Cuban Refugees, or How Moore Tried Yet Again To Fool You
It never ends. I actually thought, given how screwed up our health care industry is, that Moore would have plenty of material and be able to make a compelling documentary filled with the truth. It wouldn’t be necessary to resort to cheap stunts, abusing people, misdirection and flat-out bullshit in order to tell the story of American health care.
Many feel that with all the flaws, the system of health care in America is better than anywhere else. Proof of that would seem to be that historically, the wealthier a nation grows and the better overall health care it provides, the fatter the citizens get. Well, me and Mikey are proof walking of that theory. Well, proof waddling, anyway.
Still...insurance companies make medical decisions and lawyers have made it insanely expensive to practice medicine. Those two things alone could have made for truthful, compelling footage. Instead...Mikey pulls another stunt. This time, he took a bunch of people who worked at Ground Zero after 9/11 to Cuba for medical care. I suppose his intention was to prove how wonderful socialized medicine is as opposed to the way we do things. Only Moore would think that a third-world communist dictatorship has better health care than America. If he loves this country so much, why is he constantly, without exception, putting it down? Does he ever have anything good to say about America that isn’t a ploy to set up his next insult or criticism?
But I digress.
Here’s the problem(s) with this typical Moore trick: One, we have no way of knowing who has access to the hospital he chose. Can the average poor person in Cuba walk in like he did? Two, he’s co-opting 9/11 again to make another dump truck full of cash, just like he did the last time. Three, one can walk in to any hospital in America and be treated. They cannot refuse to treat you. Four, it’s quite possible that Moore lied just to get these people involved:
Responders were told Cuban doctors had developed new techniques for treating lung cancer and other respiratory illness, and that health care in the communist country was free, according to those offered the two-week February trip.
Yeah, you hear about new medical breakthrough coming out of Cuban hispitals like, every week, don’t you? Where’s the stories about these breakthrough techniques? Does Moore expect us to believe that not one single New York reporter would have gotten wind of it, and being a New York reporter - which, in case you’ve somehow forgotten, is where the frigging towers fell - wouldn’t have shouted it from the rooftops?
I’d like to see some data about these new techniques.
Regardless, some ill 9/11 workers balked at Moore’s idea.
“I would rather die in America than go to Cuba,” said Joe Picurro, a Toms River, N.J., ironworker approached by the filmmaker via an e-mail that read, “Joe and Mike in Cuba.”
After helping remove debris from Ground Zero, Picurro has a laundry list of respiratory and other ailments so bad that he relies on fund-raisers to help pay his expenses.
He said, “I just laughed. I couldn’t do it.”
First of all, to make a donation to Joe Picurro to help him with his medical expenses, donations can be made through the FealGood Foundation.
WAYS TO GIVE
Donations100% of the operating income for the FealGood Foundation is provided by undesignated contributions. You can help improve the lives of 9/11 first responders and their families by supporting the FealGood Foundation and making your tax deductible gift today. Donations are accepted via Paypal (please direct payments to feal13@aol.com) or by sending a Personal Check to the mailing address listed below. Credit Cards (Visa/Mastercard/Discover) can be accepted via phone only at (631) 724-3320.
FealGood Foundation
144 Shenandoah Blvd
Nesconset, New York 11767If you wish to contact us with questions please send an email to feal13@aol.com
The website also sells t-shirts and posters.
That would be helpful to Joe Picurro. Not promising him a miracle in Castro’s tinpot little dictatorship.
Of course Moore being the sleazy, opportunistic, nihilistic selfish prick that he has always been, you just know someone got screwed over.
Michael McCormack, 48, a disabled medic who found an American flag at Ground Zero that once flew atop the Twin Towers, was all set to go to.
The film crew contacted him by phone and took him by limo from his Ridge, L.I., home to Manhattan for an on-camera interview.
“What he [Moore] wanted to do is shove it up George W’s rear end that 9/11 heroes had to go to a communist country to get adequate health care,” said McCormack, who suffers from chronic respiratory illness.
But McCormack said he was abandoned by Moore. At a March fund-raiser for another 9/11 responder in New Jersey, McCormack learned Moore had gone to Cuba without him.
“It’s the ultimate betrayal,” he said. “You’re promised that you’re going to be taken care of and then you find out you’re not. He’s trying to profiteer off of our suffering.”
Moore’s publicist did not return calls from The Post. But McCormack played a tape for The Post of a telephone conversation between himself and a Moore producer. The woman is heard apologizing for not taking McCormack, while saying the production company was not offering anyone guarantees of a cure.
“Even for the people that we did bring down to Cuba, we said we can promise that you will be evaluated, that you will get looked at,” said the woman. “We can’t promise that you will get fixed.”
Can you imagine? Imagine the feeling of thinking that a famous rabble-rouser was going to grease some wheels and get you to a new breakthrough treatment in a foreign land, only to find out that bastard left you out of it.
Anyone want to guess why McCormack was left out? I will make a wager that he didn’t say the right things in the interview, and Moore simply cut McCormack out of the loop out and never gave him a second thought. This was a very stupid move on Moore’s part, by the way. McCormack is a very outspoken opponent of the way first responders have been treated by everyone from the City of New York all the way up to the Feds. He was a medic at Ground Zero. He’s a whistleblower of sorts who allegedly “leaked” EPA records about the toxicity of the dust surrounding Ground Zero. He’s connected to the 9/11 “truther” movement. In fact, he’s often a featured speaker at Truther gatherings.
In other words, he’d have been perfect for Mike’s movie. Unless...Moore’s scared of being too connected to the Truthers?
Participants in the Cuba trip were forced to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting them from talking about the project, the sources said.
Yeah, there’s a surprise. I wish one of them would have the balls to break it...what could Moore and Weinstein do? Attack a sick Ground Zero hero because they told the truth? Yeah...I’d LOVE to see that play out in the press.
If you were on this Cuban trip...speak out. Moore can’t touch you without ruining his chances of making another Brinks truck full of money. Money is more important to him than anything else, and that means you would be safe to speak out.
Travel to Cuba is severely restricted from the United States, but Moore’s crew was granted access, the producer told McCormack, through a “general license that allows for journalistic endeavors there.”
Hmm. Does that sound like lying to the government to get a visa to anyone else? I think taking Americans for medical treatment falls well outside the purview of “journalistic endeavors.” I’d like to see some legal-minded folks take a glance at the necessary laws pertaining to travel to Cuba and see if maybe he didn’t break one or three.
Like all documentary filmmakers these days, Moore isn’t concerned so much with the truth as he is selling his work. This is nothing new for Moore, and it’s not even a surprise. However, like an idiot, and not for the first time, I had hoped for something better. I know, I need to learn to stop putting faith in documentary filmmakers. No matter how nice they seem, it’s never about the truth or the subject...at some point it becomes about the money. At least we know with Moore, it’s like that right from the beginning.
Cuba. He is really going to try to sell Cuba as a better alternative than the United States for health care. And the morons that wear Che Guevara t-shirts will eat this up with a spoon.
Sometimes I wish I was utterly ignorant of the world and only cared about what Britney Spears was doing.
Comments
It’s really easy to test YOUR theory about Cuba.
1) Go to Havana
2) Count the Cubans
I’ll wager there’s a lot more than in Florida.
It’s a silly analogy, but I know what you’re saying. In reality though, the same situation (expats) can be found in other places around the world. For instance I’ve heard in the past that it’s estimated there are more Australians living in London than there are living in Sydney - but that doesn’t make it a damning indictment of Australia, and I know which of the two is the nicer city by far (hint: NOT London’s dirty sprawl).
What you need to do is look at the reality of what Cuban doctors/health service do for their people, and others around he world. There’s no denying that any social health system needs more cash than they actually receive and that this means problems in certain areas, yet proponents of the fully-privatised system fail to take into account other factors of healthcare. Cuban doctors are widely accepted to be amongst the most highly trained in the world and do indeed forge breakthroughs in healthcare. To deny this simple fact due to politcal ideological beliefs is daft.
Personally I can’t stand the ‘rich-only’ systems of privatised healthcare, and I dislike the fascistic state of the US free-market system of psuedo-capitalist economics even more. But that doesn’t stop me seeing the advances made through medical research coming out of the US (sometimes being benefitted by the extra cash), just as new techniques came from the former USSR, China, Iraq (pre-invasion/occupation), India, etc etc etc - everywhere there are trained medical research staff you’ll find it happens, but not always because of higher budgets.
Unfortunately for Moorewatch in general this is where most of the arguments fall down. I’m usually right behind what you (the admins) have to say about Moore. He uses despicable means to achieve his ends and yes, is regularly disingenuous, but you repeatedly fall into this pattern of personal attacks for the sake of it. Coupled with this are your attacks against places like Cuba or Social Health Systems for not fitting in with how corporate Oligarchy is supposed to function in your worldview. These undermine your argument as they taint the dispassionate facts with your opinions, some of which I don’t share, so your audience polarises and it turns into flames based on personality, not reality.
...but what do I know eh? ;)
Like all documentary filmmakers these days, Moore isn’t concerned so much with the truth as he is selling his work. This is nothing new for Moore, and it’s not even a surprise. However, like an idiot, and not for the first time, I had hoped for something better. I know, I need to learn to stop putting faith in documentary filmmakers. No matter how nice they seem, it’s never about the truth or the subject...at some point it becomes about the money. At least we know with Moore, it’s like that right from the beginning.
You never watched any Pilger then? If it was about the money, he’d choose subject matter he could sell to the mainstream. heh ;)
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again - Moore is NOT a documentary film maker. He’s a comedian, polemicist, and social commentator (and not a brilliant one either, just a populist one).
So… you would choose going to Cuba for health treatment over going to a hospital in America?
It wasn’t an analogy. Cubans in Miami actually danced in the streets when they thought Castro was finished. This coupled with the number of people who risk their lives to get off the island tells me that something might be wrong there.
Tell me, how many people risk their lives by getting on a makeshift raft and sailing to Cuba?
Sometimes I wish I was utterly ignorant of the world and only cared about what Britney Spears was doing.
No, instead you only care about what Michael Moore is doing, how very unignorant of you. Why not dedicate a website for the awareness of world starvation, child porn or the underground sex slave market? Oh how silly of me, dedictaing your time to trying to make one guy seem wrong is a much more worthy cause.
M-RES:
You might want to check this site out;
http://www.therealcuba.com/
I think the term for the medical treatment presented to the western world is something like a “potemkin village”
What many people see in Cuba is what Castro’s regime wants them to see.
Don’t get too high and mighty, Dontcare—after all, you’re posting on a website dedicated to making one guy seem wrong. Wouldn’t it be a more worthy use of your time to post on one of your aforementioned sites, instead?
From the US Department of State web site, concerning who may travel to Cuba:
Journalists and supporting broadcasting or technical personnel (regularly employed in that capacity by a news reporting organization and traveling for journalistic activities)
Official government travelers on official business.
Members of international organizations of which the United States is also a member (traveling on official business).
Full-time professionals whose travel transactions are directly related to research in their professional areas, provided that their research: 1) is of a noncommercial, academic nature; 2) comprises a full work schedule in Cuba; and 3) has a substantial likelihood of public dissemination.
Full-time professionals whose travel transactions are directly related to attendance at professional meetings or conferences in Cuba organized by an international professional organization, institution, or association that regularly sponsors such meetings or conferences in other countries. An organization, institution, or association headquartered in the United States may not sponsor such a meeting or conference unless it has been specifically licensed to sponsor it. The purpose of the meeting or conference cannot be the promotion of tourism in Cuba or other commercial activities involving Cuba, or to foster production of any bio-technological products.
Travelers who have received specific licenses from OFAC prior to going.
Specific Licenses to Visit Immediate Family Members in Cuba
More at link
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html
Why not dedicate a website for the awareness of world starvation, child porn or the underground sex slave market?
Hm. If all of these subjects are being so utterly ignored, why don’t you dedicate your time and money to running a website about them?
Oh, that’s right. You don’t actually care enough to work at it yourself, just enough to bitch at someone else to do it for you, and only when they’re doing something else you disagree with.
I’m sure the starving people, abused children, and slaves are all very grateful that you’re willing to use them to make a point about someone you don’t like.
For instance I’ve heard in the past that it’s estimated there are more Australians living in London than there are living in Sydney
I’m an expat living in Australia, and if this is true then half of London would be Aussies. Sydney has a population 4 million Aussies and London as only 7.5 million people. At least 90% of the people I’ve met in Sydney are Aussies.
What you need to do is look at the reality of what Cuban doctors/health service do for their people, and others around he world. There’s no denying that any social health system needs more cash than they actually receive and that this means problems in certain areas, yet proponents of the fully-privatised system fail to take into account other factors of healthcare. Cuban doctors are widely accepted to be amongst the most highly trained in the world and do indeed forge breakthroughs in healthcare. To deny this simple fact due to politcal ideological beliefs is daft.
Some Cuban doctors are indeed ranked among the world’s finest. But those doctors are used by the government for purpose of propaganda, not healthcare for the Cuban masses.
Fact: There are two healtcare systems in Cuba. One for those that can afford very good health care which Cuba will deliver for a price, mostly to the outside world as a propanda tool. The other one is for Cuban citizens which offers a substandard level of care.
Fact: Cuban healtcare is NOT totally free . . . never has been. Some healthcare services require a co-pay from patients, no matter their income.
Fact: There is a black market for healthcare services in Cuba. I wonder why that is? The truth is, for the average Cuban making around $35 a week, superior healthcare is simply not available, black market or otherwise.
There are certain existing economic realites in this world that prohibit a country with a Gross Domestic Product of less than $4,000 per capita from having anything but limited healthcare for its citizens. So, if you can’t stand the ‘rich-only’ systems of privatised healthcare, you had best take another look at the people’s socialist paradise of Cuba. It’s not all it’s cracked up to be.
Why some people are so naive is beyond me. That Cuba prohibits private ownership of computers and limits access to the Internet should sound an alarm with people, but folks like M-RES hear what they want to hear, and disregard the rest. They prefer propaganda because it confirms what they want to believe.
“Historically, the wealthier a nation grows and the better overall health care it provides, the fatter the citizens get”
Now, that was hilarious! Cheers for the laugh.
Given the tongue-in-cheek tone of the section and gamely willingness to admit that he, like Moore, is also overweight, one must assume it was a deliberate joke.
Of course, everyone knows about the historical self-indulgent excesses of the world’s wealthiest societys such as grossly overweight Romans and their vomitoriums (vomitoria?) at the height of the Roman Empire, and so on.
But “the better overall health care it provides, the fatter the citizens get” is pure Monty Pythonesque genius. One can imagine the sketch:
“What seems to be the problem?”
“Doctor, I’m worried about my weight. I eat sensibly, exercise, I’m slim and athletic-looking and have low blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and body fat percentage. What am I to do?”
“You poor unhealthy boy! Step into my clinic and we’ll fatten you up! Have some medicated pizza.”
LOL. Classic! Thanks a million.
Someone mentioned the great website, therealcuba.com. I’ve visited it many times. They actually have an entire section on Cuban healthcare. Here’s something from the site:
One of the greatest fallacies about the so called ‘Cuban Revolution’ has to do with healthcare. Foreigners who visit Cuba, are fed the official line from Castro’s propaganda machine: “All Cubans are now able to receive excellent healthcare, which is also free.” But the truth is very different. Castro has built excellent health facilities for the use of foreigners, who pay with hard currency for those services. Argentinean soccer star Maradona, for example, has traveled several times to Cuba to receive treatment to combat his drug addiction. But Cubans are not even allowed to visit those facilities. Cubans who require medical attention must go to other hospitals, that lack the most minimum requirements needed to take care of their patients. In addition, most of these facilities are filthy and patients have to bring their own towels, bed sheets, pillows, or they would have to lay down on dirty bare mattresses stained with blood and other body fluids.
http://www.therealcuba.com/Page10.htm
If Cuba’s healthcare was so cutting edge, why haven’t we heard from castro since he had his rectal sugery? In this country he would have been back to work in a week.
And how’s mikkel moore going to feel about Walmart’s position on universal healthcare?
Wal-Mart has endured criticism over the years from labor unions that say it pays inadequate wages and pushes employees onto government aid programs.
The company has tried to counter such attacks, taking steps like selling generic drugs for $4 per prescription, and joining with the 1.8 million-member Service Employees International Union, one of its most vocal labor foes, to call for universal health-care coverage for all Americans by 2012.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid;=2007-04-24T205450Z_01_WEN6901_RTRUKOC_0_US-WALMA ART-CLINICS.xml&src;=rss&rpc;=22
To all lefties, how good can universal healthcare actually be if the eeeeevil Walmart is on board?
When the Soviet Union ceased to be, Cuba lost a huge part of its income, that being for the most part aid from Moscow. To offset this lost, Castro decided to turn the Cuban health system into a for-profit organization. That’s why there are two systems in Cuba. One is for wealthy foreigners, the other for Cuban citizens. Now which one do you think Fidel wants the world to see? It’s certainly not the one the average Cuban has to endure.
Meanwhile, just like the rest of the Hollywood crowd, Michael Moore is Fidel’s useful idiot. Sicko will no doubt portray Cuba as Cuba is not. This time, however, Moore is going way out on a limb if he is using Cuba as an example of how it ought to be. There is just too much hard evidence out there saying otherwise.
I swear, in some ways Moore becomes his own biggest critic when he tries to fabricate alternate realities.
I’m Cuban and I visit the island quite frequently from Spain. I’m currently a Spanish Subject.
Cuban’s Health System is apparently free. You can visit any Hospital and receive medical attention for free. There are very good professionals.
Problem is:
Most Cuban Doctors are away in Venezuela in “Misión Barrio Adentro” or lost in some God forsaken jungle working in “Internacionalistic Missions”.
Castro hires Doctors and professionals for hard currency and pockets most of the money. So in Cuba you are forced to wait a long time for a specialist, or suffer in the hands of Central American and South American “Doctors” that are just barely literate, the so-called “indigenas”.
Other issue are pharmaceuticals. There are no pharmaceuticals, or they are very hard to find. If you visit any Cuban Drugstore, you will only find herbal products. Drugs are stolen by Doctors and Health Professionals and sold piecemiel for hard currency. Doctors do it to survive since they only earn 30 dollars and Cuba is a very expensive place.
So in Cuba you have four Health Systems:
1. One just for foreigners - with price equivalent to those in any clinic or hospital in Miami. For example, Hospital Cira Garcia, a posh clinic before the revolution and a very posh clinic after the revolution. There are many more centers just for foreigners specializing in many fields.
2. One just for “Big Shots” - Party Leaders and Nomenklatura have their own hospital, the most famous one is CIMEQ. They have every conceivable equipment and very good doctors.
3. Health System for Cubans with Hard Currency - If you are a normal Cuban with some hard currency, you can hire any medical service or specialist you want illegaly, on the side. For example, X-rays are 20 dollars, TAC are 30 dollars, blood analysys, 10 dollars, specialist care 10 dollars, etc, etc.
4. Health System for Cubans with Pesos - You can imagine, no medications, no clean sheets in hospitals, no food in hospital, no Cuban doctors, long queues for about everything, years waiting for an intervention. So must Cubans end up paying to obtain drugs or attention, many pay with food (pigs, chickens, coffee) or whatever they have.
So I guess that Moore and his patients visited CIMEQ (just for Nomenklatura) or CIRA GARCIA (foreigners) or some of many clinics catering to foreign patients.
So I guess that Moore and his patients visited CIMEQ (just for Nomenklatura) or CIRA GARCIA (foreigners) or some of many clinics catering to foreign patients.
And that is why I said this time Moore is going way out on a limb if he is using Cuba as an example of how it ought to be. This whole charade is just too easy to debunk.
Funny how Cuba’s underground healthcare system accepts U.S. dollars from Cuban citizens . . . you know, those dollars send to them by relatives who live in Miami and elsewhere so they can afford the underground healthcare system. I wonder if Moore will mention that in Sicko.
Well...it looks like the Justice Department is looking into MM’s trip to Cuba (CNN Article: http://tinyurl.com/2qxmmk).
If you go to MM website, this is the hyperlink he has going to the article:
Bush administration goes after Sicko. Michael Moore accused of seeking treatment for ailing 9/11 workers.
Above that is a graphic of the Homeland Security logo (Although it is the Department of Treasury that sent the letter.)
MM has the letter he received and it basically states that the Dept of Treasury wants him to document what he was doing in Cuba, just like any one else because of the embargo.
But MM is using this to attack Bush, as I thought he would. MM has a statment in response to the letter from Meghan O’Hara, a producer of Sicko (MM website: http://tinyurl.com/2lbjfo).
O’Hara starts to talk about how Sicko will evaluate US Healthcare and then makes this statement
The efforts of the Bush Administration to conduct a politically motivated investigation of Michael Moore and ‘SiCKO’ will not stop us from making sure the American people see this film.
Who said they were investigating the movie Sicko? 1) It is the Dept. of Treasury, not the Bush Admin. 2) They are investigating his trip to Cuba, not the movie.
But I guess it is good publicity for the movie. “See the movie the Bush Administration does not want you to see. If you think I am lying...I got a letter right here that says they are looking into the movie. I have to hid this movie in a save place before opening day because I do not want the Bush Administration to confiscate it.”
Typical Moore.
I’m confused. You kept the money? If you are so opposed to Moore and his $, why not return the money and pay your own damn bills? I work 2 and sometimes 3 jobs to support my family, no one has ever offered me a dime, and if they did and I took it, I doubt I would have the nerve to turn around and complain about it. If this offends your senses so much, take up a part-time job and take care of your own expenses! Have some self respect, or at least enough dignity to not accept a gift and then complain about it. By the way, I’m not a Moore supporter nor do I consider myself “liberal” by any means.
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It’s really easy to test Michael Moore’s theory about Cuba. If you want to know the truth about Castro’s Free Health Care Paradise of Eternal Sunshine, just follow these simple steps:
1) Go to Miami.
2) Count the Cubans.