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Cuba’s role in the struggle against Covid-19 is that of a moral giant, Washington’s that of a moral pygmy
Coronavirus, as well as reminding us of our vulnerability as a species no matter how technologically advanced we may be and how complacent we had allowed ourselves to become, has also made clear that the richest country in the world, the United States, is also the poorest when it comes to common decency, honour and humanity. At the same time it has provided the world with unassailable proof that one of the poorest in terms of GDP, Cuba, also happens to be among the richest.
The recent arrival of Cuban doctors and nurses in Italy, Europe’s coronavirus epicentre, allows us to believe that another world is possible, one in which solidarity, compassion and human connectedness occupy paramount importance in international affairs. The country’s legacy of sending medical missions to poverty and disaster-stricken countries began soon after the revolution of 1959 succeeded in overthrowing the Cuba’s then US-aligned dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Two of the Cuban revolution’s key priorities were universal healthcare and education in a country in which both had been the preserve of Batista’s ruling clique and supporters. The first long term international Cuban medical mission overseas was dispatched to Algeria in 1963, replacing French doctors who’d left…
