For American, medical school in Cuba is a bitter pill to swallow

HAVANA -- They arrived in Cuba more than a year ago to a hero's welcome: eight U.S. medical students with oversized duffel bags who got misty-eyed as their flag was raised among 23 others at Havana's Latin American School of Medicine.

Pioneers in a controversial program, they were the first to accept Fidel Castro's offer of full scholarships for students from disadvantaged families.

But the emotional reception soon gave way to mundane realities to which most did not adjust. Rice and beans were served at the cafeteria almost every day. There were no toilet seats in the bathrooms. The students had to take a bus 45 minutes into the city every time they wanted to check their e-mail.

Castro's critics predicted the American medical students would not complete the rigorous six-year program. Opponents dismissed the scholarships as propaganda calculated to highlight disparities between the United States and Cuba in health care and educational opportunities for the poor.

Today, Nadege Loiseau, 26, of Lauderhill, Fla., is one of only two Americans remaining from the original group that arrived in April 2001. The naysayers' skepticism only fueled her resolve to complete the program. "They said we wouldn't make it," Loiseau said. "Well, I'm still here."

Whenever she falls behind in physiology class, confronts congested phone lines while calling her parents in Lauderhill or hungers for the "occasional steak," Loiseau thinks of her 3-year-old son, Aaron David, and presses on.

"My son keeps me going. When he's getting ready to go to college, I want to be able to say I can send him," she said.

Loiseau didn't have that luxury while growing up among seven brothers and sisters in a Haitian immigrant family. Childhood dreams of becoming a doctor came second to immediate struggles such as living from one paycheck to the next and caring for her young son. She attended Broward Community College but later had to drop out of a nursing program at another school to help her parents make ends meet.

"I've wanted to do this all my life, and this is probably my only chance," said Loiseau, who didn't speak any Spanish before coming here. "I figure I'll get adjusted."

Having grown up in South Florida, Loiseau knows the passionate politics surrounding Cuba. For now, she says, she's tuning out the rhetoric on both sides of the straits and focusing on her studies. "I came with an open mind," she said. "No system is perfect."

About five delegations of students from at least 11 states, from Oregon to Louisiana, have arrived since Loiseau's group. The Rev. Lucius Walker, founder of the New York-based Pastors for Peace, heads the stateside admissions process.

Walker had hoped to have 100 American students enrolled in the Cuban medical school by now. However, only 50 have made the cut. Of those, 14 dropped out.

"I think I overestimated the quality of the applicants," said the Baptist minister whose group is known for flouting the U.S. embargo by bringing unlicensed humanitarian aid to Cuba. "We get a lot of interest expressed, but not everyone is ready to go."

Walker said at least 10 more American students are scheduled to arrive in August. What advice will Loiseau give them?

"If you're iffy on this, don't do it. You have to really want it," she said. "It's not easy, especially if you've never spoken a word of Spanish in your life. If you start nitpicking, saying the food is horrible, it's hot, and nothing starts on time, you're not going to make it."

June 2000 - Castro Offers Free Medical Training For US Students From Poor Areas*** Fidel Castro has offered to provide free medical training in Cuba for poor American students who could then return home and serve in impoverished areas. In a wide-ranging meeting with members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus that ended early Sunday morning, the Cuban leader also expressed hope for a weakening of the 38-year old U.S. embargo against his country. He voiced support for the work of black Congress members, but said he was disenchanted with elected politics in general and American presidential politics in particular.***

June 2001 - Who The Real Ogres Are*** Another one of the most militant, fanatic and violent "religious" and "humanitarian" organizations part of this network in the U.S. appearing to be working for Castro's tyranny are the "interreligious" group Pastors for Peace. These "pastors" as well as the NCC have received grants from the Arca Foundation, [run by Smith Bagley, Reynolds tobacco heir and DNC "Elian" fundraiser] which according to scholar Irving Louis Horowitz is a "highly pro-Castro and partisan," grant-giving agency. From 1994 to1998, Arca awarded about $3 million for pro-Castro projects.

Pastors for Peace apparently doesn't care about the war that Castro has been waging for decades against his own people, causing the death of at least 87,000 (according to a book-in-progress by Dr. Armando Lago). They don't care about the 150,000 deaths that follow Castro's guerrillas in Central and South America, not to mention the 1.7 million deaths in Angola and the Horn of Africa and the deaths caused by Castro's drug-trafficking.***

June 2001- Leftwing stooges create another front for Castro*** The Cuba Policy Foundation is headed by Ambassador Sally Grooms Cowal, who acts as its president. If you can remember back to the Elian Gonzalez debacle, Sally Grooms Cowal was the individual whose other group, Youth for Friendship, "hosted" the Cuban boy in the Rosedale mansion after he was taken by Janet Reno's agents in Miami. The Rosedale compound, which is in Maryland, is owned and operated by Youth for Friendship. Additionally Grooms Cowal, was a former deputy assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under President George Bush in the late 1980s. She has also served as ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.

The CPF is bankrolled by the Arca Foundation……………. The Arca Foundation's records denote that it has spent over $3 million dollars since 1995 devoted to institutions that ignore human rights in Cuba, but fight aggressively to drop US sanctions to the rouge nation. The Arca Foundation which is run by the R.J. Reynolds tobacco heir Smith Bagley, has silently worked in the background with institutions and Castro sympathetic Democratic politicians working to end economic sanctions against the dictatorship. ***

October 2001 - Should Cuba Be on U.S. Terrorism Blacklist?*** Sally Grooms Cowal, president of the U.S.-based Cuba Policy Foundation, a centrist organization that opposes the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, said the United States now has a self-defense incentive to ease its hard-line policy toward Havana and remove it from the list of rogue states.***

January 2002 - Americans visit as Cuba hopes to renew U.S. interest in trade*** Seven U.S. Representatives were arriving here later Thursday with Sally Grooms Cowal, a former U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and president of the Cuba Policy Foundation, one of the best-known anti-embargo groups in the United States.***

May 2002 - Carter should just butt out (Mouthpiece for ADM?)----ADM bought Carter's peanut farm for $1.5 million and handed him a check for $1.2 million to help Carter promote Habitat for Humanity.

As a rule of thumb, those American students interested in attending foreign medical schools do so because of their inability to be accepted into American medical schools. It is generally not an economic issue since loans are readily available and future physicians are considered good loan risks. As a matter of fact, some physicians have a difficult time with debt due to the availability of loans for them.

Castro's program may be politically "marketed" as a program for low income students but is more likely to be a program for less talented students who failed to make the cut in the United States. The fact that a significant number wash out should not come as a surprise since they couldn't get into American medical schools for academic reasons.

While I can admire the perseverence of this American in seeking a medical education

The question arises as to WHY she went to medical school in Cuba. Not only are there medical schools in the USA, but most of them make special efforts to both accept black students of lower quality and give black students additional financial aid (I am ASSUMING that because the lady in question is from Hati that she is black). I can only conclude that her qualifications were so poor that she was unable to get into any American medical school even with the watered down affirmative action standards.

Further I question her motives. From the article it appears that her whole motivation is financial. I could go on that the sort of woman who dumps her kid to go to medical school is not really concerned about the kid but is rather concerned about herself. But since the article doesn't say specifically where the kid is I won't

February 2001 - Castro Makes a Dream Offer Plan for free medical education*** "It's not unreasonable to say he hopes to get some positive publicity, turn some heads and maybe even thumb his nose at some of the Cuban-Americans in Florida," said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens), who was at the meeting. "But it was given in the spirit of brotherhood." Castro later made the same offer to some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Now, all 38 black lawmakers and some of the 18 Hispanic lawmakers are working out the details of the program for their young constituents. Lawmakers want to ensure that graduates would be able to pass licensing tests to practice medicine in their hometowns and would be free to travel home easily on school breaks. Castro is offering six years of study at the Havana-based Latin American School of Medical Sciences to poor, minority students living in the districts of the caucus members.***

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.