The double betrayal of Philips
Albert
te leveren, ondanks dat deze al betaald zijn.
In de Nederlandse kranten zal je dit namelijk niet vinden hoe Nederlandse
bedrijven kruipen onder het yanki yuk en daardoor het cubaans volk isoleren.
Is het geen tijd dat de Nederlandse politiek zich uitspreekt en hun VS
collega's berispen op deze vorm van chantage?
Havana. September 5, 2009
Reflections of Fidel
The double betrayal of Philips
(Taken from CubaDebate)
THE United States owns the most patents in the world. It has stolen
scientists from every country, developed or developing, who are undertaking
research in a myriad of spheres, from the production of weapons of mass
destruction to medicines and medical equipment. For that reason, the
economic and technological blockade is not something that merely serves as a
pretext for blaming the empire for our own difficulties.
Public healthcare is one of the most advanced fields in our country, despite
the fact that the United States stole close to 50% of the doctors who had
graduated from the only university in Cuba, a figure in excess of 5,000,
many of whom lacked employment.
In that area, one of the most beautiful pages of international cooperation
on the part of the Cuban Revolution was written, initiated thanks to a group
of doctors who were sent to the recently-independent Algeria almost half a
century ago. That policy has not ended, and in that highly humane field our
country enjoys universal recognition.
No one supposes that it has been an easy task. The United States has done
everything possible to prevent it from happening. During the time that has
passed, it has made maximum efforts to sabotage it. It applied against Cuba
all possible variants of its criminal economic blockade which, later on, in
virtue of the Helms-Burton Act, acquired an extraterritorial nature during
the administration of Bill Clinton.
When the socialist bloc collapsed and, months later, its principal bastion
the Soviet Union disintegrated, Cuba decided to keep on fighting. By then,
our people had acquired a high level of awareness and political culture.
In 1992, Hugo Ch�vez led a military uprising against the bourgeois
oligarchic government of the Punto Fijo pact that had pillaged Bol�var's
homeland for more than three decades. He suffered imprisonment, just as we
did. He visited Cuba in 1994 and years later, with the full support of his
people, he assumed the presidency and initiated the Bolivarian Revolution.
The Venezuelan people, like that of Cuba, soon had to confront the hostility
of the United States, which planned the fascist coup d'�tat in 2002 that was
defeated by the people and revolutionary military personnel. Months later,
came the oil coup, creating the most difficult moment and one in which, once
again, the leader, the people and the Venezuelan military were outstanding.
Ch�vez and Venezuela offered us total solidarity in the midst of the Special
Period and we have given them ours.
At that time, our country had no less than 60,000 specialized doctors, more
than 150,000 experienced teachers and a people who had written brilliant
internationalist pages. After the oil coup, the river of our cooperative
workers in education and healthcare programs began to flow, and they
cooperated with the Bolivarian Revolution in one of the most profound and
rapid social programs undertaken in any Third World country.
I cite these precedents because they are indispensable when it come to
judging the treachery of imperialism and comprehending the issue that I am
tackling today: the abandonment and betrayal of Cuba and Venezuela by what
was a well-known and relatively prestigious European multinational: the
Dutch transnational Philips, which specializes in the manufacture of medical
equipment.
I wrote a Reflection on this subject two years ago - July 14, 2007 - but I
did not want to mention that company by name. I still held out the hope that
the situation would be rectified.
We had cooperated with the Venezuelan people in order to create one of the
best healthcare systems in the world. Tens of thousands of specialized
doctors and other Cuban healthcare professional had lent their services
there. President During one of his visits to Cuba, Hugo Ch�vez, satisfied
with the work of the first contingents who traveled to Venezuela to work
within Barrio Adentro - the program aimed at providing healthcare services
in the country's poorest urban and rural areas - asked us to create a
program that could benefit every sector of Venezuelan society, working
class, middle class or the rich. This led to the emergence of the Advanced
Technology Diagnosis Centers; these would complement the task of the 600
Comprehensive Diagnosis Centers which, like polyclinics with a wide range of
services, with their laboratories and equipment, would support the Barrio
Adentro doctors' offices. A significant number of rehabilitation centers
would assume the humane task of attending to any patient with physical or
learning disabilities.
In virtue of this request from the president, we acquired the relevant
equipment for 27 Advanced Technology Diagnosis Centers distributed
throughout the 24 states of Venezuela, three of which possess two each
because of the size of their populations.
It is standard practice for us to always purchase medical equipment from the
most prestigious and advanced companies at world level. We even try to
ensure the participation of at least two of the most specialized companies
in the supply of the most complex equipment.
In this way, the most sophisticated and costly medical imaging equipment,
such as multi-slice computed tomography (CT), nuclear magnetic resonance,
diagnostic ultrasound and other similar machines were purchased from the
German firm Siemens and the Dutch company Philips. Neither of the two
produces all of the equipment but they do manufacture some of the most
complex and sophisticated equipment. Both are in competition with each other
in terms of quality and price. We acquired diagnostic equipment from the two
companies for Venezuela and for Cuba, where we were developing a similar
plan for medical services that had received very few resources in the most
difficult years of the Special Period.
For more than 10 different specialties, we acquired equipment from the two
companies for services in the two countries. I will not mention those of the
German firm Siemens, which met its commitments. I will confine myself to
Philips; this company supplied equipment for 12 specialties sharing the
provision of the most important and costly items with the other company: 15
40-slice CT machines, 28 0.23 Tesla Nuclear Magnetic Resonance machines,
eight tele-command stations for Urology, 37 3D diagnostic ultrasound
machines, two neurological angiograms, two cardiology angiograms, two
polygraphs, one double-headed gamma camera, three single-head gamma camera,
250 mobile X-ray machines, 1,200 non-invasive monitors and 2,000
cardioversion monitors.
In total, 3,553 machines at a value of $72,762,694.
I personally participated in negotiations with these two companies for these
purchases.
The prices discussed for each piece of equipment implied significant price
reductions, given the quantity - the items for both Cuba and Venezuela
together - and the fact that they were to be paid for in cash. It would not
be possible to urgently acquire the goods as required, particularly in that
country, given the accumulated needs of the poorest sectors of its total
population, which numbered 27 million people at that time.
The most complex equipment were destined for the Advanced Technology
Centers, the less sophisticated and plentiful items for the Barrio Adentro
Diagnosis Centers, although they were not the only ones to use this
equipment. Almost all of them were purchased at the beginning of 2006.
I became seriously ill at the end of July of that year. Philips supplied
items until the end of 2006. In 2007, it stopped completely: not a single
item was supplied.
In March of that year, a Cuban delegation was sent to Brazil where the
Philips headquarters for Latin America - the branch that negotiated with
Cuba - is located. They began to explain their difficulties. The Bush
government had requested detailed information on equipment supplied to Cuba
by their company, alleging that some of them contained programs and,
occasionally, components bearing a yanki patent, and Philips provided the
information requested on the purchases made by Cuba and Venezuela. There had
never been any problem with that before.
The director of Philips in Brazil textually informed the Cuban delegation:
"There is brutal intransigence on the part of the U.S. government in
relation to regulations regarding equipment and the request for permits with
respect to Cuba.
"I know that the problem is affecting the Comandante's plan. Our
organization is being affected and threatened. All our organizations are
very scared." He immediately reiterated: "They are very scared."
Finally, they added that they wished to cooperate and find solutions.
In mid-July 2007, in a so-called White House Conference on the Americas,
Bush, the secretary of state, and other U.S. government leaders "talked
nineteen to the dozen" according to an AP report, on issues of education and
healthcare. It seemed unreal. They were promising to distribute healthcare
services throughout Latin America.
They placed special emphasis on the Confort, a former aircraft carrier
converted into the "biggest hospital boat in the world," according to the
report, which was to visit each country in this hemisphere south of the
United States for 10 days at a time. That was their healthcare program. What
they did not say at the time, was that, in Venezuela, they were sabotaging
the most serious healthcare program ever proposed for a Third World country.
Despite the coincidence of the timing, at that moment I did not wish to
directly tackle the Philips problem. The company had promised to resolve the
problem the following March. I still held out the hope that it could be
rectified.
I limited myself to writing in that very Reflection: "The problem is that
the United States cannot do what Cuba is doing. On the contrary, it is
brutally pressuring the manufacturing companies of the excellent medical
equipment that is being supplied to our country to prevent them from
replacing certain computer programs or providing some spare parts that are
under U.S. patents. I could cite concrete cases and the names of the
companies. It is repugnant."
Despite Philips' solemn promise to Cuba, the rest of 2007 passed by, as well
as the whole of 2008 and half of 2009 without a single piece of equipment
arriving from that company.
In June 2009, after paying a fine of 100,000 euros to the Barack Obama
government, not so distant from the practices of his illustrious
predecessor, Philips deigned to communicate that it was about to provide
equipment for Cuba.
On the other hand, nobody has recompensed the Cuban people, or the
Venezuelan patients of our doctors in the Barrio Adentro program and those
attending the Advanced Technology Diagnostic Centers for the human damages
that have occurred.
As is logical, we have not acquired a single piece of equipment from Philips
since the last purchase in early 2006.
On the other hand, we have cooperated with Venezuela in purchasing medical
equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars for its national healthcare
network, with a wide range of sophisticated state of cutting-edge equipment
from other prestigious European and also Japanese companies. I wanted to
believe that that company would make an effort to meet its commitment.
Venezuela now possesses modern equipment in its public hospital network; the
richest private clinics will only have been able to acquire some of them.
Now, all the rest will depend on the country's efficiency in its services.
The Venezuelan president is seriously interested in achieving this
objective. I believe that it will do so very well if it mitigates the
Venezuelan custom of purchasing U.S. medical equipment, not on account of
its quality - which is very good although with less demanding regulations
than those of Europe - but because of what lies at the heart of the policy
of this country, capable of blocking the supply of equipment as it did with
Cuba.
Of course, we have dispatched to the Venezuelan Diagnosis Centers, the
Advanced Technology Centers and others where our doctors are in attendance,
equipment of known international makes such as Siemens, Carl Zeiss, Drager,
SMS, Schwind, Topcon, Nihon Kohden, Olympus and other European and Japanese
companies, some of which were founded more than 100 years ago.
Now that Bol�var's homeland, which Mart� asked to serve, is more threatened
than ever by imperialism, the organization, work and efficiency of our
efforts must be greater than ever; not just in the healthcare sector, but in
all the fields of our cooperation.
Fidel Castro Ruz
September 6, 2009
7.17 p.m.
Translated by Granma International
- Reflections oF Fidel
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2009/septiembre/lun7/Reflections-6sept.html
Grtz. Albert
www.sabroso.cjb.net
jena
"Albert" <m...@somewhere.nl> schreef in bericht
news:bcd11$4aa66072$50388ab9$46...@news.chello.nl...
> Philips laat zich door de yanks chanteren en weigert Cuba medical
> equipment te leveren, ondanks dat deze al betaald zijn.
> In de Nederlandse kranten zal je dit namelijk niet vinden hoe Nederlandse
> bedrijven kruipen onder het yanki yuk en daardoor het cubaans volk
> isoleren.
>
Toch wel.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/article1286828.ece/Fidel_Castro_boos_op_Philips?source=rss
Linea Recta
"Albert" <m...@somewhere.nl> schreef in bericht
news:bcd11$4aa66072$50388ab9$46...@news.chello.nl...
> equipment te leveren, ondanks dat deze al betaald zijn.
> In de Nederlandse kranten zal je dit namelijk niet vinden hoe Nederlandse
> bedrijven kruipen onder het yanki yuk en daardoor het cubaans volk
> isoleren.
>
> Is het geen tijd dat de Nederlandse politiek zich uitspreekt en hun VS
> collega's berispen op deze vorm van chantage?
>
Het mag onderhand als algemeen bekend worden verondersteld dat de
Nederlandse politiek moet worden bestempeld als amerikanenkontenlikkerij.
Zie in dit verband ook de kwestie JSF (uitzending KRO Reporter zondag
6-9-2009).
--
regards,
|\ /|
| \/ |@rk
\../
\/os
Michel
>Philips laat zich door de yanks chanteren en weigert Cuba medical equipment
>te leveren, ondanks dat deze al betaald zijn.
>In de Nederlandse kranten zal je dit namelijk niet vinden hoe Nederlandse
>bedrijven kruipen onder het yanki yuk en daardoor het cubaans volk isoleren.
>
>Is het geen tijd dat de Nederlandse politiek zich uitspreekt en hun VS
>collega's berispen op deze vorm van chantage?
Wat er wel of niet in Nederlandse kranten staat en waar politici zich
wel of niet over zouden moeten uitspreken heeft niets te zoeken in
nl.media.tv. Het gaat hier om een politiek en economisch probleem en
niet over de Nederlandse tv, dus graag dit soort gedoe beperken tot de
groep(en) waar het thuis hoort.
--
"Ranja, wie is er niet groot mee geworden?"
Albert
news:4aa66b7d$0$28146$5fc...@news.tiscali.nl...
Bedankt voor de correctie. De Volkskrant plaatstte het artikel toen ik met
mijn posting bezig was. Gepubliceerd op 08 september 2009 15:30
Trouwens de reflection van Fidel is van 06 september 2009 7.17 p.m.
Trouwens het excuus van Philips is wel slap, dat gelooft toch niemand.
Producten 3 jaar na betaling krijgen.
Komen er soms Kamervragen hierover dat Nederlandse bedrijven gechanteerd
worden door de yanks?
Grtz. Albert
www.sabroso.cjb.net
Satneef
Wat heeft dit met satelliet te maken?
gaarne verder in nl.politiek,fup daarheen.
Zie ook het charter van nl.media.satelliet