Che’s Singular Contribution To The World

I have written before about the need for America to move beyond the Cold War and be pragmatic in its dealings with Cuba.

(Che was a tyrannical bastard but he had one great idea…. H/T Dr. Bulldog & Ronin)

Dave Schuler talks about China’s plan to provide an estimated $123 billion universal health care system for its citizens. Ezra Klein discusses how Chinese leaders see the plan as a way to induce consumption and economic dynamism. Chris Albon offers a link to an article about Cuba’s education of thousands of foreign students in the medical fields and its expeditionary medical efforts.

If you can ignore the the socialist drivel that appears throughout, the author offers some keen insights into a new project Cuba has conceived with its Venezuelan allies to train medical students in the latter country.

Each of the these new university programs dispenses with the traditional university campus and creates a “medical university without walls.” In the new system, there is regular classroom instruction at community polyclinics and diagnostic clinics, and this is supplemented by a great deal of participation and observation with family medicine specialists as they attend to patients in nearby Barrio Adentro offices.

……

Cubans, with the help of Venezuela, are currently educating more doctors, about 70,000 in all, than all the medical schools in the United States, which typically have somewhere between 64,000 to 68,000 students enrolled in their programs.

A good argument could be made that this is the first area America and Cuba can work together in, sharing resources in an effort to train medical personnel from participating nations and then reaping the benefits years later with more dedicated staff in “Seam” and “Gap” states alike.  Cuba already does an admirable job training future medical professionals, including a few Americans.
A wise use of dwindling foreign aid funds would be a public/private sector effort to dramatically expand this effort. No shortage exists of qualified instructors in Cuba, let alone America. Doctors, nurses, dentists and other qualified medical personnel could be trained, developing indigenous skill sets in parts of the world sorely lacking them. Conditions would apply, with at least a binding contract to render health services in their home country or another non-Core nation for at least 8 years.

China was mentioned earlier because while they have the fiscal capacity to create such a program, it is perhaps iffy whether they have the professional capacity. A Cuba-US program of this sort could work with the Chinese (and the Indians, amongst others) to provide this expansive medical diplomacy.

*In my time in Miami, I heard many bitter complaints and attacks on Cuban society from exiles. Alone among most present subjects, the quality of the Cuban medical schools were praised. They were well-regarded, unlike most professionals and institutions in Cuba.

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing For White-Collar Crimes

We have it for many drug crimes, why not for white-collar crimes?