Castrocare

I had a wonderful week helping deliver medical supplies to hospitals in Camaguey, Cuba. I met so many dedicated healthcare professionals, well-trained and working hard for an average monthly salary that approximates $25 US dollars. One of Cuba’s main industries is training and exporting physicians, it has a higher physician-patient ratio and lower child mortality than the United States, a life expectancy of 77 years, and an intact public health and primary care system that emphasizes prevention. However, many of the acute care hospitals we visited were in poor repair and were frustratingly low on essential supplies and simple technology.

But rather than go on about the Cuban healthcare system as if I know what I’m talking about after one short week, I’ll link to an excellent recent article by Laurie Garrett. We were not in Havana to see the Clínica Central Cira García that she describes, but the rest of what she writes is in line with my observations and with what I heard from the physicians I spoke with there.

Castrocare in Crisis, by Laurie Garrett

Off to Cuba

I’ll be leaving the blogging to Eli and Mike for the next 10 days, as I head off to Cuba tomorrow. I’m going with the Wisconsin Medical Project, delivering medical supplies to healthcare facilities in Camaguey. I look forward to learning more about the healthcare system in Cuba. Unfortunately, internet access in Cuba is somewhat limited, so I'll probably not check in again until I'm back.

China drilling for oil in Key West; Cuban lease; U.S. "no zone."

While the United States continues to prohibit Americans from drilling for oil in ANWR and elsewhere, the Chinese are drilling off of Key West, Florida pursuant to a Cuban government lease. House Republicans have issued a press release:

By prohibiting the United States from taking part in the same type of energy exploration that the Chinese are conducting just miles off our shores, the Democratic Majority on Capitol Hill continues to prove itself complicit in an energy crisis that has saddled American families and small businesses with gas prices that have reached $4.05 per gallon today. Do congressional Democrats actually believe China has more ingenuity and more concern for the environment than the United States?

Instead of initiating our own drilling program, we are debating proposals by people like Barack Hussein Obama to tax corporate profits - profits that could otherwise be used for exploration and technology.

More information at DU and Gateway Pundit(36 Chinese wells, U.S. no zone).

"No zone" where U.S. companies are prohibited from drilling - H/T Gateway Pundit


It should be no surprise that China would be drilling in the Carribean. China already has troops in Haiti and maintains control over the Panama Canal.

Michelle Malkin posts the story of yesterday's vote by the Democrats in Congress (House Appropriations Subcommittee) to disallow drilling by U.S. companies offshore. Gateway posts an update.

MSM/DNC celebrates Castro's reign

On August 2, 2006, I wrote the following predictions related to the MSM/DNC coverage of the anticipated death of Fidel Castro:

If and when Castro dies, I expect the usual MSM/DNC post-mortems on his life. His nearly five decades in control of Cuba will be glorified and whitewashed. His longevity will be trumpeted as an insult to the United States. Matt Lauer's teleprompter will tell us that five (or ten) Presidents tried to get rid of Castro and he survived anyway. Diane Sawyer's teleprompter will tell us of Castro's deep Catholic faith.

Charles Gibson's teleprompter will refer to Castro's Soviet bosses as his "allies."

Katie Couric's teleprompter will remind us that Elian Gonzalez has been safely reunited with his father.

All of the teleprompters will downplay Castro's instigation of revolution in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

I further predicted that no MSM/DNC outlet would mention Castro's assistance to Venezuela's efforts to destablize the rest of Latin America by using secret police disguised as medical doctors.

Even though Castro is not dead (he announced his resignation yesterday), these predictions are coming true. This morning on Today, Andrea Mitchell triumphantly announced that Castro had survived 10 U.S. Presidents, including George W. Bush (even though Bush somehow remains in office). The same people who barely contain their admiration for the fifty years of Castro's dictatorship (and who now urge the end of the embargo even though the dictatorship remains under different leadership) swoon over the candidacy of Barack Obama and the "change" he will bring to the U.S.
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Michelle Malkin has more.

As usual, Scrappleface puts it all in perspective:

Experts suggest that as co-presidents of Cuba, Mr. Obama would be the mouthpiece, giving stirring six-hour speeches about the majesty and beauty of poverty in a Communist Utopia, while Mrs. Clinton would work behind the scenes to ensure full agreement with those speeches at all levels of government.