The UN believes statistics put out by totalitarian regimes, so, obscene as this may be, it comes as no surprise:
UN Elects Cuba to Chair World Health Assembly Even as Cubans Lack Aspirin, Basic Health
The consensus election today by 194 WHO member states chose the sole candidate, Cuban Health Minister Roberto Tomas Morales Ojeda.
“The sole candidate” makes me suspect that no one reputable would risk their credibility chairing this farce, n’est-ce pas?
UN Watch condemns “UN handing propaganda victory to a dictatorship” and lists several instances of the abhorrent medical conditions Cubans must endure in the island-prison:
While the Cuban articles claimed the Castro regime has achieved numerous health milestones, experts and international observers say the health system is in disarray.
- “I haven’t seen Aspirin in a Cuban store here for more than a year. If you have any pills in your purse, I’ll take them. Even if they have passed their expiry date.” (Castro’s health care system is paid for through onerous taxation and cannot provide even basic drugs, National Post)
- According to Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor and former CNN reporter Lucia Newman, “I saw many hospitals where there was often no running water, the toilets did not flush, and the risk of infections – by the hospital’s own admission – was extremely high.” Health workers “smuggle the medicine out of the hospitals.” (“The truths and tales of Cuban healthcare.”)
- Doctors suffer lamentable working conditions. (Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D, published in Surgical Neurology 2004, http://www.haciendapub.com/articles/socialized-medicine-cuba-part-ii-doctor-diplomacy-sex-tourism-and-medical-apartheid).
- The country prioritizes healthcare for tourists instead of their own poor. (Source; http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba/health-myth.htm.) The former chief neurosurgeon of Cuba lost her job for opposing this discrimination.
- Doctors serving in the government health agencies or ministering to patients in clinics and hospitals are not informed about basic new technology or medical breakthroughs. (Source:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0090301903007468)
Although Cuba has sent thousands of doctors to Venezuela in exchange for oil, their doctors are considered poorly trained:
Brazilian medical associations determined that Cuban doctors’ training is substandard. (Source:http://www.caribbean-events.com/article/brazil-plans-hire-6000-cuban-doctors-work-rural-areas#sthash.CcP5L55n.dpuf)
Cuban doctors’ exam results are said to be “among the worst of the average of 600 professionals – ranging in homelands from Argentina, Bolivia, the United States and European countries. (Source:http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2011/10/24/cuban-doctors-get-sickly-results-in-brazilian-medical-exams/ )
Back in 2008 Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez described how, if you’re admitted to a hospital, you must bring everything:
The room has a thin light and the air smells of pain. I begin to unpack what I’ve brought. I take out the little sack of detergent and the aromatic with which I’ll clean the bath; its aroma floods everything. With the bucket we can bathe the lady, using the cup to pour, because the water faucet doesn’t work. For the great scrubbing I brought a pair of yellow gloves, afraid of the germs that spread in a hospital. Mónica tells me to continue unpacking and I extract the package of food and a puree especially for the sick. The pillow has been a wonder and the set of clean sheets manages to cover the mattress, stained with successive effluvia.
The most welcome is the fan, which I connect to two peeled wires hanging from the wall. I continue to unpack and come to the little bag of medical supplies. I have obtained some needles appropriate for the IV, because the one in her arm is very thick and causes pain. I also bought some gauze and cotton on the black market. The most difficult thing—which cost me days and incredible swaps—is the suture thread for the surgery they are going to do tomorrow. I also brought a box of disposable syringes since she yells to high heaven when she sees the nurse with a glass one.
If you want photos, The Real Cuba posts them in all their gut-churning detail.
Could someone please explain why the U.S. continues to host and fund the UN?