Cuba: General Facts

• shr.aaas.org/rtt/sites.htm#3
• www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cu.html

4/12/01	The Next Biotech Corridor: Cuba? -- Why would anyone expect Cuba to be on the cusp of producing cutting-edge medicine? (Red Herring)
2/28/01	From DePaul to Havana, lawyer charts Cuba's legal reawakening -- When Fidel Castro's revolution swept to power in Cuba in 1959, it quickly disparaged lawyers as corrupt and useless vestiges of the capitalist class. That Castro himself was trained as a lawyer didn't matter. Students were steered away from the profession, the University of Havana law school saw its classes folded into other disciplines and over a decade the practice of law faded. (Chicago Tribune)
2/15/01	A postcard from the enigmatic island -- A two-hour drive from the noxious fumes of Havana takes us to Vinales, in Pinar del Rio, Cuba's western province. Fidel Castro has ordered all nooks and crannies of the city sprayed so as to eliminate the dreaded Aedis Aegypti, the mosquito that haunts the Caribbean and whose bite can cause dengue fever which, in its extreme form causes serious illness and even death. (Radio Progreso)
11/3/99	Inside Cuba's legal system -- The Cuban legal system has been criticized by U.S.-based human rights organizations for alleged violations of international standards. However, such groups are rarely allowed to visit Cuba and must often base their studies on the testimony of the Cuban exile community. Recently Bay Area residents had an opportunity to learn about the system from the Cuban point of view, a view that emphasizes the historical context in which the system operates, as well as the economic and political threat to which Cuba is subjected by the United States' embargo. (San Francisco Bay Guardian)
4/1/97	Primary Care in Cuba -- Cuba's accomplishments in primary care, while controversial, include several developments pertinent to family medicine. These accomplishments involve low-technology and organizational innovations such as neighborhood-based family medicine as the focus of primary care; regionalized systems of hospital services and professional training; innovative public health initiatives and epidemiologic surveillance; universal access to services without substantial barriers related to race, social class, gender, and age; and active programs in alternative or traditional treatments such as "green medicine" and "thermalism." (University of New Mexico)
1/1/97	Cuba's Entrepreneurial Socialism -- Making sense of Cuba's economy is not easy. There's a joke I heard when I was in Havana recently: The CIA sends an agent down to live in Cuba and report back on the state of the economy. He returns six months later, babbling, and is carted off to an asylum. "I don't get it," he mutters over and over. (The Atlantic Monthly)

12/1/01

Why is the US Courting One Communist Country While Destroying Another? -- The U.S. decision to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status with China represents yet another step toward "normalizing" relations with that country. Both the Clinton Administration and Congress support opening up economic relations, despite the fact that critics of China's human rights, environmental and labor abuses maintain that economic strictures are the only weapon we have to force change in these areas. (Impact Press)