The one you do not expect

[matrixmann]

Cuba sends doctors and nurses to territories affected by Ebola in Africa since the beginning of October. The contingents are already larger than those ones of Western industrialized nations.
Where is Western journalism to spread this piece of information through every channel?

Comments

[animaltime.livejournal.com]

No, it was reported in the New York Times quite thoroughly:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/opinion/cubas-impressive-role-on-ebola.html?_r=0&gwh=62D0AA9F2F66EA8E361A349FD0C417A9&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion

Cuba, like all other countries and especially Communist countries, has an interest in improving its international image with exactly these kinds of maneuvers. I have a good friend from Cuba who is politically very neutral, but he has no plans or desire to return to Cuba and plans to make a life in the United States. Cuba sounds like a very difficult place to live and certainly not a free country.

[matrixmann]

The spice lies in "through every channel". Where is Western journalism when it comes down to something else than "what does Putin today?", "the economy rises" or "fight in the Middle East - we know who shot!"?
I only catched that hint through a satire show (!), the research after resulted in it wasn't a joke. There was no trace in the ever brainwashing everyone-uses-it-to-sleep television, which literally throws headlines like the above mentioned at you every day. - So this tells another tale how they keep it with the codex of "free press" and "quality of journalism" in Western hemispheres.

For such actions, one needs to understand the way and purpose how Socialist countries trade. It also was a method used in the days of Cold War. "We give you that, for that we get in return". Not only was it a method of trade, but also a way to get hold of goods which the stronger Socialist countries couldn't produce themselves (food is a good example). Purchasing from the Western world was not possible, either because of embargoes (Cuba) or because the West traded their currencies way beyond in value than their own (just on the purpose "BECAUSE"). It would have been very expensive.
I was told the GDR worked together with Congo, I think it was for fruits from warmer regions of the earth (a famous point of dispute because the GDR couldn't offer some) - but the thing crumbled because then the war began in that region.
I also heard they worked together with Mozambique and Vietnam - but not in the way of trading goods, they educated skilled workers for them in the GDR. People who wanted to "join" (or however you say that) that programms signed a treaty that they go to the GDR, receive the nessecary education and work experience for a certain amount of years, and then they move back home to make use of their achieved skills.
For that they also received things in return, be it goods or other things.
They also did what you call "development aid", if they received something in return (I think that was the project in Congo).
In Vietnam you still take notice of these measures.
The GDR urged to receive coffee from there and the programm started to take on fruits by the end of the eightees. Too late for the GDR, but these days Vietnam is one of the greatest coffee exporters in the world.

Cuba had already done such actions also in these days.
They made the trade with Venezuela "doctors for oil". Cuba send doctors, in return they received oil from Venezuela.
Cuba actually, as news reports from Latin America say, does much better these days than in Cold War. Because of the countries who also turned red and also because European Western countries start to doubt the embargo they share with the United States. They want their piece of South America too and Havana (as a harbor) may be the gate to it.

[animaltime.livejournal.com]

I learned a lot from your comment (I didn't know about the GDR's trade relations with Congo and Vietnam, etc), but it doesn't address my point: Cuba is trying to improve its international image by sending doctors to West Africa.

Another serious consideration is the language barrier. My Cuban friend speaks good English but not because he learned it in school; he taught himself. If Cuba's doctors can't even speak English (much less French, which is the colonial language of West Africa) how effective can they be?

[matrixmann]

It seems pretty unprobable to me that it's only because of image improvement. Because for image you cannot buy anything.
Let's say, either they already have some kind of trade relationships to Africa (which we both don't know right now) or they want to create some by actions like this. Or they think Ebola is a serious threat and if nobody's seriously doing something against it, it may be at your doorsteps some time.

Second thing I want to say is: You don't know how it is these days with teaching foreign languages in Cuba. At least I might guess even in Cuba they have already realized how much important they are in foreign relationships.

[animaltime.livejournal.com]

It's *possible* that Cuba is expecting something in return from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone; I don't think it's probable (they're even poorer than Cuba). I agree that Cuba (and the rest of the world) have an interest in ending Ebola in West Africa so that it doesn't eventually enter their own countries and wreak havoc. That's a very legitimate reason for sending doctors. That's exactly what powerful countries should be doing too, because as long as it exists in West Africa, the threat of West Africans traveling and entering other countries is real (aside from the humanitarian goal of ending suffering in West Africa).

No, I don't know generally how it is regarding languages, but I have a good friend who only left Cuba a couple years ago, and he says that the educational system is completely bankrupted by bribery and plagiarism at every level. Teachers accept money bribes in exchange for passing grades, and students collude to plagiarize on exams and other assignments. It doesn't seem like an environment in which ANY kind of foreign-language-learning program would work.

It's great that Cuba is sending doctors to West Africa, but I have a lot of questions about that (including, for example, whether the doctors themselves consented to it or whether the government decided unilaterally to send them over).

[matrixmann]

Let's just leave it at that: One will surely hear about what kind of purpose Cuba was aiming at with that action.

[animaltime.livejournal.com]

Sure, it'll be interesting to see what happens next.