forged registration
Registered on Dec-17-2005
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Message #113286 posted by forged registration (Info) March 14, 2008 10:40:25 ET
In Reply to: Re: china takes gold in olympic oppression event posted by imnother (Info) March 14, 2008 08:38:20 ET
"Never hear of Americans risking their lives to get to Cuba for free socialized medicine."
- there are about 100 US students in cuban medical schools after castro offered free tuition to americans in poor regions of the states where infant mortality is high and life expectancy is low
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jul/26/internationaleducationnews.usa
Eight Americans graduate in boost for Cuban health care
· Students plan to use skills to treat poor people · Public relations coup for Castro government
July 26 2007.
Eight American students have graduated from a Cuban medical school after six years of free tuition, giving a fresh boost to the reputation of the communist government's health care system.
The first class of US graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine, a Fidel Castro brainchild on Havana's outskirts, plan to return home and take board exams for licenses to work as doctors in US hospitals.
The Americans were among more than 2,100 students from about 25 countries who received diplomas this week in a high-profile ceremony at Havana's Karl Marx theatre. The six women and two men, all from US ethnic minority backgrounds, said they would use their skills to treat poor people, in keeping with the humanitarian ethos of the school.
"Health care is not seen as a business in Cuba," Kenya Bingham, a 29-year-old Californian, told the Associated Press. "When you are sick they are not going to try to charge you or turn you away if you don't have insurance. We have studied medicine with a humanitarian approach."
The school on a former naval base, opened by President Castro in 1999, offers scholarships to students from around the world and is intended to showcase the island's commitment to universal health care. To boast graduates from the US, an arch-foe which has imposed a decades-long economic embargo, was another public relations coup for a government already basking in the glow from Michael Moore's documentary Sicko. The film contrasts expensive profit-driven health care in the US with free treatment in Cuba.
The first class of US graduates, which started the course in 2001, has been followed by about 90 other Americans. A further 18 are due to enrol next month, making the Americans a small but high-profile minority among the more than 5,000-strong student body.
The communist authorities rely on the US Congressional Black Caucus and a non-profit group, Pastors for Peace, to select candidates. Washington's embargo bans most Americans from travelling to Cuba but an exemption has been made for the medical students.
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