Calling Dr Castro ...

Rarely does a week go by that we don’t read an article in the Western media about the great humanitarian work undertaken by Cuban doctors in Third World countries around the globe.

If you believe the normally unquestioning coverage, such as this article, there are so many excellent doctors in Fidel Castro’s island paradise, the Communist regime can afford to send hundreds of them off to help the poor elsewhere.

Thanks, Fidel.

Of course, the truth is very different.

While there are indeed hundreds of Cuban doctors working around the world, only a few are there on humanitarian missions.

In fact, the vast majority of the doctors are earning much-needed currency for the Castro regime, either in the form of cheap oil (as in Venezuela, for instance), or in hard cash. American dollars, no less.

In other words, the doctors are a commodity, as far as the regime is concerned.

Want proof?

Here is an interesting article that appears in the latest edition of the Fiji-based publication Islands Business.

As you can see, it involves a deal signed recently between Havana and the Solomon Islands, a small South Pacific nation with a population of about 570,000.

To tackle an acute shortage of qualified doctors, the government of the Solomon Islands is bringing in 10 Cuban doctors this month to work in local hospitals, with another 40 expected later in the year

But here is the interesting part: according to the article, the Solomon Islands will “fork out US$300 per month for the doctors’ allowance while the Cuban government will pay for their salaries”.

Get it? The Castro regime will pay the Cuban doctors their normal Cuban salary – most likely the equivalent of between US$30.00 and US$40.00 a month. If they are lucky.

And guess who gets to keep the rest of the money?

Why, those great humanitarians, the Castro brothers.

It’s enough to make you sick …