[Sust-mar] ON THE SLOPES OF THE HIMALAYAS: CUBAN MEDICAL INTERNATIONALISM IN PAKISTAN

Fri Mar 9 07:56:03 EST 2007

FILM SCREENING

ON THE SLOPES OF THE HIMALAYAS: CUBAN MEDICAL INTERNATIONALISM IN PAKISTAN

7pm, Thursday, March 15
Room 302
Dalhousie Student Union Building

ON THE SLOPES OF THE HIMALAYAS is a moving documentary on Cuban medical 
assistance to Pakistan in the wake of the massive earthquake that kiiled 
more than 75,000 Pakistanis, maimed over 100, 0000 and and left more than 
3.3 million homeless. Cuba sent hundreds of medical personnel, who provided 
the most extensive and indepth care, treating many more people and staying 
longer than the more publicized Western efforts.  ON THE SLOPES OF THE 
HIMALAYAS covers a poignant example of Cuba's ungoing medical and 
humanitarian internationalism, which has - and continues to have - a 
profound impact on dozens of countries and millions of people across the 
world.
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Exceprt from the  article "Cuban medics prepare to leave Pakistan" by 
medical doctor Dr. W.T. Whitney:

Volunteering in Pakistan were 2,465 Cuban health workers, 1,430 of them 
experienced physicians who combined have worked in 40 countries.

They cared for over 1 million people (nearly half of them women), performed 
12,400 operations, hospitalized 12,000 patients, saw 440,000 people in tents 
or in the rubble, and provided 432,118 physiotherapy treatments for 76,183 
persons.

They worked in 44 locations, operating 32 of the 44 field hospitals in 
Pakistan, dispensing 234.5 tons of medicines and supplies, and utilizing 
275.5 tons of durable equipment, which was left behind. Some 900 Pakistani 
medical students and army doctors worked beside them.

What the Cubans did in Pakistan is also revealed in anecdotes and 
testimonials. A couple of Cuban doctors, for example, won friends when the 
jeep carrying them stopped, unable to negotiate a steep mountain road. The 
women doctors went the rest of the way on foot, uphill, with heavy packs.

One reporter was struck by how easily the Cubans acclimated to their 
surroundings. “I’m awestruck watching young Dr. Noa asking an elderly man 
about ... his pain in Urdu.” The doctor shrugged off praise: “I’ve lived 
here for a couple of months already. ... It’s not easy, but I like it. It’s 
like camping and I’m a trooper!”

In her diary, Pakistani reporter Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy writes, “The stench 
of dead bodies still lingers. ... Families huddle close together. ... The 
tent I was sharing was freezing cold. My fingers and toes were numb as I 
struggled to sleep. In the tent behind me a baby wailed. No photograph, 
television news piece can do justice to what these people are going 
through.”

The Cubans demonstrated cultural sensitivity in the face of religious, 
language and educational differences. Many Pakistani women do not accept 
medical care from men. Lives were saved because half of the Cuban doctors 
were women.

“The Cuban doctors are incredible,” reports Dr. Italo Subbaro from 
Baltimore. “I found a woman with a fractured femur. I called Juan Carlos. 
... They operated on her. Now I go to see her and find her looking at the 
river and the mountain with a smile. ... Thank God that the Cuban doctors 
are here.”

Army Chief of Staff Major General Nadeem confessed, “We never dreamt that 
the Cubans would come to this part of the world. ... What I saw during my 
tour is an expression of the professionalism, commitment and determination 
of every one of you.” A colleague, Colonel Atif Shafique, agreed: “Cuba is 
now in my blood and in my sentiments.”

The world, all too familiar with U.S. military planes shuttling Pakistani 
men to the infamous U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, can now, for 
example, observe Cuban planes bringing Pakistani children to Cuba for 
rehabilitation, prostheses and extra care.

Cuba’s approach to medicine places human interests first. In Castro’s words, 
“We train [doctors] with the most modern educational technology, with the 
ethics necessary for them to have as the precept of their future duty to 
human beings, and for them to have as their essential purpose the spreading 
of health.”