On their national Independence Day Cubans celebrated their vision of an alternative model for development, writes Faiza Rady Like every year on New Year's Day, the Cuban people celebrated their national day -- but this year in particular, which marks the 49th anniversary of their revolution, they had many reasons to rejoice. In a written address to the National Assembly, President Fidel Castro reminisced about his nation's dream of freedom on 1 January, 1959. "Surrounded by the accumulated grievances that our society inherited from its neo-colonial past under United States domination, many of us dreamed of creating a fully independent nation where justice prevailed." Today this dream has, in many ways, been realised. "Nearly 50 years after the triumph of the revolution, we can justifiably feel proud of ourselves as we held our ground in the struggle against the most powerful empire ever to exist in history," Castro said. Not only has Cuba held its ground against the US in its quest for national independence, it has also created an alternative and highly successful economic and social model in the Caribbean and Latin American region. Among the 33 countries profiled by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Cuba ranks fifth. "Despite the economic hardship resulting from the US blockade that even prohibits foreign subsidiaries of US multinationals from trading with Cuba, the economy grew by 7.5 per cent in 2007," says Cuban ambassador to Cairo Angel Delman Fernandez, "this places Cuba above the Latin American average growth of 5.6 per cent." Cuba's growth level is partially due to significantly increased investments in pharmaceutical research and development and bio-medical technology. While the pharmaceutical export sector is growing, the internationally renowned quality of Cuba's medical sector and its comparatively low cost by Northern standards has brought "medical tourism" to the island. This phenomenon was recently dramatised by US political activist and Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore in Sicko, a documentary about the denial of healthcare to an estimated 47 million of the American poor, who cannot afford to pay the prohibitive price of private medical insurance in the US. Unlike the US, Cuba offers healthcare to absolutely every Cuban citizen free of charge, says Moore. Among the Americans who are too impoverished to pay for medical insurance, he discovered three of the rescue workers, who helped save victims of the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center in New York on 9 November 2001. Seeking healthcare elsewhere Moore takes the three, who suffer from serious chronic diseases like pulmonary fibrosis and cancer, to the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention centre where -- according to Bush administration claims -- prisoners are receiving first class medical care. Accompanied by his crew, microphone in hand, Moore requests medical assistance for the "three heroes of 9/11". The US navy refuses to admit them. Moore then transports the rescue workers to Havana Hospital, where they are admitted and treated by a team of renowned Cuban physicians. Reggie Cervantes, a pulmonary fibrosis patient is outraged when she discovers that an inhaler cartridge that retails for $120 in the US only costs five cents in Cuba. Cervantes then tells Moore that she plans to "take back a suitcase full of them". As a result, the US Treasury Department is investigating Moore for possible violation of the trade blockade against Cuba. In July, he was served with a subpoena. The US media had a field day lambasting Moore for his "anti-Americanism". CNN, in particular, ridiculed Moore for seeking "inferior healthcare in Cuba". The World Health Organisation (WHO) ranks the US healthcare system as 37th worldwide, while Cuba ranks 39th. "However," says Moore, "the fact that the healthcare system in an impoverished nation crippled by our decades-old blockade [including medical supplies and drugs] ranks so closely to ours is in itself an indictment of the American system." Though Cuban healthcare ranks lower that the US system, the 2006 UN Human Development Index states that Cuban life expectancy of 77.6 years is slightly longer than the estimated 77.5 years life expectancy in the US. Cuba also outflanks the US, and all Latin American countries, in infant mortality rates. With 5.3 deaths for every 1,000 live births, Cuba, together with Canada, has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas, reported UNICEF. "Educational development achieved through literacy campaigns, establishment of a free healthcare system, immunisation, family planning programmes and special care to pregnant women has made it possible," says the UNICEF report. Besides having achieved high standards of healthcare for its people, the Cuban government has made its comparative advantage in medicine part of a socialist vision of fair trade -- where medical and educational services are bartered for oil. This vision was expressed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Petrocaribe regional energy cooperation Summit in Cienfuegos, Cuba -- which included, among others, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua. Addressing the summit on 21 December, Chavez said that a new Caribbean model could emerge from a policy of fair trade in the region "which we could see as [setting] an example to the world," reported the Cuban daily Granma. A model for fair trade is spelled out in the People Trade Agreement (PTA) signed between Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia in 2006. The PTA stipulates the export of Venezuelan and Bolivian natural resources in exchange for much-needed Cuban medical and educational expertise. Fair trade between the three countries has paid off. In Bolivia, the Cuban medical brigade celebrated the Day of Latin American Medicine on 3 December, with the announcement that they had treated eight million poor people free of charge since the opening of their mission in February 2006. Another success story was told by Cuban ophthalmologists in Bolivia, whose work restored the sight of 184,080 visually impaired patients. In Venezuela the Barrio Adentro social programme, staffed by Cuban and Venezuelan physicians, provides free healthcare to 17 million poor people. And the Robinson Literacy Programme has graduated 1.4 million formerly illiterate people, providing them with indispensable reading and writing skills. In exchange, Venezuela delivers 90,000 barrels of crude oil a day to its trading partner. Venezuela has also helped restore the Cienfuegos fuel refinery in Cuba and equipped it with cutting-edge technology. The refinery can supply 65,000 oil barrels daily and will permit Cuba to drastically reduce its dependence on fuel imports. Speaking to Granma, Venezuelan Ambassador to Cuba Ali Rodriguez Araque explained the idea of the Petrocaribe, "Unlike the neo-liberal model of economic Darwinism where the strongest swallows up the weakest, we are proposing formulas for everyone to prosper, reflecting a spirit of complementation instead of competition." It is the spirit of justice and equality envisioned by Castro in the early days of the revolution.
