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Published on 17 October by Global Research
Our country did not take a single minute to give a response to the international agencies requesting its support to combat the brutal epidemic outbreak in Western Africa.
This is what our country has always done, without excluding anyone. The Cuban Government had already given the relevant instructions to urgently mobilize and reinforce the medical personnel that were offering their services in that region of the Africa continent. An equally fast response was given to the United Nations, as has always been the case in an event of a request for cooperation. Any sensible person would know that the political decisions that entail some risk for the highly qualified staff involve a high level of responsibility from those who call on them to fulfill a risky task. This is something far more difficult than sending soldiers to fight and even die for a just political cause; and they also did so because they always thought it was their duty.
The best example of solidarity that human beings can offer
The medical staff that is ready to go to any region to save lives, even at the risk of losing their own, is the best example of solidarity that human beings can offer, particularly if they are not moved by any material interest. Their closest relatives are also contributing to that mission a part of what they love and admire the most. A country seasoned by long years of struggle can fully understand what is being expressed here.
We all understand that in fulfilling this task with maximum preparation and efficiency, we would also be protecting our people and the brother peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, by avoiding the spread of the virus, since it unfortunately has entered and could further spread in the United States, a country with so many personal links and exchanges with the rest of the world. We will gladly cooperate with the US staff in this endeavor, not in the pursuit of peace between the two States which have been adversaries for so many years, but, in any case, for world peace, which is a goal that could and should be pursued.
The time of duty has come.
Fidel Castro Ruz
October 17, 2014 9:23 p.m.
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Published on 10 October by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba
Cuba was represented ant the “Defeating Ebola in Sierra Leone” held at Lancaster House in London and co-chaired by British Minister of Foreign Affairs Philip Hammond and International Development, Justine Greening.
The Foreign Secretary highlighted that the conference was summoned to urge the international community to take immediate action in facing the disease in Sierra Leone.
Cuba, in response to an invitation by the British government was represented by Cuban Health Vice-minister Marcia Cobas Ruiz.
The conference was attended by delegates from over twenty countries and international organizations including the United Nations, WHO as well as NGOs and private companies.
Cuba participated in the conference after responding to a call by the UN and WHO by sending 165 health care professionals which joined another 23 already in Sierra Leona, totalling 188 Cuban medical and nursing staff part of a Brigade of the International Contingent Henry Reeve of Doctors Specialized Tackling Disasters and Epidemics.
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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.
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Published 2 October 2014 by Russia Today
"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.”
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Published on 27 September 2014 by TeleSUR English
Cuba 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.
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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.
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],1 he has studied the relations between the two countries not only from theoretical work but from real-life experience.
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Published on 18 September 2014 by www.cadenagramonte.cu
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.
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Published 10 September 2014 by Prensa Latina
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.
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Published on 4 September 2014 by www.cadenagramonte.cu
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