verdadera misión, y siento mucho, mucho, mucho, no tener la oportunidad de poder ir, y hacer lo que realmente nos humaniza: el contacto con otros seres necesitados. Yo estaría muyorgullosa, realmente ogullosa, si fuera médico y pudiera ir, desde el fondo d emi corazón.
I believe that the help and willingness of the Cuban professionals in Sierra Leone is a true international mission. I feel very very much, sad in my heart, that I don't have the opportunity to go and do what actually makes us feel more human: to be in touch with people who are in real need. I would be very proud, really really proud, if I were a doctor and could go, I say this from the bottom of the heart.

The writer is a woman, aged 29, a mother and pregnant, and a leading Psychologist in Baracoa, Cuba.

You cannot imagine how it warmed my heart! I think of it as a great privilege to have lived in Cuba and continue to be a Professor there to understand the sentiments of Cubans. While in Miami, the press and the ignoramus are vitriolic about the restrictions of "freedom", I wonder how many MIAMI doctors including of cuban descent would be willing to go to Sierra Leone?
(PS Miami doctors usually with Cuban sounding surnames have one the highest rates of Medical Fraud in the USA)

SAME PEOPLE, SAME LANGUAGE, CUBANS IN THE ISLAND WITH SENSE OF HUMANISM AND SACRIFICE FOR OTHERS, ON THIS SIDE OF THE NARROW OCEAN, CUBANS IN MIAMI KNOW VERY WELL HOW TO LOOK AFTER THEMSELVES ! and some of them get caught!

Eu tenho saudades de tudo

Eu tenho saudades de tudo

Today I had an extraordinarily pleasant flight from London to Miami, it was as if, I was all alone and then given attention when necessary, sprinkled with care and respect. It is the best way to travel. I did not look around, I did not know who were traveling with me..Just in my little space, books, thoughts and saudade..

The flight from London to Miami was 9 hours. the American Airlines aircraft was a fairly new Boeing 777-3W.
Their audiovisual programs  usually have a small selection of Japanese movies, there is no antidote to saudade than watching a Japanese movie. An iranian movie like The Seperation would be good too, but Iranian movies raise the the level of discomfort, knowing fully well the double meaning of what they are portraying. But Japanese movies are raw emotions, and on a flight going from country to country, separated by chasms of affection, I prefer a Japanese movie, soothing with its well timed silent moments and expressions conveying the heavy burdens in their heart.
Today I watched two Japanese movies, the one I liked was the The Chart of Love. Young and old japanese doctors torn between work and devotion to their profession and the love for their families. If you know the work ethic of the Japanese and the value they place on it, the additional melodrama of Medicine and Hospital and sickness adds a heavy weight to the suffering of every day life. In japanese movies you would not see, forced laughter or people who seem to be in the throes of joy and laughter as we would see in movies from other countries. Japanese movies portray life as it is, and today I wanted to know life and what it meant.

The Chart of Love

2014, 117 mins

Dr Ichito Kurihara falls out with his old friend and new colleague Tatsuya Shindo when he notices a change in his attitude towards his work and patients. But they put their differences to one side when Ichito's mentor, Nukita, collapses.
Director: Yoshihiro Fukagawa
Cast: Sho Sakurai, Aoi Miyazaki

The airline staff were very pleasant, D who was serving my section is married to a United Airlines Pilot and soon celebrating her 21st wedding anniversary. Another, chattier than normal, loves Miami and London and I gave her a short list of the recent best restaurants in London... one of these days I too would get a chance to taste their food and enjoy the ambience of the new resto scene in London!

Arriving in Miami and going through Immigration and Customs were painless, because everything is automated and within a few minutes I was finished with these formalities.

I arrived at the house of my sister. Just a couple of days ago, I had said good bye to them at Gare du Lyon in Paris , as they were continuing their vacation in Europe.

The house looked moody and the welcome of my sister being absent, I slipped deeper into Saudade.

On the way over the pubic radio, WDNA was playing the Jazz at the Rockefeller centre and todays artist was none other than Willie Nelson.

We were young doctors at the University of Melbourne then, untouched by the pessimism which affects other recent graduates in other countries, full of enthusiasm to live life to the fullest. I was the bartender for the Bar for the Doctors and in charge of organizing the roster.. you can imagine the pleasant nights on call when I was in charge!

All of Me, we used to chant, as Willie Nelson crooned, duck a la orange had been ordered from the nearest restaurant. The efficient nurses at the wards seldom bothered us and we dreamt of poems and landscapes, such a life without worries.

I wanted to listen to my favorite singers or singers that would either constructively light this fire of nostalgia

Diego El Cigala singing a song about Alfonsina y Mar

It was a time of Buenos Aires, Tango and Alfonsina Storni, new friends and the scintillating accent of the Portenos!

Astor Piazzola had recently passed away, Teatro Colon with a star studded concert and lazy days in Colonia, Uruguay..

Mercedes Sosa, the big mama of an Indian from the Northwest of Argentines?  Gracias a la Vida!

For me everything comes back to Pablo, I have visited each of his three houses: in Santiago de Chile, Isla Negra and Sebastiana in Valparaiso.. 

such a part of my life..

On the way over to the house, stopped at a cuban restaurant to have a Cortadito. A pleasant older lady, I always try to make a conversation. She was from Caracas but her parents were from Puerto Bolivar in the East, a town I had visited a couple of times. Nice to think about Orinoco and the adventures!

I enjoy these moments of saudade, these liminal periods when I am neither here nor there, a moment of absolute freedom when you are tied to nothing in space. But you thank those special people who brought you to this oblivion of saudade.. thank them, because they are not with me, but their feelings are!

All the videos can be seen in the You Tube

Willie Nelson  You are always on my mind with Spanish subtitles

Diegl el Cigala  Tango concert at Gran Teatro Rex in Buenos Aires, here with maestro Nestor Marconi

Mercedes Sosa reciting Poema 15 Me gustas ..

the same poem read in English

Lastly the Poema 20

Tonight I can write the saddest lines

Write for example, the night is starry and the stars shine in the distance..

I loved her.. may be she love me too...

ha! eu tenho saudades por tudo..

FREQUENT FLIER: THE GAME OF AIRLINE UPGRADES ON INTERCONTINENTAL FLIGHTS

FREQUENT FLIER: THE GAME OF AIRLINE UPGRADES ON INTERCONTINENTAL FLIGHTS

In the month of November, I have a flight scheduled from CMN Casablanca in Morocco to JFK in New York.

It is routed through Doha in Qatar.

Like many of us wait for the Nobel Prize announcement in early October, Frequent Fliers know of flying nefarious routes to accumulate the necessary miles to preserve their Elite Flying Status and the rush begins just about this time.

Being an Elite Top Tier Flyer has multiple benefits.

On a recent flight, I was able to use the Lounges at

Brussels, Istanbul, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, Siem Reap

All because of the Elite Flyer Status. It was nice to sip a glass of Sauvignon Blanc at the Siem Reap Airport Lounge while waiting for a flight to Kuala Lumpur!

There are some lounges that are out of this world. Istanbul one is truly magnificent. There are shower facilities in many of these lounges to freshen up

Unlimited upgrades to First Class on Domestic Flights when available.

Domestic airfares are not as cheap as they used to be, but if you are upgraded on a regular basis, the fare burden becomes bearable. During this year of flying within the USA, I have to be grateful to have been upgraded almost all flights. My destinations are not exciting: Omaha, San Antonio; so the upgrades and the free drinks that come with it calms one down.

If you are not a regular flier, or if you are not an international flier, these things matter very little. US based airlines are not known for their in flight services but they are partnered with excellent airlines form other lands.

So far this year, I have been given the courtesy of flying Turkish Airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Air Nippon, Qatar Airways.

To reach the top tier of Frequent Flyer Status, one has to fly 100,000 miles i.e. five round trips to Asia from the USA or 10 round trips to Europe from the USA. There are other ways to achieve this level, but it involves a lot of domestic flying within the USA.

I must admit that my Executive Platinum Status with American Airlines has been more than satisfactory during this year. During this coming year, I would like to attain an Elite Flyer status in a Persian Gulf based airline, and I have chosen Etihad, as it presents intriguing possibilities for me!

For those who are so inclined, here is a short summary of flights in the first 9 months of this year.

Remember the paradox of Frequent Flyer Status!

To reach the upper levels you have to pay and fly a lot and then you accumulate lots of miles and you get to fly a lot FREE! All means flying more!

I have a simple rule

I accumulate flying within the USA and to Europe and then use the miles to fly Free to Asia.

In summary, the fringe benefits of Frequent Flying are:

Upgrades to First or Business Class on long haul flights

Chance to fly, efficient Asian or Turkish or Qatar airlines! My preference among the Asian airlines are the Japanese ones: JAL and ANA

Of all the 19 long hauls flights this year, I have been upgraded to Business Class on every flight.

The longest flights had been

New York to Hong Kong

Chicago to Hong Kong

Hong Kong to Chicago

All around 14 to 15 hours.

Shortest long hauls have been

Japan-Singapore/Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur

Doha-Brussels

The most frequent has been USA to Europe, then USA to Asia

For me the most pleasant airport to arrive,

In the USA, it is definitely Miami and in

Europe, the laurel goes to London Heathrow.

The best airports to transit: Narita in Tokyo, Changi in Singapore, Doha in Qatar and Istanbul for their lounges.

In the next three months, I hope to pass through the following airports:

Brussels, London Heathrow, Miami, DFW, Omaha, Rapid City, Narita, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore, Jakarta, Casablanca, Doha; some of them more than once.

By 31 December 2014, I would have achieved Frequent Flier Elite status on both

One World and remain loyal to American Airlines

Star Alliance. I do not plan to fly Star Alliance in 2015 but shift my loyalty to Etihad Airways

Bon Voyage and Gracias for being able to be a Frequent Flier