Re: Hardt & Negri on Genoa

Louis project wrote:

Cuba has health and education statistics that compare favorably to G8 
nations. This came about through a rejection of "globalization". 
(Capitalism, to use plain language.)

The cuban health system was brought up with manifest financial help from the 
USSR and was paid with heavy economic underdeveloppement, i. e. the 
maintainance of a rather primtive plantation economy producing sugar and 
citrus for the COMECON countries. Nevertheless Cuba developped in the 
1980ties a highly competitive sector of pharmaceutical and biotechnological 
science and production.
Today Cuba's health system is heavily dependent on capitalist globalisation. 
The countries pharmaceutical sector is expanding in a number of third world 
countries like China, Iran, Vietnam, Brasil and India where factories for the 
production of vaccines and interferon are build with cuban participation. 
Cuban vaccines like the menningitis B vaccine  and several anti-cancer 
vaccines will be marketed by multinationals like Smithkline Beecham or York 
Medicals. Augustin Lage, the brother of the Vice-Premier Carlos Lage, is 
member of the decision board of York Medicals Inc.
Other pharmaceuticakl products like the hepatitis B-vaccine were developped 
and are produced in cooperation with the WHO. 
. Royalities and other profits from the pharmaceutical sector are partly 
reinvested in the national cuban health system. Furthermore the cuban health 
system depends financially on services done by round about 2000 cuban doctors 
in other countries. Venezuelans and Jamaicans are treated in cuban hospitals. 
In both cases these treatments form part of commercial agreements. 
Furthermore cuban health industry is just waiting for the opening of the 
american market. There are whole hospitals for american clients.
All this is not at all bad but it is simply stupid to say that Cuba refuses 
"globalisation". Cuban politicians at all times were masters of global 
politics and found quite intelligent ways of participation in global 
arrangements, as they do today.

Sorry for some mistakes in English language

Karsten Voss

Hamburg , Germany