Cuba, international solidarity

The Cuban Medical System both Myth and Reality 
Cuba, international solidarity
x Miguel Ángel Maciel: Health and education: no to privatization :: Bankers and politicians: "Take your hands out of the Public Services"

The Coronavirus has shown the worst and the best of governments. Regarding the second, we can account for the concrete actions that the Cuban government has taken to contain the pandemic that has already been declared global by the World Health Organization (WHO). The most remarkable thing that the Cuban government has done is share with the world the medicine that helps to treat COVID-19. Although there is still no vaccine to eliminate this virus, interferon alfa 2B, a Cuban medicine which from the beginning was shared with the Chinese government to treat its infected patients, has already been requested by different countries in Latin America, Asia and Europe.

The international solidarity that Cuba has shown towards the countries of the world is not in dispute, especially when it was recently learned that the island received a British cruise ship with 5 people detected with COVID-19 on board. The Cuban government, with everything and the complications of receiving infected people, especially considering that some countries have already chosen to close their borders, demonstrated that solidarity is the main value that should rule in times of difficulty and pressure world.

On the other hand, the United States, with all its economic, political, military and technological power, has demonstrated that it cannot assure the health of its citizens, since up to now it has been documented that there are more than 120 thousand people infected with coronavirus. What Uncle Sam has done to try to solve this problem is to try to negotiate an emergency package which includes a trillion dollars to [supposedly] help the affected Americans, in such a way that it will take care of the State to distribute money already that, as is known, the United States does not have public health services that assure its citizens not to get into debt with the private health services offered by that country.

The measures adopted by the US to help its citizens are not considered "populist" or "welfare" actions, since in an emergency such as COVID-19 even the most capitalist and center-right countries have had to resort to the State and accept that it is necessary to support citizens. In other words, what was previously used as an argument to attack and criticize those countries that decide to use the State to ensure education, health and food, today reality spits in their faces when they see that capitalism and the market are not the solution as different services of a purely social and welfare nature have been privatized.

This is the main difference between capitalism and socialism. While the first yearns to concentrate large amounts of wealth at the expense of its citizens and although they do not even have to pay for private insurance, the second places human safety, health and stability at the center. Much criticism may be leveled at the Cuban government, but it is at this time that the true capacity and potential of an island so small that for decades it has been neglected, blocked, seized and attacked by a huge world power is demonstrated.

It seems that the American dream turns into a nightmare when the real world problems are just around the corner. The country of opportunities shrinks and becomes weak, because while the US exports the military to the world and distributes economic sanctions to any country that decides to be independent, sovereign and far from the American way of life, on the other hand, a small island that has not been exported for years Doctors to the world, share their medicine to prevent more deaths and show that solidarity is what can save us from any catastrophe.