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In her article Still Crazy About Cuba (TWP, 7-12-2000), Judy Mann praises our government for 'standing up' to the Miami Cubans as they "tried to kidnap a child." She also criticizes the United States' embargo against Cuba saying that sensible people would try something new after an experiment has failed for 40 years. I agree that sensibility would dictate we try something new or better after the old way fails. But that does not mean we should trade with communists or insult those who came to this country fleeing from communist oppression.

Under communism, the individual's rights are subjugated for the benefit of the collective. There is no freedom of the press, or of religion, or of speech, and certainly no due process. The government controls everything--your child's school, what kind of job you enjoy, what you're supposed to believe and to what you adhere. So when we trade with communists, we are directly supporting their efforts to squash individual rights.

We never should've done this with the former Soviet Union or China, we shouldn't be doing it with North Korea, and we shouldn't even think of doing it with Cuba. Even exporting basic nourishment and medical supplies is a shot in the dark. We have no way of knowing if the intended recipients will actually get either staple since communist governments also control distribution of supplies.

Apparently, Judy Mann forgot all of this when she wrote her article. She also forgot the thousands of families who were executed by Fidel Castro as he came to power, and the grief of their relatives who now live in this country. The fact that Cuban political dissidents are routinely arrested was forgotten as well as the fact that the Cuban territory serves as transshipment zone for cocaine bound for the US and Europe.

One wonders what to infer from such forgetfulness. Is Judy Mann a fan of Fidel Castro and therefore a communist sympathizer? Or is she nothing more than a sloppy journalist. Whatever the case may be, it is evident Ms. Mann thinks Cuba isn't really that bad of a place to live.

In the July 10 issue of the New Yorker, Tracy Kidder profiles Dr. Paul Farmer as he travels the world bringing medical care and knowledge to those who most need it. Judy Mann quoted Tracy Kidder as saying, "Cuba's life expectancy is among the highest in the world; malaria, dengue fever, tuberculosis and AIDS are rare; Cuba has more doctors per capita than any other country and more than twice as many per capita as the United States; Cuba has trained doctors from all over Latin America, for free, sending nearly 1,000 to Haiti alone."

Judy Mann would do herself justice if she were to question Tracy Kidder's knowledge of Cuban healthcare. Specifically, she should ask if the statistics Kidder provided are reliable. Were she to do this, she would find that Tracy Kidder is not an authority on Cuban healthcare, nor are his statistics reliable. Other sources have Kidder's statistics quite differently.

Death from AIDS may be less likely in Cuba than here in the United States, but not by way of medical advances or government spending on healthcare. It can be explained in large part by Fidel Castro quarantining HIV+ people in a sanatorium. Only recently has that requirement been lifted. Now, HIV+ people have the "choice" of living in a sanatorium or at home.
Rena Pederson of The Dallas Morning News wrote about the great many doctors and high life expectancy. In her 11-01-1998 article entitled "The Jurassic Dictator", she notes, "International observers say doctors now are forced to drive cabs to make ends meet and even staples like black beans are in short supply. Prostitution and suicide are on the rise."
Probably the only reason we know about dengue fever in Cuba is because of Dr. Dessy Mendoza alerting the Cuban public to its outbreak in the province of Santiago. Unfortunately, Dr. Mendoza was jailed for breaking this news and he was charged with "enemy propaganda". The outbreak killed 10 people.
Malaria is a common problem in much of the Caribbean. It does not, however, appear to be a problem in Cuba. Given Fidel Castro's treatment of HIV+ people and the treatment of Dr. Dessy Mendoza, one can only guess why malaria is rarely seen there.
Tuberculosis may be on the rise in Cuba. In 1998, the Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kourí published a paper entitled LOCALIZACION DE CASOS Y VIGILANCIA DE LOS FOCOS DE TUBERCULOSIS EN CUBA. By my loose translation, I believe that means "Local Cases and Occurrences of Tuberculosis in Cuba." Quoting the summary of the paper: "the need for the improvement of the tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring is stressed in this paper because of the increased diagnosis of new cases in the country since 1992. The resulting figures from a trial processing of a set of surveys in 1994 reveals that 78 % of new cases and 29 % of relapses had been bacteriologically confirmed."

Quite obviously, Fidel Castro has not done well by his people on this ledger. For this to be ignored by Ms. Mann is injurious and insulting to those who fled Cuba in search of a better life here. Equally insulting is Ms. Mann's curt reference to the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez as those who "tried to kidnap a child." Such an attitude amounts to a virtual slap in the face against Elian's late mother and to other Cubans who fled Castro's oppression in search of freedom.

Elian Gonzales' mother died trying to give herself and Elian a better life in this country. Many, many Americans saw fit to have Elian returned to his father in Cuba. To me, this is nothing short of a mystery. While it is obviously important for a child to be with his father, what should've been at issue here is what is always at issue in custody disputes--the best interests of the child. Clearly, Elian's best interests lie not with his father in Cuba, but here in America where he would be able to think and act freely. Once more, we don't know why else Elian's mother left Cuba with her son. Was she fleeing from communist oppression? Or was she also trying to get away from an abusive ex-husband?

Regardless, the issue was put to rest when Elian returned to Cuba with his father earlier this year. That was, until, July 12 when Judy Mann decided to expound on the virtues of Fidel Castro and his communist oppression. Ms. Mann certainly has the right to such an exposition in The United States, although I highly doubt she'd have that same right in Cuba. Nonetheless, her Cuba article would read well if she bothered to do a modicum of research tempered with a bit of understanding. In the future, she should look at both sides of an issue before writing something so incredibly one-sided.

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