http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BC8EF57BD-B774-4C33-B410-BB62351EDDE9%7D%29&language=EN
Cuba Willing to Send Immediate Medical Help to US, Says Fidel Castro Havana, Sep 3 (Prensa Latina) President Fidel Castro Friday offered the United States eleven hundred doctors with extensive international experience, plus medicines and diagnostic teams, to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The head of state participated this afternoon in the Cuban television program The Informative Round Table, dedicated to the tragic situation in various states of the northern nation that were in the path of the devastating storm. Fidel Castro said that at 11.32 am local time on August 30 he instructed the Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque to convey to the American government Cuba´s condolences for the loss of human life caused by the cyclone. At that time, he noted, the magnitude of the human and material catastrophe in Louisiana, Mississipi and Alabama was not known. The message, conveyed to the American authorities not only by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Havana but also by the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, indicated Cuba´s willingness to send doctors and necessary medical teams to those states, as well as three field hospitals and the personnel required to staff them. He indicated that in spite of their bilateral political and ideological differences, the island has always maintained a principled position in eventualities such as this, and he recalled the attitude assumed by Havana following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On that occasion the Cuban government was possibly the first to offer assistance to the United States, when it put the island´s airports at the disposal of airliners flying towards that nation, he said. Fidel Castro said that the offer of August 30 did not seek publicity, and this was stressed in the message sent to the American authorities. He referred to statements of the spokesman of the US State Department Thursday evening about the offers of aid received by Washington from various parts of the world, which failed to mention that of the biggest of the Antilles. President Castro informed that early tomorrow morning Cuba could send to the areas of greatest need the first 100 general medicine specialists, complete with backpacks containing 24 kilograms of essential medicines and diagnostic instruments for emergency situations. Equally, within the next two days Cuba could send another thousand specialists in general medicine, plus equipment. Fidel Castro emphasized that these are all professionals with extensive medical experience tested in the most difficult sanitary conditions of the Third World, who also have English language proficiency. fg/ool/jwp -- Bob Allen http://ozarker.org/bob "Science is what we have learned about how to keep from fooling ourselves" - Richard Feynman _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
