No wonder Yahya Jammeh and family, seeks medical attention in Washington DC, 
instead of Banjul. Jammeh knows best. Granted Cuba's short-term intentions, 
Gambia deserves an environment of competent Gambian Doctors, public and 
private, practicing without fear of the Yahya's big stick.

Cuban Ambassador Responds to Critics "Our Doctors Are No Damp Squib"
     
    
<A HREF="http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?passed_name=The%20Independent&passed_location=Banjul">The Independent</A> (Banjul)April 22, 2003 
Posted to the web April 22, 2003 Banjul The Cuban Ambassador in The Gambia 
has spoken in emphatic defense of his country's compliment of medical 
personnel currently deployed in various health facilities across the 
country.In an attempt to dismiss assertions from captious critics that the 
Cuban health experts sent here are in effect a damp squib with little 
positive impact on the country's health sector, Mariano Lores Betancourt told 
The Independent in an interview last week that his countrymen's expertise is 
superior to the average qualification of doctors in Third World countries and 
in the eyes of the objective observer, they have been dispensing their duties 
with decorum and a deliberate air of political detachment as expected of 
them. "They are working here apolitically.Their services are accessible to 
all Gambians irrespective of their political and religious persuasion", he 
asserted, in emphatic contention with views bespeaking of incompetence and 
selective dispensation of services by the more than 200 Cuban health workers 
here."Such assertions are not fair. The integrity of our doctors' 
qualifications can rival any the world can offer and this is already 
reflecting positively in this country's health sector. The positive results 
of their presence speak for themselves" he emphasised.There are 250 Cuban 
doctors spread across the country whom he said are here to serve the Gambian 
people in their professional capacities without any shards of political 
undertones coming into play. Ambassador Betancourt was at pains to impress 
upon all Gambians that although his countrymen and women are here upon the 
request of President Jammeh (who visited Cuba twice) to heave our health 
sector in good stead, they are not dispensing their services based on the 
partisan isolation of one section of the community or another. He said like 
in a multitude of African countries and other third world nations across the 
world, their compliment of doctors here are professionals, who care very much 
about their professional conduct and weary about departing from the medical 
ethics as universally held.He explained that the Gambian ministry of health 
and international organisations involved in health and medicine in the 
country recognise a great improvement in the health situation and this is due 
to the presence of the Cubans, which includes a team of specialists working 
to reduce malaria in The Gambia and eight Cuban professors involved in the 
Faculty of Medicine in the University of The Gambia, where students are in 
their third year.The Cuban Ambassador claimed that many Gambian villages, 
which have been without doctors in the past, now have the attention of the 
Cuban medical personnel who are working "within and for the communities. This 
is social medicine at its most effective best"."They are preventing diseases, 
supporting actively the government's vaccination campaign with the support of 
the WHO, Unicef, and other international health organisations operating 
within the country. Very sophisticated techniques for surgery have been put 
into practice at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) with the participation of 
the Cuban doctors. The services of ornithology and dentistry have seen marked 
improvements with the introduction of a specialised theatre for surgery 
operations in the mouth" he fulminated.According to him all this was possible 
because of what he described as a "model relationship" The Gambia enjoys with 
Cuba, a country, which he bemoaned, has been asphyxiated by more than forty 
years of economic blockade by the United States. He said the Cuban leader 
Fidel Castro declared Cuba as a "Latin African people" who are proud to 
identify with African countries like The Gambia. "We Cubans believe that our 
friendship with The Gambia is not based on what we can do for you and what 
you will do for us in return. If that was the case, then it is not 
friendship. It is interest. The relationship is mutually genuine and 
genuinely mutual" he clarified.Ambassador Betancourt spoke glowingly about 
Gambian hospitality, which he said accounts for why he was enjoying his 
tenure as his country's head of mission in The Gambia. "Gambians treat me not 
as an Ambassador, but as a member of their community. From Fatoto to 
Gambisara and Kartong, I am treated with selfless courtesy and that explains 
why relations with Cuba is special" he asserted.On America's reticence 
towards Cuba, Ambassador Betancourt said his country has been the butt of bad 
publicity in the United States. He said the long-running friction with his 
country's much larger neighbour, dating back to 1959 when Fidel Castro's 
revolution swept Cuba, stemmed from the determination of "our small country 
to maintain its sovereignty and determine its mode of governance". He said on 
countless occasions, Cuba and her government had been the target of 
subversive counterrevolutionary sabotages from Cubans exiled in the United 
States who enjoy the active or passive support of their hosts. He lamented 
the case of five young Cubans who were arrested in Miami Florida five years 
ago and charged and jailed for spying. "These five men were not spying 
against the US government, but were watching the movements and activities of 
Cuban terrorists in Miami who have demonstrated an intent to unleash 
dangerous counterrevolutionary activities inside Cuba in the past. Their stay 
in the United States did not put the people of that country in jeopardy and 
they were not in any way involved in activities injurious to the interest and 
welfare of America and her people" he argued, adding that Cuba and all other 
countries to which "such brazen arbitrariness of justice is an affront" are 
waging an international campaign for the release of the five young Cuban men 
who were sentenced two years ago and are currently in jail in various 
penitentiaries across the United States.



"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are 
evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."
 - Albert Einstein
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change 
the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead 
"When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear 
the government, you have tyranny." 
- Thomas Jefferson
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" 
- Edmund Burke 

    
    

    

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