Yes, yes, I know, cod Shakespeare (sorry Will!) but today I have a huge, 'gi-normous' dollop of irony, enough for me to surfeit on for weeks! You see, that 'solitary, nasty, (Leftish), brutish and short' little thug who runs Venezuela (sorry, Hobbes, old chap!) is dying of cancer in a Cuban hospital. Truly now it may be said that 'El Presidente-Comisario' Chavez is dying for his beliefs. Being (allegedly) a true red Marxist he has swallowed whole the lying lie, which was helped on its way round the world by the lying liars' lying liar of choice, Michael Moore, that Cuba's socialist health service is terrific, one might almost suggest that it has taken over from our very own, dearly beloved Nationalised Health Service as being "the envy of the world". The fact, of course, is that the Cuban health service is total crap, as reported by Investors.com:
Cuba by contrast, remains substandard, with average Cubans forced to bring their own bandages, water and sheets to hospitals that haven't seen repairs in years.
Recent reports say Cuba cut medical spending from $209 million in 2009 to $190 million last year — "bending the cost curve" by giving less care. Sound familiar?
When Chavez was first diagnosed with cancer he was offered the services of the Sirio-Libanese Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil which is considered to be a world leader in cancer treatments.
His expected demise will be entirely due to his gullibility to leftist propaganda and bad choices that came of it.
"In July 2011, during (a)... summit in Caracas, Brazil's President, Dilma Rousseff, told a few of her colleagues — in private — that Chavez was likely to die as a result of 'his excessive paranoia rather than as a consequence of his serious — yet treatable — cancer,'" wrote Venezuelan consultant Pedro Burelli in a newsletter.
"What she meant to say," Burelli added, "was that by choosing secrecy in Cuba over medical competence at the Sirio-Libanese Hospital in Sao Paulo (where she had been treated successfully for lymphatic cancer) Chavez had condemned himself to a shorter life."
Perhaps he was conned by Michael Moore's 1998 propaganda film, Sicko, which praised 'Castro-Care' to the heavens. If so, it is obvious that one lying liar couldn't spot another even if they were both together on a desert island!
As Chavez suffers through four surgeries in Cuba, it's instructive to note it was the Brazilian hospital — a teaching institution with top-of-the-line tomotherapy equipment, 2,000 doctors, and a record of success for beating cancer — that cured Rousseff as well as then-President Fernando Lugo of Paraguay. But it gets no recognition from the likes of Moore, who still promotes CastroCare on his Web site, while ignoring the private U.S. hospitals the Brazilians model themselves after.
To be fair, Chavez is far from being the worst of South American gangsters masquerading as national saviours but even so, he had choices and he took one - and you know what those beastly American gringos say about giving a sucker an even break - "Never"!
Are you really suggesting that Cuba doesn't have a decent hospital reserved for family of the top apparatchiks? Seems unlikely.
Posted by: dearieme | Wednesday, 09 January 2013 at 17:55
My thoughts exactly DM and exactly the reason the hypocrite Moore waxed lyrical, as he knows with all his millions, not to mention his useful idiot status, he'd be taken by Zil lane straight to the 'cost no object' option (unlike your average Cuban who'll probably get trodden on if they get in his way).
Posted by: Able | Wednesday, 09 January 2013 at 19:07
A question does occur though since even a despot like Chavez is unlikely to put ideology above self-interest when it's his own neck on the block. What will he get, or be able to obtain, in Cuba (still a police state) that he wouldn't in Brazil (a democracy)? Does he have any 'little foibles' that aren't 'achievable' in a more open environment where people might talk? Since they're used to dealing with presidents etc. I hardly think secrecy regarding his health would be an issue in Brazil, now would it?
(do I qualify for a tin-foil beanie yet?)
Posted by: Able | Wednesday, 09 January 2013 at 19:13
I suspect, DM, that all the half-competent doctors and surgeons left yonks ago.
Able, according to the report I read, he, or his 'apparatchiks' insisted that if they went to the hospital Sao Paulo they, the Venezuelans, would have to take over the entire establishment. 'No way, Jose' was, I think, a rough translation of the reply!
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 09 January 2013 at 19:36
Actually, when socialists says that medical care, or anything else, is free, they certainly mean "free to our own citizens". It makes no sense to travel to a socialist country to avail yourself of their "free" goods, which even they know is not free at all, just tax supported. They Cubans have a right to call this "theft", in fact.
Posted by: Dom | Wednesday, 09 January 2013 at 19:49
Exactly so, Dom, but alas, it's coming your way!
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 09 January 2013 at 20:20
By the way, the doctor treating Chávez is spanish. He is the same who has been taking care of Castro the last years. He travels to Cuba every month to do so. That gives you an idea of the opinion of both heads of State about cuban doctors.
Posted by: ortega | Thursday, 10 January 2013 at 07:11
Well why can't he do his Spanish duty, Ortega, and let the pair of them go to that Marxist heaven in the sky?
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 10 January 2013 at 09:04