Malaysian students to study medicine in Havana

Four more M’sian students to study medicine in Havana under Cuban govt scholarship

Posted on August 25, 2012, Saturday

PETALING JAYA: Four Malaysian students will leave for Havana Cuba, on Sunday to study medicine under scholarships sponsored by the Cuban government.
Cuban Embasador to Malaysia, Ruben Valdes said they would join another 28 Malaysian students still studying at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana under the scholarship programme which was introduced six years ago.
“The course takes seven years to complete and the first batch of the Malaysian students are expected to graduate in 2014,” he told reporters after officiating the scholarship awards ceremony here yesterday.
Valdes said during the first year the students were required to master Spanish, the medium of instruction at the university.
On the value of scholarships, Valdes said it varied, but each students only paid for their flight to and from Cuba, while others costs including accomodation, books, equipment, tuition fees and allowances were included in the scholarships.
One of the recipients from the 2010 batch, Thanussha Francis Xavier, 21, from Taiping Perak, said she was thankful for the scholarship and hoped more deserving students would get their chance to pursue their dreams in education.
Thanusha, who is in her second year and scored 10 A’s in her SPM in 2008, described life in Cuba as different and the opportunity to study abroad had opened her eyes and appreciate Malaysia even more.
A new recipient, Vinodh Sethumadavan, 17 from Klang, who scored 9 A’s and 1 B in his SPM last year, said that he understood that he had to sacrifice seven years without being with his family but they were the reason why he had vowed to make a difference in his future. — Bernama

From the New Straits Times:
http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/cuba-helps-4-study-medicine-in-havana-1.128996?localLinksEnabled=false

From The Star: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/8/25/nation/11910978&sec=nation
Headline: Heading for a Cuban adventure (This article is with a video clip)

Defense Attorney Discloses US Manipulation of Cuban Five case

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 20 (ACN)  

 

The defense attorney of Gerardo Hernandez, one of the five anti-terrorist fighters held in the US since 1998, disclosed illegalities committed by the US administration during the 2001 Miami trial that gave the five Cubans unfair and extremely long sentences.

In a press conference via telephone, Attorney Martin Garbus revealed a long list of US-based journalists who were paid to launch a hostile campaign against the five defendants during the trial, PL news agency reported.

The denunciation is part of actions aimed at putting an end to the unfair incarceration of the five Cuban antiterrorists, based on Washington’s anti-constitutional behavior to have the men jailed.

The most severe sentence was given to Gerardo Hernandez who is meeting two life terms plus fifteen years.

Known as the Cuban Five, Hernandez and his compatriots, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labanino, were in US territory monitoring the activities of Florida-based terrorist groups. They were arrested in 1998 and submitted to a biased Miami trial in 2001.

According to attorney Garbus, the US government paid journalists to flood the Miami community with propaganda through the local media against the Five, between 1998 and 2001. The paid journalists published their articles in outlets like El Nuevo Herald, The Miami Herald, Diario de Las Americas, Radio and TV Marti and WAQI Radio Mambi, among others, who played the role of paid and secret agents.

The El Nuevo Herald published 806 negative articles in just 194 days, while the Miami Herald posted another 305 similar works in the same period of time, said the attorney.

Garbus revealed a list of the paid journalists, which includes names such as Pablo Alfonso, Humberto Cortina, Julio Estorino, Carlos Alberto Montaner, Olance Nogueras, Enrique Encinosa, Ariel Remos, Luis Aguilar, Wilfredo Cancio, Helen Ferre, Caridad Roque, Enrique Patterson and Alberto Muller.

Some of the aforementioned have participated in violent actions and subversive activities against Cuba and have been linked to the CIA, like Humberto Cortina, who participated in the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion; Alberto Muller, who was in charge of organizing armed gangs; Julio Estorino, Carlos Alberto Montaner and Enrique Encinosa, who were part of violent groups that acted against the island.

The payment offered by the US Government ranked between 3 000 to dozens of thousands of dollars, said the lawyer. But despite these elements, the Washington insists in hiding the proofs in an effort to prevent the disclosure of the names of all the paid reporters and the amount of money dedicated to the propaganda activity.

CubanFive/lcg/lcg/ 08-21-12

Revelan detalles de manipulación en EE.UU. de caso contra los Cinco

Cuban News Agency

www.cubanews.ain.cu

ainnews@ain.cu

Fidel Castro: Time to reflect on his legacy

Fidel Castro: Time to remember his legacy
Sunday, August 12, 2012
By Marce Cameron

This isn’t an obituary. Every now and again those who hope and pray for his death spread yet another rumour, only to be disappointed by a photo or a commentary in that unmistakable style, confirming that Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro is very much alive and making the most of his twilight years.
When the inevitable does happen, the world, admirers and detractors alike, will pause for reflection. The corporate media will saturate our inner recesses with words and images that convey, for the most part, how the 1% appraise his life and legacy. Just imagine the gloating on Fox News.
I suspect it will be harder, and take longer, for those who admire Fidel and feel a sense of loss at his passing to be heard amid this din.
The hundreds of millions of the 99% for who Fidel has been an inspiration, and for those globally for who he has been something of a political compass, and a spiritual compass in the secular sense, will want to reflect and recommit to our shared vision of a better world.
Thus will begin a new battle of ideas, a concept promoted by Fidel. Between the extremes of hatred for the man and sycophantic adulation lies a broad field for critical, nuanced reflection in the framework of the struggle for socialism.
But why wait for the inevitable before doing this? Better to begin now, while Fidel is still here and before the corporate vultures descend on his tomb.
In Sydney, Cuba solidarity activists are organising a conference to discuss the role of Fidel Castro's ideas and example in the 21st century.
In this necessary, timely endeavour we are joined, first and foremost, by millions of Cubans committed to the continuity of Cuba’s socialist project, the stage from which Fidel has set out to change the world and, to a degree, succeeded.
Would a pregnant woman in a remote East Timorese village be seen by a doctor today if it were not for Cuban medical personnel and medical training?
How much longer might apartheid have dragged on in South Africa if Cuban blood had not been shed in the sands and jungles of Angola and Namibia? Would Venezuela’s Bolivarian socialist revolution even exist? According to Hugo Chavez, probably not.
In this sense, “Fidel” is something more than an individual. As the leader of the Cuban Revolution, he has become associated with certain ethical values, ideas and ideals; a cause and a devotion to that cause. These include adherence to principles but rejection of sectarianism and dogmatism in the struggle for a better, socialist world.
Fidel Castro's essential message is one of hope, that we can reverse the gradual descent of global capitalism into a 21st-century barbarism, besieged by ecological collapse, if we can only unleash the power of masses of ordinary people acting together with a shared vision and strategic compass. His example is that of solidarity in a selfish world.
It is asking what we can contribute and share rather than what we can plunder and hoard. It is worrying about the infant mortality rate in Western Sahara and the waves lapping at the doorsteps of Pacific islanders, and doing something about it.
It is internationalism: the rejection of subservient seclusion behind our white-picket fences and national borders decked out in razor wire.
Australia doesn’t have a revolutionary tradition like that of Cuba. After the European invasion and dispossession of its Indigenous people the continent developed as an outgrowth of British imperialism.
Relative prosperity for most, thanks to a combination of circumstance and struggle, has blunted radical urges and channelled them into the English gentleman’s game known as parliamentary reformism.
Waves of progressive radicalisation have ebbed and flowed, but none has yet succeeded in placing the country under new management, as did the Cuban Revolution under Fidel’s leadership.
The next one may just do that, opening the way to a very different kind of Australia. Call it socialism or call it whatever, it will have to bury capitalism.
Fidel's example is one of daring to dream of such a revolutionary transformation of our own society. And working patiently towards it in ways that are meaningful to each of us, respecting each other’s contribution and seeking the path of principled unity.
[Marce Cameron edits Cuba's Socialist Renewal blog. The Sydney conference discussing the ideas of Fidel Castro will take place over August 18-19 at the NSW Teachers Federation building, 23-33 Mary St, Surry Hills.]

Acknowledgement: This article is by the kind permission of Marce Cameron which can be found here:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/51869

José Martí (born José Julián Martí Pérez January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895)
Ho Chi Minh (born Nguyễn Sinh Cung 19 May 1890 - 2 September 1969)