Cuba to the Rescue – Shame on Us!

Yet again, Cuba is stepping up to the plate, showing the rest of the world the meaning of solidarity and brotherly love.

Later this week, 16 medical personnel from Cuba will arrive here to assist in the fight against Covid-19. Our local health workers who are conducting surveillance at our many ports of entry are already stretched to the limit and the Cubans cannot arrive soon enough to add their expertise and experience in the control of infectious diseases.

Already, Cuba has sent or has agreed to send health care workers to Italy, Jamaica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Suriname and Venezuela, in addition to those coming here.

And it is not as though they do not have their own Covid-19 cases to deal with at home. Even so, they have bent over backwards to assist others on humanitarian grounds.

Just a few weeks ago, Cuba, which has, for 60 years, been on the receiving end of an unconscionable economic blockade from the United States, jumped to the rescue of 50 passengers and crew onboard a British cruise ship, many of whom were displaying symptoms of, or had been diagnosed with Covid-19. Cuba allowed the ship to dock and assisted more than 1000 passengers and crew members to exit the boat and board a caravan of buses with special police escort to the airport for chartered flights back to the United Kingdom. The ship had reportedly been turned away from the Bahamas, other Caribbean nations and the United States.

This is just another example of the selflessness of the people of Cuba and their exemplary conduct as global citizens which has been well documented over the years.

It is in the face of this type of generosity by the Cuban people that it becomes even more difficult to stomach credible reports that there are among us, young Vincentian health professionals, who are refusing to join in the fight against Covid-19. What makes it even worse is that these are people whose training was not only delivered free of charge to them, but they were also paid a stipend to go to school! Where did we as a society go wrong? What do the Cubans teach their young citizens that we have been missing? Shame on these young health professionals, shame on us!