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Being a doctor of Oriental Medicine I’d been looking forward to visiting some of the many Acupuncture & Herbal clinics scattered throughout Havana. “Dropping in” unannounced turned out to be another unusual experience. As you may know, here in the States it usually takes weeks, if you’re lucky, to get an appointment with ANY sort of Therapist; well there, it seemed, that at any given hour on any day, MOST of the doctors on duty at the clinics were totally available. Immediately! I would arrive, say around 2pm, and within 5 minutes, would be walking through the facility with 3 to 7 doctors taking me on a complete guided tour!
It turns out that this state of affairs is completely normal all over Cuba. With the same reverse psychology that drove a third of the American public to Alternative Medicine the Cuban People have almost unanimously rejected the Government-sponsored program of “Complementary” Medicine it put in place when our embargo began to threaten supplies of “regular” medicines. This was certainly the greatest disappointment of my visit; for a great many years I’ve worked for change in our profit-oriented, pill-pushing “Traditional” Medical establishment, and here, the entire populace has refused to reap the benefits of a Natural healing system because of their political alienation.
What a drag! For the rest of my trip I did my best to dredge up sufficient “missionary” zeal to argue the case with any local who would listen. And they did; Cubans are not only some of the most articulate people I’ve run across but the most thoughtful. They think plenty, about everything. I guess they’d prefer decent jobs and TV but somehow I felt them lucky…
Lucky or unlucky… is that the question? I was more confused now than I HAD been before I’d even come, about what REALLY was going on here. Seemed the people were as stumped as I was; on the one hand they felt held down, usually hungry, without opportunities for advancement and without the freedom of travel that most of “us” enjoy. On the other, nobody appeared over-worked or stressed out from their jobs, and in fact most didn’t even have to show up at their work, at all or ever, as far as I was told. They had no more wars to fight so no danger there. A lot of great music was available on the streets and fantastic conversation… so, be that as it may… and I doubt that it was, I remained stumped concerning the question. I just wished that Carlos could have been allowed back in the country to continue our debate.
So I finished my vacation with the original questions going unanswered, but with a new appreciation for what had never concerned me before: Can/Do good intentions pave the path to hell? And visa/versa? Has the US “embargo” contributed to something “good”… or “bad”… or indifferent…? I wish I knew. I do know that one man’s impressions amount to about a hill of beans in this “new” age.
The Dutch Fokker airplane that met us on the tarmac was a surprise. Coming over, with a monster plane and hundreds of passengers was quite a contrast with this tiny propeller-driven “toy”. Most of the other 20 passengers agreed and we shared jokes about it to allay our apprehension. It was anti-climactic however; we made it… back to the “civilized” world of Cancun, with its many Mercedes’ and live jaguars pacing the walls of opulent hotels… at least HERE I could stand for an hour under a thousand gallons
of hot, hot water.
Read all six parts of Iowa Yankee in King Castro’s Court
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
