Post by RedFlag32 on Jan 8, 2008 20:46:22 GMT
Reflections by the Commander in Chief
AN EXAMPLE OF GOOD COMMUNIST BEHAVIOUR
www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2008/ing/f070108i.html
I am referring to a Chilean woman, Elena Pedraza, a highly educated
specialist in rehabilitation. More than 40 years ago she paid her first
visit to Cuba. Allende, a medical doctor, was not yet the president of
Chile. The Cuban Revolution was almost 8 years old and it was already
training teachers, doctors, physical therapists and health specialists,
full speed ahead.
I am writing this reflection partly as a summary of six pages printed in
small letters that have landed in my hands. It is a bit longer than usual,
but done with the thought that later the full version of the speech given by
the Chilean specialist on the morning of March 15, 2002 at the Second
International Congress of the Cuban Society for Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation taking place in the capital of Cuba will be published by the
press somewhere or in some magazine.
Let us listen to her explain in her own words:
“I arrived in 1966 and Cuba was beginning an historic phase. Its beginnings
were punctuated with great difficulties and shortages; they had to solve
urgent problems, among which those dealing with health were considered to be
a top priority…Personnel trained in this specialty were needed and so their
education had to be addressed and time was of the essence; but it had to be
done, despite all the limitations existing in the country.”
“Nevertheless, society acquires more and more awareness about the marginal
world in which the disabled live. In Cuba, for example, there was only a
small number of empirical therapists, some of whom had been trained in the
United States during summer courses, and others had left the country.
“The Health Minister at that time, Dr. Machado Ventura, told me upon meeting
me: ‘we must train physical therapists for the entire country, and we have
to do it soon’. I answered in the affirmative and I asked him what such a
mission would entail; he answered: ‘we need books’ and without hesitating he
emphasized: 'We need books'. I never forgot that suggestion, for me it
became a commitment that I have always tried to honour.
“My training in kinesiology began in 1930…”
“My work experiences during 30 years in my country, Chile, were difficult…”
“I completed by working years in Chile, but I had no hesitations about
returning to take up this commitment in Cuba, in 1966.
“My first contacts took place in the Frank País Hospital. This centre was
very well equipped for treating both child and adult patients in the
specialty of traumatology and orthopaedics. It was explained to me that
previously this centre had offered very selective care and a very tiny
portion of the neediest population was able to have access to these
services.”
As I was learning about the medium in which I was to be working, I could see
the need for a very great undertaking that would also take a long time.
At that time I was already able to see the State’s concern in taking on the
population’s right to health throughout the entire country and in
rehabilitation.
“We had to begin. I visited much of the country, getting to know some of its
parts: I was in Santiago de Cuba, a very beautiful colonial city. There
I made my first attempt to carry out an elementary training course, in a
small centre for the treatment of patients suffering from various neuromotor
disorders. It was headed by Dr. González Corona…”
“This doctor fabricated his own elements to treat his patients. He was
telling me how he himself had built the devices from scrap aluminium
sheeting so that children suffering from polio could walk; he also made
parallel bars and built a rustic swimming pool for water exercises.”
In 1966, I officially begin to teach another more scheduled course on
Kinesiology for the physiotherapy students at the Frank País Hospital…”
“At that opportunity I understood how relevant it was to bring the most
important books in order to teach correctly. There were no study materials,
we had to do it all with whatever means we had. But the students’ interest
to learn was so intense, as was mine to teach, having no references and
outside of my specialty, but rather involving my experiences acquired in my
country and a sense of responsibility that I think I have had all my life in
my work in hospital clinics."
“This was the beginning that became my model for future courses that were to
be given and with the experience accumulated we adjusted each year’s
programmes with great dedication. At the end of these, which ended up being
three years, experience allowed us to go on to prepare comprehensive
teaching material; in other words, the fundamental bases of a programme of
this type for regular courses.”
In my stay at this hospital I was able to accumulate a lot of experience
that would be very valuable to me during the years I was developing my work
in Cuba.
“The path towards the development of what today is rehabilitation in Cuba
was born in these episodes that I am telling you about, what this specialty
was and how it grew year after year, throughout the entire island, until
what we can appreciate today at this Congress.”
“…I made informational visits to hospitals and polyclinics located in
peripheral areas, in all areas of the country, even in the most isolated of
places. In some of them I discovered the existence of small modest
physiotherapy departments which were being organized. Others which had
already been installed were offering services to the people but to a large
extent lacking trained staff able to provide care in this specialty.”
“…It was interesting to see everyone’s efforts to solve, step by step, this
journey that we were all involved in. This experience was very important for
me; I could see how from the Ministries of Health and Education, suitable
departments were being created to offer more thorough training to future
students; for example, raising the levels of instruction for enrolment in
kinesiology courses, and also integrating courses in programmes related to
the specialty.”
In 1979 I give my first lectures as a professor of kinesiology in the
teaching programmes for residents in the specialty of physical medicine and
rehabilitation…I taught them to always be in control of evaluation, avoid
being imprecise and making unfavourable comments in order to correctly carry
out their plan of action. I was able to recognize that this must always be
an ethical norm, and thus would prevent the patient from feeling diminished
at the beginning of a treatment.
“My years spent at Julio Díaz were very enriching and they allowed me to get
to know all the situations experienced by a disabled person; the centre had
hospital facilities, out-patient care and looked after a large population.
As I am writing my memories, I return to that distant time. I must say that
I was able to get to know a generous people who had a lot of solidarity. The
hospital continued being better equipped with new elements that would offer
more complete patient care; every year new specialties were being treated,
and the building as well continued to grow until it reached the size it is
today, that of a small fortress.”
“…I came to realize that a therapist does not forget the theoretical basis
and the practices he was taught, nor can he forget to keep on studying and
at the same time updating.
“I came to regard this centre with the affection one has for one’s home.
I cannot help but remember so many things that I experienced, with so many
colleagues, therapists, doctors, auxiliary staff, everyone always respecting
me with great warmth…”
“I must also recall spending time in other hospitals where I taught, held
conferences and training sessions, such as in the Hermanos Ameijeiras
Hospital, and others. In the 1970’s, with the goal of contributing to the
development of medicine in Cuba, we Chileans who were living in exile (even
though I never felt like an exile in Cuba) decided to pitch in to acquire 23
volumes of books dealing with the specialty of kinesiology therapy. This
happened as a response to the scant possibility of receiving foreign texts,
which were so necessary to improve teaching and the training of
professionals.”
“This Congress affords us a very complete view of what rehabilitation is
doing throughout the country. This reflects the concern of the government
and of the medical corps, and also the professional development desire’s of
staff making up the rehabilitation teams who work in this specialty.”
The motto of this Congress ‘Disability, Rehabilitation, Humanity’, commits
us to evaluate much more all that we are offering to the disabled. We make
an effort to offer rehabilitation, but when this motto extends to the word
‘Humanity’, I realize that it is not just one simple word more, rather it is
a very deep plea: humanity and dignity for human beings."
“In this international Congress, the great volume of work being done by
Cuban doctors and the other members of rehabilitation teams is recognized;
their experiences are demonstrated in all areas of the medical specialties
and this reveals the constant dedication and sense of responsibility in the
national and foreign papers presented at the Congress.”
“I should like to send an affectionate and friendly greeting to the young
people who were my students, who are now professionals overflowing with
experience and prestige; with them I took part in such gratifying tasks as
voluntary work, which in Cuba has always been a complement to the work of
each citizen."
“Havana, March, 2002.”
When the fascist coup takes place in Chile, funded by the government of the
United States, and thousands of citizens are imprisoned, tortured, vanished
or murdered, within or outside the borders of their country, Elena Pedraza
moves to Cuba, and from here she moves to different countries, gathering
world support for women. She continues to develop her research in our
country as well as her training programme. Later, she returns to her native
land, and from there she continues to collaborate with Cuba.
A few days ago I was able to leaf through an excellent book whose author
Dr. Debra Rose is a citizen of the United States where rehabilitation is a
very costly and elitist service, inaccessible to the poor. Cuba is forbidden
access to this knowledge. Elena, who never tires of sending information that
could raise the scientific levels of our specialists, sent that book, among
other materials, which contains more than a hundred different simple and
accessible exercises.
Nowadays rehabilitation acquires special and new meaning as it relates to
life. Everyone is increasing their mental and physical potential up to the
age of 35; some maintain that it is 30. From that age on, they can go on for
two or three more decades enjoying good health and physical performance,
holding on to them from the above mentioned age until advanced years at the
end of which, life is extinguished. Human beings are content to look after
themselves until the end.
The service is of benefit to all the inhabitants of the country, where today
they are born having a life expectancy of 77 years and which continues to
increase. Not only adults who are younger than 35 or 40, victims of all
kinds of accidents, but also more and more children require the noble care
provided by the rehabilitator.
In more than 600 centres, located in polyclinics and hospitals, or offering
their services abroad, about ten thousand rehabilitators are at work, while
a thousand more are being trained with increasing thoroughness and exigency.
Elena Pedraza is 97 years old and continues to offer her professional
services as a consultant. She is a fine example of intellectual worker,
womanhood and Communist. She was a member of the same party as Ricardo
Fonseca, Luis Corvalán, Volodia Teitelboim and Gladys Marín, who recently
passed away, and many others who dedicated their lives or died for their
beliefs.
On behalf of the people who, challenging the empire, began the path of the
Socialist Revolution more than half a century ago, I pay tribute to their
work and to their example.
Fidel Castro Ruz
January 7, 2008.
5:12 p.m.
AN EXAMPLE OF GOOD COMMUNIST BEHAVIOUR
www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2008/ing/f070108i.html
I am referring to a Chilean woman, Elena Pedraza, a highly educated
specialist in rehabilitation. More than 40 years ago she paid her first
visit to Cuba. Allende, a medical doctor, was not yet the president of
Chile. The Cuban Revolution was almost 8 years old and it was already
training teachers, doctors, physical therapists and health specialists,
full speed ahead.
I am writing this reflection partly as a summary of six pages printed in
small letters that have landed in my hands. It is a bit longer than usual,
but done with the thought that later the full version of the speech given by
the Chilean specialist on the morning of March 15, 2002 at the Second
International Congress of the Cuban Society for Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation taking place in the capital of Cuba will be published by the
press somewhere or in some magazine.
Let us listen to her explain in her own words:
“I arrived in 1966 and Cuba was beginning an historic phase. Its beginnings
were punctuated with great difficulties and shortages; they had to solve
urgent problems, among which those dealing with health were considered to be
a top priority…Personnel trained in this specialty were needed and so their
education had to be addressed and time was of the essence; but it had to be
done, despite all the limitations existing in the country.”
“Nevertheless, society acquires more and more awareness about the marginal
world in which the disabled live. In Cuba, for example, there was only a
small number of empirical therapists, some of whom had been trained in the
United States during summer courses, and others had left the country.
“The Health Minister at that time, Dr. Machado Ventura, told me upon meeting
me: ‘we must train physical therapists for the entire country, and we have
to do it soon’. I answered in the affirmative and I asked him what such a
mission would entail; he answered: ‘we need books’ and without hesitating he
emphasized: 'We need books'. I never forgot that suggestion, for me it
became a commitment that I have always tried to honour.
“My training in kinesiology began in 1930…”
“My work experiences during 30 years in my country, Chile, were difficult…”
“I completed by working years in Chile, but I had no hesitations about
returning to take up this commitment in Cuba, in 1966.
“My first contacts took place in the Frank País Hospital. This centre was
very well equipped for treating both child and adult patients in the
specialty of traumatology and orthopaedics. It was explained to me that
previously this centre had offered very selective care and a very tiny
portion of the neediest population was able to have access to these
services.”
As I was learning about the medium in which I was to be working, I could see
the need for a very great undertaking that would also take a long time.
At that time I was already able to see the State’s concern in taking on the
population’s right to health throughout the entire country and in
rehabilitation.
“We had to begin. I visited much of the country, getting to know some of its
parts: I was in Santiago de Cuba, a very beautiful colonial city. There
I made my first attempt to carry out an elementary training course, in a
small centre for the treatment of patients suffering from various neuromotor
disorders. It was headed by Dr. González Corona…”
“This doctor fabricated his own elements to treat his patients. He was
telling me how he himself had built the devices from scrap aluminium
sheeting so that children suffering from polio could walk; he also made
parallel bars and built a rustic swimming pool for water exercises.”
In 1966, I officially begin to teach another more scheduled course on
Kinesiology for the physiotherapy students at the Frank País Hospital…”
“At that opportunity I understood how relevant it was to bring the most
important books in order to teach correctly. There were no study materials,
we had to do it all with whatever means we had. But the students’ interest
to learn was so intense, as was mine to teach, having no references and
outside of my specialty, but rather involving my experiences acquired in my
country and a sense of responsibility that I think I have had all my life in
my work in hospital clinics."
“This was the beginning that became my model for future courses that were to
be given and with the experience accumulated we adjusted each year’s
programmes with great dedication. At the end of these, which ended up being
three years, experience allowed us to go on to prepare comprehensive
teaching material; in other words, the fundamental bases of a programme of
this type for regular courses.”
In my stay at this hospital I was able to accumulate a lot of experience
that would be very valuable to me during the years I was developing my work
in Cuba.
“The path towards the development of what today is rehabilitation in Cuba
was born in these episodes that I am telling you about, what this specialty
was and how it grew year after year, throughout the entire island, until
what we can appreciate today at this Congress.”
“…I made informational visits to hospitals and polyclinics located in
peripheral areas, in all areas of the country, even in the most isolated of
places. In some of them I discovered the existence of small modest
physiotherapy departments which were being organized. Others which had
already been installed were offering services to the people but to a large
extent lacking trained staff able to provide care in this specialty.”
“…It was interesting to see everyone’s efforts to solve, step by step, this
journey that we were all involved in. This experience was very important for
me; I could see how from the Ministries of Health and Education, suitable
departments were being created to offer more thorough training to future
students; for example, raising the levels of instruction for enrolment in
kinesiology courses, and also integrating courses in programmes related to
the specialty.”
In 1979 I give my first lectures as a professor of kinesiology in the
teaching programmes for residents in the specialty of physical medicine and
rehabilitation…I taught them to always be in control of evaluation, avoid
being imprecise and making unfavourable comments in order to correctly carry
out their plan of action. I was able to recognize that this must always be
an ethical norm, and thus would prevent the patient from feeling diminished
at the beginning of a treatment.
“My years spent at Julio Díaz were very enriching and they allowed me to get
to know all the situations experienced by a disabled person; the centre had
hospital facilities, out-patient care and looked after a large population.
As I am writing my memories, I return to that distant time. I must say that
I was able to get to know a generous people who had a lot of solidarity. The
hospital continued being better equipped with new elements that would offer
more complete patient care; every year new specialties were being treated,
and the building as well continued to grow until it reached the size it is
today, that of a small fortress.”
“…I came to realize that a therapist does not forget the theoretical basis
and the practices he was taught, nor can he forget to keep on studying and
at the same time updating.
“I came to regard this centre with the affection one has for one’s home.
I cannot help but remember so many things that I experienced, with so many
colleagues, therapists, doctors, auxiliary staff, everyone always respecting
me with great warmth…”
“I must also recall spending time in other hospitals where I taught, held
conferences and training sessions, such as in the Hermanos Ameijeiras
Hospital, and others. In the 1970’s, with the goal of contributing to the
development of medicine in Cuba, we Chileans who were living in exile (even
though I never felt like an exile in Cuba) decided to pitch in to acquire 23
volumes of books dealing with the specialty of kinesiology therapy. This
happened as a response to the scant possibility of receiving foreign texts,
which were so necessary to improve teaching and the training of
professionals.”
“This Congress affords us a very complete view of what rehabilitation is
doing throughout the country. This reflects the concern of the government
and of the medical corps, and also the professional development desire’s of
staff making up the rehabilitation teams who work in this specialty.”
The motto of this Congress ‘Disability, Rehabilitation, Humanity’, commits
us to evaluate much more all that we are offering to the disabled. We make
an effort to offer rehabilitation, but when this motto extends to the word
‘Humanity’, I realize that it is not just one simple word more, rather it is
a very deep plea: humanity and dignity for human beings."
“In this international Congress, the great volume of work being done by
Cuban doctors and the other members of rehabilitation teams is recognized;
their experiences are demonstrated in all areas of the medical specialties
and this reveals the constant dedication and sense of responsibility in the
national and foreign papers presented at the Congress.”
“I should like to send an affectionate and friendly greeting to the young
people who were my students, who are now professionals overflowing with
experience and prestige; with them I took part in such gratifying tasks as
voluntary work, which in Cuba has always been a complement to the work of
each citizen."
“Havana, March, 2002.”
When the fascist coup takes place in Chile, funded by the government of the
United States, and thousands of citizens are imprisoned, tortured, vanished
or murdered, within or outside the borders of their country, Elena Pedraza
moves to Cuba, and from here she moves to different countries, gathering
world support for women. She continues to develop her research in our
country as well as her training programme. Later, she returns to her native
land, and from there she continues to collaborate with Cuba.
A few days ago I was able to leaf through an excellent book whose author
Dr. Debra Rose is a citizen of the United States where rehabilitation is a
very costly and elitist service, inaccessible to the poor. Cuba is forbidden
access to this knowledge. Elena, who never tires of sending information that
could raise the scientific levels of our specialists, sent that book, among
other materials, which contains more than a hundred different simple and
accessible exercises.
Nowadays rehabilitation acquires special and new meaning as it relates to
life. Everyone is increasing their mental and physical potential up to the
age of 35; some maintain that it is 30. From that age on, they can go on for
two or three more decades enjoying good health and physical performance,
holding on to them from the above mentioned age until advanced years at the
end of which, life is extinguished. Human beings are content to look after
themselves until the end.
The service is of benefit to all the inhabitants of the country, where today
they are born having a life expectancy of 77 years and which continues to
increase. Not only adults who are younger than 35 or 40, victims of all
kinds of accidents, but also more and more children require the noble care
provided by the rehabilitator.
In more than 600 centres, located in polyclinics and hospitals, or offering
their services abroad, about ten thousand rehabilitators are at work, while
a thousand more are being trained with increasing thoroughness and exigency.
Elena Pedraza is 97 years old and continues to offer her professional
services as a consultant. She is a fine example of intellectual worker,
womanhood and Communist. She was a member of the same party as Ricardo
Fonseca, Luis Corvalán, Volodia Teitelboim and Gladys Marín, who recently
passed away, and many others who dedicated their lives or died for their
beliefs.
On behalf of the people who, challenging the empire, began the path of the
Socialist Revolution more than half a century ago, I pay tribute to their
work and to their example.
Fidel Castro Ruz
January 7, 2008.
5:12 p.m.