Cuban Doctors vs ‘Nigerian Doctors’ The Exodus and The differences

2 Countries one Dirt poor Communist but has over the years been
a Supplier of Quality Doctors and Boxers ! Yeah The Irony right
?  The other Stupendously Wealthy and Blessed with Human and
Mineral Resources 200 Million Crude Oil Country but Sadly Blessed
With Corruption Probably on The Real Scale The Most Corrupt Nation
On Earth

This Article Talks about Cuban Doctors and Not Corruption .. We
expect The comments from Nigerians and want to know their Views

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http://wellr.us  http://wellr.com.ng

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This week hundreds of Cuban doctors stationed in Brazil packed
up their bags and went home, less than two weeks after their
government in Havana ordered an end to their participation in the
country’s More Doctors program on Nov. 14.

The program, which bolsters healthcare provision in poor and
rural communities, had fallen foul of an ideological rift between
Cuba’s communist government and Brazil’s far right president-elect,
Jair Bolsonaro. Cuba said their decision was the result of
“offensive and threatening” comments by Bolsonaro. He had called
the doctors, who must send most of their salary to their Communist
government, “Cuban slaves” and said their presence in Brazil was
“feeding the Cuban dictatorship.” Around 1,300 of Brazil’s 8,300
Cuban doctors have already left, according to a spokesman for the
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the U.N. agency which
oversees the program.

The political spat was an unprecedented blow to Cuba’s most
lucrative export: not tobacco or sugar, but doctors. Leasing
healthcare professionals to foreign governments brings in around
$11 billion each year, making it a bigger source of revenue than
the Caribbean island’s tourism industry. There are currently some
50,000 Cuban doctors working across 67 countries, an “army of white
coats”, as Cuban officials call them. But how did Cuba, an isolated
authoritarian regime that suffers regular shortages of basic goods,
become a world leader in sought-after medical expertise?

Why does Cuba have such good healthcare?
Cuba’s medical export business has its roots in the years
immediately following the 1959 Revolution, when rebel leader Fidel
Castro overthrew the rightwing dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista
and established a Communist regime.

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Universal healthcare and free education were fundamental to
Castro’s project. “They were the two big investments of the
revolution,” says Mark Keller, a Cuba expert at the Economist
Intelligence Unit. “So Cuba has a really well-educated population
and a surfeit of doctors.” Life expectancy on the island is higher
than in the U.S. and Cubans have almost more than three times as
many doctors per capita.

How do doctors serve Cuba’s international interests?
In the Cold War years, Cuba began using its doctors as a diplomatic
tool to overcome political isolation. In 1963, a year after Cuba
was expelled from the Organisation of American States, it sent its
first medical mission abroad to Algeria, with 56 Cubans replacing
French doctors who had left the African country after it gained
independence from France in 1962. The doctors helped cement a bond
between the two revolutionary countries and they maintain close
relations today.

The diplomatic benefits of sending doctors to developing
countries still helps Cuba in international relations, Keller says.
“For smaller African or Caribbean countries, who can’t necessarily
afford to pay for the doctors, it gets them on Cuba’s side,” he
says. “They’ll be more lenient towards Cuba when they’re under
international pressure from Europe and the United States [to oppose
it].”

Sending doctors abroad for humanitarian purposes is also great
PR for the country. Cuban medics won praise in international media
for their efficacy and commitment after Haiti’s 2010 earthquake and
during West Africa’s 2014 Ebola crisis. That helps to put a
palatable face on an authoritarian regime that fiercely represses
dissent, restricts its citizens’ rights to travel and carries out
thousands of arbitrary detentions every year.

How does sending doctors abroad affect the Cuban economy?
Today, it’s not all about altruism. “When you have a very well
educated population but also shortages of cash and goods, you want
to find a way to monetize it,” says Keller. A few years after
Venezuela had its own socialist revolution in 1998, the two
leftwing countries entered into a symbiotic relationship. Oil-rich
Venezuela sends Cuba cash and subsidised oil shipments to the
island in exchange for highly educated professionals, including not
only doctors but also intelligence officials and sports trainers,
Keller says. 21,700 Cuban professionals are still working in
Venezuela, officials say, despite the massive economic and
humanitarian crisis it has been suffering for the last five
years.

Cuba’s 2013 deal with then-president Dilma Roussef made Brazil
Cuba’s second-biggest customer. Brazil paid around $3,600 per
doctor per month to the Cuban government, according to the
Brazilian health ministry. With 8,300 doctors in Cuba before they
were ordered home on Nov. 14, that’s around $360 million each
year.

Cuba has recently signed deals with Algeria, Kenya and Uganda to
trade cash for doctors.

What’s it like for the doctors?
Where Cuba gets badly needed cash and foreign countries get badly
needed medical expertise, the doctors themselves have an equally
clear incentive to work abroad. Cuba’s monthly minimum wage is
around $25, rising to around $50 for doctors. In Brazil, even with
the Cuban government taking most of their salary, they were still
getting about $1000 a month, a life-changing sum for their
families, according to Keller. “There are consumer goods shortages
that mean a lot of products are only available in dollar-only
stores,” he says. “So if you have a family member abroad who’s
earning dollars, you’ll live a totally different life.”

The working conditions for Cubans abroad, though, are not always
easy. They are rarely welcomed by local doctors, who view the
Cubans as a way for local authorities to avoid addressing
fundamental problems and shortages in domestic healthcare
systems.

The Cuban government keeps a tight grip on the doctors, too. In
2017, they tightened restrictions on doctors working in Brazil,
banning them from taking Brazilian medical exams and compelling
pregnant women to return home to Cuba after 22 weeks of pregnancy
to prevent their children from being born in Brazil and getting
Brazilian citizenship.

Are there any rumblings of dissent?
Not all the doctors working abroad are happy with the arrangement.
In 2017 some 150 of those in Brazil filed lawsuits in local courts
challenging the agreement and attempting to break from the Cuban
government to practice independently in Brazil. On Nov. 29 several
more doctors filed claims against PAHO, arguing that the U.N.
agency has made $73 million dollars off the Cubans’ work and
supported conditions that violate international laws on forced
labor.

Around 2,000 Cubans will stay on in Brazil in defiance of their
government, a Brazilian diplomatic source told AFP. Keller says
some Cubans could try to go to the U.S., which has been
historically welcomed Cubans who turn their back on the regime.

The dispute with Bolsonaro is a reminder that ideology will
always weigh heavily on Cuba’s international relations, Keller
says. “It’s not just any old country. It runs a risk when it’s
dealing with a democratic country like Brazil that things will
change.”

But Keller says there has been little pushback outside of
Brazil. And, with 67 countries on board, Cuba’s doctors-for-export
business isn’t going anywhere. “This is a massive program,” he
says. “It’s one of the main things Cuba has to offer to the
world.”

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