Cuban Offshore Oil Drilling Begins

According to the the Chinese state media, CCTV, deep water oil drilling operations have begun in the Caribbean island nation of Cuba. Last Thursday the Spanish oil company Repsol-YPF began drilling 30 miles offshore of the northwest of Havana. The oil rig itself was purchased from China and is named the Scarabeo-9 and is capable of drilling 3,600 meters deep. Experts said the drilling of such wells takes about 60 days to complete. Company spokespeople have said this will be the first of five oil wells planned.

Last year the Cuban state oil company Cubapetroleo produced four million tons of oil and gas, meeting only half of the required domestic need. The rest of its oil comes from Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela which trades it for professional services including doctors.

Many in the Marxist community are concerned that the increased production of oil in Cuba may make it the target of US Imperialism. Some expect Washington to increase pressure on the socialist nation. Such an opinion is not surprising given that the Republican Party hopeful Newt Gingrich recently advocated the use of violence against Cuba.

While the United States has used mass killings to obtain oil supplies in the past, like the invasion of Iraq and the NATO backed uprising in Libya, this situation will be quite different. Personally I don’t foresee a US invasion of Cuba anytime soon for its oil. After all Spain does own the oil rig, a Western nation, and US foreign policy is less likely to step on their toes. In addition, the Cuban government claims to have a reserve of 20 billion barrels, while the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that it is only 5 billion. If US estimates are true, this makes an invasion of Cuba for its oil unprofitable (Iraq was 112 billion). There’s not enough oil to make it worth their while. For now.

Source:
http://english.cntv.cn/20120203/114551.shtml

Iraq oil:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aairaqioil.htm

Trade Potatoes For Cuban Doctors

Jason MacGregor a youth candidate in the Prince Edward Island based political party, the Island Party, has suggested a creative and unique solution to the shortage of doctors the Maritime province is facing. His proposal is to trade P.E.I. potatoes (the cash crop of the island) for Cuban doctors.

“Our idea is to put in place a trade agreement between Cuba and P.E.I., where we’ll send them so many potatoes in exchange for enough doctors to reopen our ER in Souris.”

- Jason MacGregor, Island Party candidate

Since 2006 P.E.I. has suffered a lack of doctors prompting the closure the emergency room at their local hospital in Souris-Elmira. This has been repeated scene throughout the Maritime provinces since the 2008 global economic collapse of capitalism. The trend, also fuelled by Federal Conservative Party budget cuts, has made the health care situation worse for the average Canadian.

The proposed plan would be beneficial to both P.E.I. and Cuba. P.E.I. is facing a severe doctor shortage and Cuba is facing a shortage of potatoes. Already Cuba has similar deals set up with other nations like Venezuela, with whom they exchange doctors and nurses for much needed oil resources. Cuban health professionals are also known for their dedication to helping the poor around the world by volunteering to go tot he most destitute locations around the world to help those with out access to medical care.

Unfortunately for the citizens of Prince Edward Island, the Canadian government would never allow such a deal to be made. Actually reaching out to Cuba for help would be too much of a loss of face for the political establishment. Particularly to a ruling Conservative government.

Many on the right wing claim that it is Canada’s social democratic system that is causing the shortage of doctors, a common claim made by “lazy fair” capitalism supporters. However, they fail to notice that there is no lack of doctors in an actual socialist country. They actually have enough excess medical care to give to others.

Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/peivotes2011/story/2011/09/28/pei-cuba-potatoes-doctor-trade-584.html

Lung Cancer Vaccine by Cuban Communism (CimaVax-EGF)

After 25 years of researching and development, Cuban scientists have created a vaccine for lung cancer. This was reported on the Huffington Post website, which got the story from China’s Xinhuanet news agency. They had to get the story from there because the United States is blocking Cuban media as part of the embargo.

“The vaccine, or CimaVax-EGF, works through the active drug ingredient, which is based on ‘a protein we all have when cancer is uncontrolled,’ as the publication reported.”

Important to note is that the vaccine is not a preventative medicine, the drug has the ability to attack cancer which already exist in the body of the victim.

“The drug could turn the cancer into a manageable, chronic disease by generating antibodies against the proteins which triggered the uncontrolled cell proliferation. It is not possible to prevent the disease but this vaccine improves significantly the status of the critically ill patients.”
- Gisela Gonzalez, head researcher of CimaVax-EGF

Right now CimaVax-EGF has gone through clinical studies and trials in over 1,000 patients across the island and is currently distributed free of charge in all hospitals of the socialist nation.

The capitalist media propaganda machine has already begun working on undermining this great achievement of medical science and socialism. Xinhuanet has reported that the drug has gone through trials, but the Huffington Post is saying, “The vaccine has allegedly been tested on 1,000 patients in Cuba, but it’s difficult to verify.” In actuality it is not difficult to verify, information is available. This is a very sad attempt to sabotage an important medical breakthrough simply because a socialist nation, which the US has been against for 50 years, accomplished it without markets or a profit motive.

At this moment lung cancer is the most lethal cancer in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 158,683 people died from it in 2007. While Cuba is distributing the medication for free among patients, no doubt US companies will be charging a great deal for it.

Interesting how it only took Cuba 25 years to develop this drug, yet capitalist pharmaceutical companies have been working on it for decades. Many in the conspiracy community believe that a cure or vaccine has not been forthcoming because it is more profitable for people to have cancer and the medications associated with its treatment. Now that this vaccine has been created under socialism away from the capitalist profit motive, it will no doubt fuel these claims.

Sources:
Lung Cancer Deaths Source

Story Sources:
Huffington Post
Xinhuanet