mercredi 14 mars 2018

CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE UND A BEEZL MITZVAH


CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE
Because of my long association with Cuba and its excellent Public Health System as well as Tertiary Care at the National Institute of Endocrinology and Centre for Attention for Diabetes, I have absorbed a lot of the finer ethical and aesthetic aspects of the Cuban Revolutionary Medicine.
That combined with the Jewish concept of Mitzvah (kindness towards humanity), has defined my professional life as a Physician Anthropologist that has taken me around the world since I qualified to become an Endocrinologist. I have formally or informally practiced Medicine in all continents, from Rapa Nui to Tuvalu, from Tsumkwe to Bogor.

All places that I have been in connection with my humanitarian activities, there are some commonalities: poor, isolated, marginalized communities, which could do with some culturally oriented medical help. But no single people have given me more pleasure in my (Cuban Revolutionary, Jewish Mitzvah) humanitarian work as the Native Indians of the Americas.
Cuba sends out close to 70 000 doctors most of them trained in General Internal Medicine and Family Practice and some specialists all over the world, from the poorest and needy to the rich and needy. The entire shortage of medical doctors to provide medical care in rural and isolated counties in the United States (which has 35 times as much population as Cuba) can be solved if the US Government accepted Cuba’s offer of sending doctors and nurses on short and long term contracts.

I left the lush green island of my heart and affections, Cuba and with multiple air connections and rental cars and Uber; I reached my destination in a reservation of the Indians.
Just because they are isolated, marginalized and poor, they are not poor spiritually and in their enthusiasm for innovation and care and the team that provides medical care to this small tribe is deeply involved in it.
Because of the visionary thinking of the previous head of the tribe, we have some new technology and I bring the innovation from Israel and also the best psychosocial approach to chronic disease from Cuba. There are no Endocrinologists for 200 miles when I am here and of course there are no practicing Medical Anthropologists for a 1000-mile radius.

The humane approach to medical care for the deserving people whether along the Amazon River in Brazil or the slums of Caracas or the high mountains of Bhutan or the sand dunes of Qatar is the everlasting legacy of the Cuban Revolution. I am so happy to be a part of this legacy.
I am spending this week with the Native Indians of the United States and in one week, you will find me 10 000 miles away (thank you Qatar Airways!)
As Sadhguru had mentioned somewhere, it is possible to love humanity and not just a man or a woman. Cuba has made that philosophy come to life for me.
(dressed for work in an Indian Reservation)

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