Lessons from Cuba

By Kofi Akordor
THE Cuban experience is a well-known story. Cuba is a small island in the Caribbean. Latest estimates show that it has a population of 11 million. In terms of land mass, Cuba is smaller than Ghana, with a size of 110,860sq.km, as against Ghana’s 238,500sq.km.
Cuba’s modern history began in 1959 when Fidel Castro and his 26th of July Movement removed Fulgencio Batista from office in what has become the Cuban Revolution. The revolution witnessed the expropriation of private property with little or no compensation, the naturalisation of public utilities and the closing down of the Mafia-controlled gambling industry.
That development met with stiff resistance from the US, its powerful northern neighbour, resulting in the imposition of trade and diplomatic embargo by the US on Cuba in 1963. The US also launched several covert operations through its Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to topple the regime without success. Cuba has survived till today.
Cuba has not only survived after decades of isolation by the US and its Western allies but also chalked up tremendous successes which even its opponents admit are mind-boggling and worthy of commendation and emulation.
Our Vice President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, who last week was the guest of the Cuban government, could not but proclaim that the US blockade notwithstanding, Cuba had made tremendous progress in several fields, especially medicine, that Africa could learn from in moving forward.
Cuba has attained a literacy rate of 99.8 per cent and its infant mortality rate (6.1 per 1,000 births) is lower than that most of developed countries, including the US, whose rate is 6.8/1,000 births.
Cuba’s average life expectancy rate is 78.3, third to Canada and Chile in the Americas, while its doctor/patient ratio is the highest in the world. In fact, Cuba has thousands of doctors serving in over 40 countries worldwide, including Ghana, where Cuban doctors and other health professionals have been rendering services in some of the remotest parts of the country.
Cuba is not an oil-exporting country and derives most of its revenue from the sugar industry, mining and tourism, including medical tourism which brings cash from the export of medical professionals to Europe, Latin America, Canada and America.
Notwithstanding hostility from the US, Cuba had been a friend of Africa’s fight against colonialism and imperialism. Cuban soldiers have fought in the same trenches alongside their African brothers in Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia and elsewhere in the wars of independence and liberation.
Cuba’s case may not be all rosy, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union when support from the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) dried up while the US commercial blockade was still on.
But the Cuban spirit is still worthy of emulation by African countries if they hope to one day be their own masters.
Vice President Mahama did not mince words when he told African envoys in Havana that in order to turn around Africa’s challenges into success stories like Cuba’s, “Africa must stand as a continent that represents itself; we must break down the regulations that tie us to our colonial masters”.
He went on, “Until we break the barriers, all the protocols that we have signed, such as the free movement of persons, will not work.”
We in Ghana particularly have to take a cue from Cuba that nothing comes easy and that it takes a lot of determination to separate one from freedom and bondage. Apart from the Cuban medical brigade consisting of more than 200 health personnel currently in the country, the Cuban government has offered to assist Ghana to train 250 specialist doctors to beef up the resource capacity of the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
These specialist doctors will train our doctors in areas such as anaesthetics, clinical pathology and haematology, internal medicine, general surgery, morbid anatomy and paediatrics and most of these doctors will be deployed in health facilities in most of the deprived areas which most of our doctors see as no-go areas.
In addition to this, Cuba has extended a US$74 million facility to Ghana to enhance the national effort at fighting malaria. The money is to be used to pay for the chemicals that will be used for the anti-malaria project, the technical personnel who will be deployed from Cuba and their Ghanaian counterparts.
As could be seen, the Cuban offer is not free of charge. Already, Cuba is demanding that Ghana should be responsible for the payment and upkeep of the specialist doctors who will be posted to the country.
The question is, for how long are we going to rely on Cuban doctors? Can we learn from Cuba how it has been able to train so many doctors for export and do the same here, instead of continuing to rely on that country’s largesse which will not last forever?
Since the Vice President himself has seen the wisdom in breaking the bonds of colonialism and dependency as the surest way of moving forward, shall we, for once, pledge to ourselves that in the next 10 years or so we shall end the importation of Cuban doctors into the country?
I believe if we end spending money frivolously in certain areas and protect our national revenue more than we are doing now, we should be able to provide for our needs. The difference between Ghana and Cuba is not about the availability of resources, as a cursory glance at the natural resources of the two countries will show that Ghana is far ahead. The difference lies in focus, management and setting a strong national agenda that must be pursued with all vigorousness and seriousness.
If yesterday we saw our salvation in the advanced Western countries and today, after many years of self-rule, we see salvation in countries we share trenches with in the developing world, then we must admit that there is something fundamentally wrong with us and the earlier we recover ourselves, the better.

fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com