London Metropolitan University Research Institutes
 


Society for Latin American Studies March 2008

The Society for Latin American Studies is the UK organisation of Latin Americanist scholars. Its annual conferences attract participants from all over the world.

The 2008 conference tokk place on 28-30 March at Liverpool University.

More details can be found on the SLAS website.

The IISC convened a successful panel at this conference

The panel was entitled:


"Cuba’s Health Care System and Overseas Medical Aid Programme"

The papers that were presented are detailed below. The powerpoints and papers are also downloadable but please cite the authors and this page as a reference if they are used.

Rationale

It has become increasingly accepted that one of the most significant achievements of the Cuban revolution is its system of public health care, which has been characterised also by a willingness to provide aid to other developing countries. In the last four years, thanks to a close alliance with the government of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, the extent to which Cuba has been able to extend this overseas aid has dramatically increased. New initiatives have included ‘Operation Miracle’ a programme of providing free eye-surgery to the poor of the Caribbean and Latin America, the Henry Reeve disaster relief brigade, the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana and, latterly, a new programme of training medical personnel through distance learning techniques. The speakers in this panel are doing original research into the efficacy and extent of the Cuban health care system and its outreach programme as it unfolds into new spheres and dimensions. The object of the symposium is to critically examine these developments and allow a space for researchers to share data and experiences.

Papers

1. An Overview of Cuba's Overseas Medical Aid Programs

Dr. Michael Erisman, Political Science Department, Indiana State University, USA

The basic descriptive elements of the presentation will: 1) survey the evolution of Cuba's overseas medical aid programs from their inception to the contemporary period; 2) delineate the organizational and logistical aspects of such programs; and 3) compare the scope of Cuba's programs to that of other countries (e.g., the United States). The analytical elements of the presentation will focus upon probing the relationship between Cuba's medical aid programs and the larger contours of Cuban foreign policy, the basic goal being to explore the nature and dynamics of the contribution(s) that Cuba's medical aid programs can make to the achievement of some of its key foreign policy interests (e.g., the acquisition and utilization of "soft power", challenging Washington's neoliberal agenda, promoting greater South/South cooperation and integration).

A PDF of the paper is available here:

Erisman SLAS

2. Cuban Medical Internationalism in Latin America since 1998

John M. Kirk Dalhousie Univeristy, Nova Scotia, Canada

While Cuba has provided humanitarian support to the region since 1960, it is only since the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in Central America that it has employed this approach as a major plank of its foreign policy. This paper examines the key aspects of Cuban medical internationalism in Latin America, analyzing in the particular the impact of "Operation Miracle" and the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina. A secondary goal is an analysis of Cuban motives for this extraordinary programme of humanitarian support for the region.

3. Cuba’s International Medical Programme and South-South Cooperation

Professor Margaret Blunden, International Institute for the Study of Cuba, London Metropolitan University.

Cuba’s medical assistance abroad, starting in Algeria in 1963 long preceded the 1990s, when the idea of south-south cooperation started to influence the field of development studies. The advantages claimed for South-South cooperation include the view that poor nations are more likely to find appropriate, low-cost and sustainable approaches to development in other developing countries, rather than from the rich north, a relationship that may evoke neo-colonial reflexes. The success of Cuba’s international medical programmes may owe much to commonality of historical experience, and it may be that the cultural affinities between Cuba and Africa, the Caribbean and Latin American have been more important as success factors than ideological concepts of socialist solidarity. This paper explores what light the experience of Cuban international medical programmes since the 1960s throws on the strengths and weaknesses of south-south cooperation as a development strategy.

The powerpoint of this presentation is available here:

Blunden SLAS


4. Going where no doctor has gone before: How Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine may redefine geographies of health care in the global south

Robert Huish, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada

My research discusses the appropriateness of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) for the needs of communities in states, such as Ecuador, that have endured structural adjustments to their public health sectors. I look at ELAM's pedagogy and the professional experiences of its graduates. While ELAM does a tremendous job in building institutional ethics of compassion and service for marginalized communities, broader challenges in the field hinder the expansion of community-orientated primary care within Ecuador's current system. I explore the formation of ethics, the challenges in the field, and the capacity for ELAM graduates to organize against neoliberal forces, rather than give in to them.

The powerpoint of this presentation is available here:

Huish SLAS






 

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