Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Help is Help

Fidel Castro has offered to send 1,586 doctors and 26 tons of medical supplies to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I wouldn't go so far as to say this falls under "bury the hatchet," but at least he's willing to put the hatchet on the shelf while fellow human beings are dying and he has resources that can help them to, well, not die. I'm sure he is aware, and possibly amused on some deep level, that the offer puts the US government in the rather awkward position of accepting aid from a country which it designated a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" in March 1982 or rejecting badly-needed aid just because we're not fond of who is giving it.

So far, our government has gone with the latter option, putting political principles above human lives (please, no snide comments about how "pro-life" Bush is--I think the inaction says it all). By all accounts, Castro made the offer some time Friday. As of news reports Monday, there has been no response from the US government, either accepting or rejecting the offer. I can't imagine this is because we have all the doctors and medicine we need in Louisiana/Alabama right now.

As an interesting sidebar, here are some links to how various news outlets are covering this issue. What a difference perspective makes.
CNN (United States)
Click here for CNN's coverage of the initial offer
Trabajadores (Cuba)
Pravda (Russia)
Al Jazeera (Arab world)
Reuters UK (British subsidiary of US news company)

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