From www.ted.com

American journalist and Havana resident Gail Reed spotlights a Cuban medical school that trains doctors from low-income countries who pledge to serve communities like their own.

Many of the doctors treating ebola patients in Africa were trained in Cuba. Why? In this informative talk, journalist Gail Reed spotlights a Cuban medical school that trains doctors from low-income countries -- if they pledge to serve the communities who need them most.

 

Published 2 October 2014 by Russia Today

kissinger-contingency-attack-cuba-angola si

"I think we are going to have to smash [Cuban President Fidel] Castro," Kissinger told President Gerald Ford at a February 25, 1976 meeting. "We probably can't do it before the [1976 presidential] elections."

"I agree," the president responded.

The exchange was the first in a series of meetings over the Cuban intervention in Angola, which led to the secretary of state laying out various contingency plans on how the US could “clobber” its southern neighbor.

“I think sooner or later we have [to] crack the Cubans... even the Iranians are worried about the Cubans getting into the Middle East countries. I think we have to humiliate them,” Kissinger told Ford in a meeting on March 15, 1976. “But I think we might have to demand they get out of Africa.”

At a meeting of national security officials nine days later, Kissinger told Gen. George Brown, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: "If we decide to use military power it must succeed. There should be no halfway measures.”

Published on 27 September 2014 by TeleSUR English

elamCuba pledged 300 more doctors and nurses to battle the Ebola epidemic in West Africa on Friday. With a staff of over 460 Ebola specialists, Cuba will by far have the largest foreign medical team combating the disease in West Africa.

The new batch of Ebola specialists are undergoing intensive training, said head of the Cuban medical relief agency, Regla Angulo. They will be sent to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Cuba, which has about 50,000 health workers stationed across the world, received accolades from the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) for its effort against Ebola, last week, when it already had the largest foreign medical team fighting the killer virus in West Africa, consisting of 62 doctors and 103 nurses. 

The interview was conducted by Granma journalist Dalia González Delgado. The Militant has translated it into English and provided footnotes on facts many readers in the U.S. and elsewhere may not be familiar with.

diez tiempos

Born in 1938, Sánchez-Parodi was active in the urban underground during the revolutionary struggle. In 1957 he and others were arrested at a residence in Havana where they had planned to meet with Faustino Pérez, head of the July 26 Revolutionary Movement in the capital. They escaped from prison a few weeks later.

Since the revolution’s triumph in January 1959, Sánchez-Parodi has shouldered leadership responsibilities in the Communist Party of Cuba, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of the Interior before taking diplomatic assignments in the United States. He is currently an aide to Ramiro Valdés, vice president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, as well as a writer and journalist.

BY DALIA GONZÁLEZ DELGADO  
Although he is reluctant to talk about himself, he has been a participant in historic events. Author of the book Cuba-USA: Diez tiempos de una relación [Cuba-USA: Ten Moments in a Relationship],he has studied the relations between the two countries not only from theoretical work but from real-life experience.

Published on 18 September 2014 by www.cadenagramonte.cu

Cuba environment

The executive director of the UN Environment Program, Ibrahim Thiaw, described as impressing the Cuban sustainable development and disaster mitigation plans.

In statements to Granma newspaper, Thiaw said that it would be of great interest for the rest of the world to learn about the Cuban experience in disaster mitigation actions. The UN official said that his agency is willing to contribute in order to spread the Cuban experience.
 
The UN expert visited Cuba this week to take a first-hand look at Cuban environmental efforts and consider future cooperation with Cuban authorities, bearing in mind the significance of the island in the Caribbean area.
 
“Unfortunately, this is a country that undergoes the effects of natural phenomena, but the system set up here from the local to the national level is really impressing,” said the UN official.
 
As to sustainable development efforts Thiaw referred to what he called concrete examples about sustainable food production and consumption, and that they have met local farmers who have developed chemical-free crops. The UN official also visited a biosphere reserve in which they praised the results of environmental preservation efforts over the past 40 years.

Published 10 September 2014 by Prensa Latina

abelardo-moreno

The economic blockade that the United States has imposed on Cuba is a true financial war and brutally hinders the country''s socio-economic development, official sources charged.

When presenting a report on the issue on 9 September, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said that the economic damage caused by that US policy until March 2014 amount, at current prices, to 116.88 billion dollars.

That accounts to 1.112534 trillion dollars if the damage is calculated according to gold prices, said the official when presenting the report, which will be submitted to the approval of the United Nations General Assembly in October.

There has not been more terrifying and vile damage, as not a single sector of social life has escaped from the blockade, Moreno said at the Solidarity with Panama Special School, where children with physical-motor or multiple disabilities study.

Published on 4 September 2014 by www.cadenagramonte.cu

cuba education

The World Bank has just published a revealing report on the problems of education in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Entitled “Excellent Professors: How to improve learning in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the study analyzes the public educational systems of countries in the region and the main challenges they face.

According to the World Bank, “no Latin American school system, with the possible exception of Cuba,” has world parameters, the Cubadebate Web site reported on Thursday.
 
The World Bank emphasizes “the average low quality of professors of Latin America and the Caribbean,” which constitutes the main obstacle for the development of education in the region. Academic contents are inadequate and practices, inefficient.
 
Indeed, only Cuba, where education has been the main priority since 1959, has an efficient educational system and high level professors. In this regard, Cuba can stand alongside with more developed nations. The Caribbean island is also the nation of the world that devotes the highest part of its national budget to education: 13%.
 
In spite of the limited resources of a Third World country and the blockade imposed by the United States on the island for over half a century now, Cuba shows that quality education is within reach of all nations

Published on 26 August 2014 by Granma Internacional

fmc

Celebrating its 54th anniversary, the FMC has four million members

To gauge the impact the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) has had on society, we must go back in time to August 23, 1960, when the coming together of a variety of women’s organizations gave our grandmothers a voice and a vote - autonomy and the opportunity to get out of the kitchen.

The level of empowerment reached by Cuban women is undeniable, thanks to the FMC’s work. But far from satisfied with what has been accomplished thus far, the organization is seeking to adjust to the times, as the country’s economic and social situation continues to evolve.

The FMC’s 9th Congress, held this past March, made evident the important role women play in the country’s development, while also showing that discussion of current challenges is much needed, in order to find solutions.

Some data is illustrative: More than 16,000 women are working land granted them in usufruct, while women make up 20% of all agricultural workers, and 66% of the total workforce. The FMC’s community centers for women and families serve more than 60,000 persons a year, and 36% of the FMC’s local leaders are young.

Over the course of these 54 years, the FMC has grown along with the revolutionary process, without leaving behind its essence as an organization. Teresa Amarelle Boué, national secretary general, identified the Federation’s fundamental objectives as defense of the Revolution, and the struggle for equality.

Currently, 90% of Cuban women over 14 years of age, more than four million – are members of the FMC, which at this time is intent upon perfecting its work given the generational transformation occurring at the grassroots level. This is a challenge which implies the use of new, attractive strategies to reach today’s young women.

In addition to its community work, the Federation is the national organization which, in a dialogue with the government and others, promotes policies to benefit women. Alliances have been established with the ministries of Education, Health, Justice, Labor and other entities charged with ensuring progress for women.

Such efforts have led to increased attention to preventative healthcare measures for women; to laws protecting women’s rights and physical safety; to equal opportunity in employment, in urban and rural areas; to motherhood and child rearing; and to all areas which concern women in general.

This is today’s Federation – an organization of better prepared women who know their place in society, and what they must do to preserve it.
 

Published on 5 September 2014 by ACN www.periodico26.cu

the cuban 5

Thousands of messages are at the doors of the White House on Friday demanding the release of the three anti-terrorist Cubans held in US prisons since 1998.

Supporters of the cause of Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, René González and Fernando González, internationally known as the Cuban Five, are sending their requests to President Barack Obama as an international solidarity action that takes place on the 5th day each month.

The initiative, which was promoted by the International Committee for the Freedom of the Five, reiterates the world claim for justice and urges the White House to return Hernandez, Labanino an Guerrero back to Cuba.

The three Cubans still imprisoned along with René González and Fernando González, already in Cuba after serving their prison sentences, monitored Florida-based violent organizations that planned terrorist actions against the Cuban people. They were submitted to a biased Miami trial which gave them extremely long an unfair sentences in 2001.

The campaign has been joined by renown personalities, such as Professor Felix Kury, from the University of San Francisco, California, who wrote Obama a letter urging him to use his signature and power to release the three Cuban anti-terrorist fighters.

The current international campaign for the release of Hernández, Labañino and Guerrero will run till October 6 with actions in over 40 nations of the world.