04-24-06,10:44am
On Préval’s Visit to Cuba and Cuban-Haitian Cooperation: An Interview with Radio Havana’s Anna Kovac
Haiti’s President-elect René Préval traveled to Cuba on April 12. The visit, originally expected to be three days, lasted almost one week.
“Essentially I would say it was a trip of friendship and of making and extending contacts,” Préval said on his return to Haiti on April 18. “There will be very concrete results.”
On April 13, Préval met with Cuban president Fidel Castro at Havana’s Palace of the Revolution. Cuba’s ministers of Public Health, of Basic Industries, of Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, of Foreign Affairs and of Agriculture were also present.
Préval said that Cuban doctors, of whom there are now some 500 in Haiti, would soon be stationed in every Haitian county. Fifty-five Haitian counties – called communes – presently don’t have Cuban medical personnel, Préval said. Since their deployment in Haiti in 1998, during Préval’s first administration, the Cuban doctors have made an estimated 8 million consultations and 100,000 operations.
Préval traveled to Cuba with about 60 young Haitians who will study in Cuba to become doctors. Before flying to Havana, Préval stopped first in Santiago de Cuba where he and the 60 new students were warmly greeted by the 600 Haitian medical students already studying in Cuba. Last August, 128 Haitians graduated from the Cuban medical school, and 80 of them are now practicing in Haiti.
Préval returned to Port-au-Prince with a delegation of Cuban electrical engineers, who will study Haiti’s feeble and black-out prone electrical grid. A Cuban-Haitian commission will be formed at the end of June or beginning of July to study and make proposals about the different areas of cooperation, Préval said.
On April 15, the radio program “Haiti: The Struggle Continues,” produced by the Komite Chalo Jaklen and Haïti Progrès on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York, interviewed Anna Kovac, Haiti Progrès’ correspondent in Cuba and the head of Radio Havana Cuba’s Creole language service. Ms. Kovac conducted two interviews with René Préval during his visit to Cuba. Here is some of what Kovac had to say. She spoke by telephone from Havana.
Kim Ives, Haïti Progrès: Anna Kovac, can you tell us why René Préval is visiting Cuba and with whom he is meeting?
Anna Kovac: He said why when he arrived in Santiago de Cuba with about 60 young Haitians who are starting their studies in medicine at the Caribbean faculty in that city and around 40 Haitians with limited economic means who are going to be operated on free of charge for various eye problems like cataracts and glaucoma. Préval said that during his first mandate, he launched cooperation relations with Cuba and after he left the Presidency, these contacts diminished somewhat, not completely, and he wants to reinforce them.
He has come to Cuba to speak to his friend Fidel, to ask for help and cooperation to not only continue but to increase in health, education, sports and lots of other areas too, like fishing and the sugar industry.
Préval’s first big meeting was with the Cuban President Fidel Castro for official consultations. We don’t have a lot of details on what has come out of these talks.... This morning [April 15], Préval visited the Cuban province of Pinar del Rio in Cuba’s far west. There he saw an experiment in not only saving electricity but in assuring that everybody in that province has electrical service. That province has been hit very badly over the years – last year, especially, and the year before, and this year it probably will be – by hurricanes. The national electric system uses thermo-electric plants which are very old and very expensive to use. They burn a lot of oil, which is now extremely costly. So Cuba has set up small plants assuring electricity for hospitals, schools, bakeries, food production plants, water pumps, and so on. Now when there’s a break-down in the national system, this province is not affected. And the electricity costs much, much less than using these old electrical plants. I don’t know if Préval is going to get some ideas from what is happening in Pina del Rio, but it is a very interesting province. It is one of the poorest provinces in Cuba, but it is now self-sustaining in electricity production.
Kim Ives: There are about 500 Cuban doctors in Haiti now. Préval said during his visit to New York last month that Cuba and Haiti were looking for a third country to help finance the mission of the 500 doctors in Haiti. What discussions might there be about that?
Anna Kovac: Well, there are two things about the 500 doctors. It’s not financing the doctors. It’s financing the doctors’ medical supplies which is necessary. The doctors are fine, but they need needles, medicine, cotton and so forth to do their work, and the Cuban doctors have been working really with very little supplies.
From the very beginning, back in 1998, Cuba asked France, Canada and lots of other countries to supply these much-needed medicines and medical supplies. Countries like Japan gave something, but very token donations...
Even with the doctors, you need medical supplies and equipment to operate. Cuba is a poor country. What Cuba has is its people, who are highly qualified and capable, but you can’t operate if you don’t have the necessary surgical instruments. That’s really what Cuba is looking for.
Cuba in the United Nations has said this on many, many occasions. There are thousands of Cuban doctors working in Africa too. But in Africa, even more so, they need supplies. They need medicines. You can’t have a vaccination campaign if you don’t have the wherewithal to do it with. This is really what Cuba and Haiti are looking for. It’s the rich countries that have the money to do this, because the Cuban doctors are working for free. The only thing they need is to eat and a place to sleep...
The other thing is that last August, 128 young Haitians got their diplomas as doctors and 80 of them have gone back to Haiti to work with the Cuban medical brigade. Afterwards, they are going to come back to Cuba to learn a specialty, that is to specialize in some branch of medicine. Every year from now on, all the Haitian students who graduate will go back to Haiti. Each young student has promised to go back to help their community, to serve their community, when he or she returns back home.
So the medical plan is pretty vast, but I think that it is well thought out. Because Cubans aren’t there forever. They have to be replaced by Haitians.
Kim Ives: Anna, it is no secret that the U.S. government is seeking, as it has sought for many years, to overthrow the Cuban government, and at this point Haiti is militarily occupied by U.N. troops with U.S. troops poised just across the border in Barahona, Dominican Republic. There are said to be some 1000 U.S. troops, maybe many more, whom have been the object of many demonstrations by Dominicans against their presence on Dominican soil. What concerns might the Cubans raise with René Préval about the continuing occupation of Haiti?
Anna Kovac: Well, I think that it’s remarkable that the Cubans have stayed in Haiti in spite of the February 29th coup, in spite of the fact that first you had a U.S. occupation, followed by a U.N. occupation, in spite of the fact that you had all these gangsters and ex-soldiers and criminals who practically took over Haiti, in spite of all the waves of kidnappings and so forth which were pretty terrible. The Cuban doctors stayed. I think that, first of all, that is remarkable. That just shows that Cuba is interested in helping the people. The Haitian people are number one, and governments are number two...
I think that what’s going to happen now is that there is going to be another type of cooperation. Cuban cooperation is not like U.S. cooperation or European cooperation. All the money that was supposedly sent to Haiti – about $1.3 billion was promised and about half of that has been sent to Haiti. Well, it went to Haiti, but then it turned around and went back to where it came from. Eighty percent, Préval said, of the $750 million in aid went back to the countries that had sent it to Haiti. How did it go back? Well there were studies on studies, and reviews of the cooperation. The whole plan was that you give 10 and you take back 9, because, if it’s French cooperation, you demand that everyone who is employed is French, that you buy French equipment, and use French services. So in fact, the money just turns around and goes back to where it came from.
But Cuban cooperation is different. Cuban cooperation is not for Cuban doctors to stay in Haiti, but to the contrary, to hold out until the young Haitians who become doctors can go back home and take their place.
Roger Leduc, Komite Chalo Jaklen: Anna, I was going to piggy back on the notion of the different approach that countries like the United States give aid to Haiti and the way Cuba gives help. The Haitian masses have expressed in different ways their gratitude for the gesture of the Cuban revolution and the Cuban people toward Haiti. I have seen the Cuban doctors in Haiti and they are like fish in water. There is a very good rapport with the masses, which is not the rapport of someone giving charity but it is the rapport of fraternal solidarity which prevails. And at this point, Cuba has been able to maintain the aid, even going through the coup, going through very difficult times, ordeals and trials. How do you see that the Haitian people can – even if we don’t have the material means – how can we, through our relationship with Cuba, pay a little bit of this back to you?
Anna Kovac: Well, I don’t think it’s a question of giving back. I think it’s a question of solidarity and working together. Just to give an idea....
Cuban medicine is very different from U.S. medicine or French medicine, because it is based on different principles. Of course in Cuba, all medical care is absolutely free. But it’s not only that it’s absolutely free, but it’s done with the idea of prevention first of all. In other words, all children, ALL children, get 13 vaccines to protect them against 13 different diseases. All pregnant women are cared for and followed by doctors that have ultrasound and all kinds of tests to assure that their new born baby is born healthy. There is another attitude, another way of doing things... And this in itself terrific. This is a step forward for all humanity.
You know Fidel once said in one of the summit meetings that the planet is like a boat. Even if the rich and the elite are up on the top decks and the poor are in the hold of the ship, if the ship goes down, we all go down. If the planet goes to pot, we all go. We’re all in this together. So Cuba has another way of thinking, another way of seeing the world. And the Haitian people’s solidarity for Cuba is really tremendous...
Now if we are going to talk about cooperation, for instance in sports, Haitian football [soccer] is a thousand times more sophisticated than Cuban football. Cuban football players are healthy and strong and can run and kick the ball, but they just don’t have the same level of strategy and tactics. They don’t play football in as excellent a manner as Haitians do.
So I think that’s one area where there can be exchange. And in fact, during Préval’s first term in office, there were exchanges between football teams of young children and teenagers.
I also think the possibility of cultural exchange between Haiti and Cuba are absolutely fantastic. Even in the 40s, one of the greatest Cuban jazz piano players, Chicho Valdés, his father [Bebo Valdès] played in [famous Haitian band leader] Issa Sayeh’s orchestra. Omara Portuondo, who is the great lady of Cuban song, sang at the Choucoune Night Club in Port-au-Prince. So Haitian music and Cuban music really influenced each other a lot, especially in the 1950s, because I think there is a natural attraction between two countries which are neighbors and which were artificially separated for 40 years during the Duvalier dictatorship. So there are so many levels where there can be real sharing and real learning on both sides, because Haiti has lots and lots to offer.
Haiti has been a beacon for over 200 years because Haiti was the first country which became free and independent, that ended slavery, in the Western hemisphere. I know there was the American revolution, but they just betrayed their principles and they didn’t free the slaves, etc.
So Haiti has been and still is a beacon for the world, just as Cuba has become another beacon because of its socialist revolution. The Western countries have spread lies and said the most absurd things about Haiti to make people afraid of Haiti. During the 19th century, they restricted Haitian commerce because they wanted people to believe that being free was not a good idea, that it was better to be a slave. Well maybe you can convince slave-owners that it’s better to be a slave, but you certainly can’t convince an ex-slave that it’s better to be a slave. But the United States and France have been trying to do this for over 200 years.
They are trying to do the same thing to Cuba! Oh, free health care is no good! Since when? Certainly not to the Cuban people. Free education is no good! Well, the Cuban people certainly don’t think so.
Roger Leduc: Anna, the Haitians are really impressed by the attitude of the Cuban doctors, who really taught a lesson to the whole society in this way: Haitian doctors tended to be very elitist and arrogant in their dealings with the poor masses in Haiti, and the Cuban doctors have shown that you can provide medical services while maintaining the dignity of the people you are servicing. And this, I hope, is a lesson that the Haitian medical students in Cuba can bring with them in Haiti and set a new tradition, a new kind of rapport between medical doctors and the population at large.
Anna Kovac: I’d like to say something about that because most Haitian doctors are great doctors. But that’s not the problem. The problem is the system. A Haitian doctor has to eat and feed his family. So if a Haitian doctor were to treat everybody for free, he’d die of hunger. I want to say this because it’s not that Cubans are better than Haitians. It’s not true. It’s just that in Cuba we have a socialist system that provides all doctors with a salary. So they treat everybody for free. Here in Cuba, no doctor gets money from a patient. And in medical school, all medical students are taught that you have to serve, you have to heal, you have to alleviate suffering of everybody. And for free, of course!
I can tell you terrible, terrible stories. Just yesterday, I was speaking to a Haitian patient who is in a Cuban hospital having an operation on his knee. He told me a terrible story of a young man in Jérémie, who was pretty poor and was using his bicycle to transport goods. That’s what he did for a living. He was hit by a car. His foot and his leg were smashed. His jaw was out of place. He was brought to the Jérémie general hospital, and the Haitian doctors wanted to cut off his leg. The Cuban doctor who was there said “Why do you want to cut off his leg? We can fix his leg.” The Haitian doctor said “Well he doesn’t have a dime and he can’t pay us.” The Haitian doctors wouldn’t even cooperate with the Cuban doctors to operate on this young man. So the Cuban called the other medical personnel to come and help him, and they operated and saved his leg. I was told that he still limps but he still can use his bicycle, and they put his jaw back in place. He can still use his bicycle to transport goods, in other words he can still eke out a living. He said “Why, these Haitian doctors! How terrible! They didn’t want to help.” But this is what the capitalist system does to people. It makes them inhuman. But it doesn’t mean that the person is inhuman. It’s that the person is living in a system that instead of encouraging solidarity, instead of encouraging even Christian or Muslim principles, it is encouraging dog-eat-dog principles.
Kim Ives: Anna, can we look at some of the other domains of Haitian-Cuban cooperation? We know that the Cubans helped revitalize the sugar plant in Darbonne, near Léogane in Haiti, during the 1996-2001 administration of President Préval and also have been helping in the domain of fishing, trying to provide more protein to the Haitian diet. What can you tell us about these two areas?
Anna Kovac: In fishing, one plan went down the drain and I don’t have all the details as to why. But after Préval’s term in office, Cuba had sent a couple of fishing boats – what they call mother boats. The mother boat goes out with a group of fishermen in their small boats. They go out on the high seas where there are fish banks. They have refrigerators in their hold. The small fishermen bring in their catch every single day and after two or three weeks go back to port, and can sell their fish. Well, the Cuban boats were in Haiti for about six months but they never went out to sea. I don’t know why they never went out to sea. There was a whole big fight over this, but I don’t know why. Anyhow, finally the Cuban boats went back home because they were doing nothing. So we hope that maybe a similar plan to help poor Haitian fishermen can be launched.
There is also aqua-culture, which means raising fish in ponds, artificial lakes and reservoirs. That is another plan which they do in Cuba. That’s another possibility.
There is also sports. I think that would be great if there were a new sports accord.
There are lots of other things, for example, in computers and computer technology. Préval went to the Infomatics Science University in Cuba. In Cuba, all schools in the countryside and the city have computers. In other words, everybody can learn how to use a computer – and we’re talking about a poor and underdeveloped country.
Kim Ives: We know that Haiti used to produce a lot more sugar but that has been severely curtailed in recent years. Is the revitalization of Darbonne going to be one of the projects?
Anna Kovac: Well, I don’t know. I think it would be great. As I said, Préval has not yet spoken to the press about these projects... But he certainly is exploring many different areas, and not only the traditional areas. I think in commerce too, there are possibilities between the two countries. In all, they are looking at about ten areas of cooperation ...
Kim Ives: Finally, can you tell us how people can find the Creole language service of Radio Havana Cuba and when you broadcast each week?
Anna Kovac: Well, it’s every day! We broadcast at 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, and 7:30. You can get us on the internet on the Radio Havana Cuba web page which is www.radiohc.cu. We also have www.rhc.cu, and you can listen to us on shortwave on the 49 meter band and the 31 meter band at 5:30, 6:30, and 7:30.
