At CapX, James Bloodworth writes,
And yet, left-wing politicians and activists still flock to anything emitting a whiff of revolution “like bluebottles to a dead cat”, as George Orwell once put it.
The much-vaunted Cuban healthcare system is a case in point. Throughout the six months of the Covid pandemic, we’ve seen various stories emerge that have highlighted Cuba’s so-called medical diplomacy. Jeremy Corbyn himself has praised the “inspirational” efforts of Cuban doctors who have been sent by their government to help other countries treat coronavirus patients.
And yet this week it was reported that 622 doctors have joined a case against the Cuban government at the International Criminal Court, accusing their overseas medical program of being a form of slavery. Hundreds of Cuban doctors have testified that the dictatorship has forced them to live abroad without knowing where they are going, has confiscated their passports, controlled their movements and expropriated most of their wages. Yet none of this widely available information seems to have filtered through to left-wing politicians and activists who continue to bovinely sing the praises of Cuba’s “health internationalism”.
An article from last year written by Maria D. Garcia and Hugo Acha and published in the the Miami Herald tells an individual’s story:
Dr. Rodriguez recounts how she and her medical colleagues were forced to sign contracts giving the Cuban Ministry of Health power of attorney over their actions in Brazil. She was required to use a special Physical Person Card instead of her passport, and she was prohibited from going anywhere without permission of “advisors.”
She also explained that she was ordered to act as a support echelon for paramilitary operations, if and when necessary.
After many months considering the terrifying risks of escape, Dr. Rodriguez decided to take action. She drove 12 hours from a small town in the Amazon to Brasilia in 2014 with Cuban intelligence officials at her heels. After arriving safely at the U.S. Embassy, she applied for asylum under a special parole program that was terminated in 2016 under President Obama.
To put it plainly, Rodriguez was the victim of a human trafficking enterprise.
Have you not eyes to see? That is the essence of communism and it’s bubbly girlfriend socialism. What else is it but modern day feudalism? The ‘people’ who cannot by definition comprehend their best interests or any interests at all for that matter must work as directed by their aparchik betters. This in order that the Kim’s, the Castro’s, the Mugabe’s, the Xi’s live in blood drenched luxury beyond the imagination of the most notorious in human history.
Not to be confused with “Postmodern Slavery”, where you agree to work in exchange for money but don’t make as much as you think you deserve.
It has a lot in common with other Postmodern things.
and now Boris’…..
That is how i know that people who proclaim the equivalence
are bullshitting.
In a pandemic, socialist rulers don’t order people who want to work, to stay home.
They order people who want to stay home, to go to work.
Are we really likely to be surprised here? If the International Criminal Court determines that slavery is illegal even if perpetrated by a state, then might it not determine that a ponzi scheme is illegal even if operated by a state? It sounds like very dangerous precedent to me!
Dear Miss Solent
To the extent that we, the sheeple, are already livestock of the state, to be milked, fleeced, shorn and perhaps ultimately slaughtered ‘for the greater good’, pre-modern slavery is alive and well.
Taxation is a politer form of part-time slavery to which we and our forebears have been subject for a long, long time.
DP
I was the compliance chick before I was let out to pasture. Curious, isn’t it, that BLM, Antifa, celebrities, media personalities, activists, academics, foundations, corporations, advertisers, and politicians have not seized the day and raised public awareness of the “coerced labor” that exists in today’s global supply chain. The media milieu of today would be an ideal platform. Maybe they avert their eyes because it hits too close to their own homes and their own livelihoods, or they are blatant hypocrites or possibly just ignorant. How is unquestioned faith in the integrity of today’s 3rd world labor supply any different from buying cotton produced by slaves, 200 years ago? They sure do embrace presentism, judging and blaming the Americans of the past far more harshly than they do themselves. And, todays cocooned consummer has the luxury of a 24/7 international information cycle, travel, and leisure time. In the past, most ordinary people were preoccupied with keeping body and soul together.
I don’t know who else is on board, but the US DoD prohibits slavery, human trafficking, coerced labor, deceptive labor practices in it’s supply chain. This requirement is flowed upstream from supplier to supplier. For what it’s worth, the query form and process is very similar to the one used to monitor for the presence of Conflict Minerals, which itself is supposed to curtail funding to murderous militias and cartels. My own take on this is that these are very expensive, mostly feel good exercises, meant to create the illusion of action. Never the less, their existence does imply an underlying problem.
https://www.socialresponsibilityalliance.org/strt/
In another news, an historic day for Socialism
1 dolar yes 1$ is more than the value of Venezuelan minimum wage salary and pension.
https://www.periodistadigital.com/pd-america/20200924/derrumbe-historico-dolar-supera-salario-minimo-pensiones-venezuela-noticia-689404370493/
Cesare is absolutely correct. I realised years ago that the absolute right to any economic good (“Healthcare is a right, not a privilege”) implies an absolute duty on the part of someone else to provide it. And the word for an absolute duty to provide an economic good, especially if that good is a service, is “slavery”.
Yes Collectivism (Socialism, Fascism – whatever name is used) is SLAVERY.
Herbert Spencer in “Man Versus the State” 1883 (which I read whilst doing my A levels at a Technical Collage – these days such a book would not be in a library), said the socialists might as well support the Inca Empire as that was the extreme tyranny they were supporting – of course modern establishment leftists DO support the Inca Empire (all the television history shows that mention it are supportive).
The left hate an individual owning slaves – but everyone being slaves to the Collective they are fine with, because (like Rousseau) the modern left hold that individuals are part of the Collective – so to be a slave to the Collective just means being a slave to your self.
So it is not that the left do not know of the evil of such places as Cuba and Venezuela – they do know, and they support this evil.
And Big Business?
I am told that in the (Amazon?) series “Jack Ryan” Venezuela is shown as a terrible place – but this is due to a conservative (yes conservative) government – with the noble rebels being in support of “Social Justice”.
Yes Big Business is that dishonest – and that suicidal.
All the big entertainment Corporations push radical Collectivism – the very system that will destroy them.
The managers who are “educated” in the modern schools and universities (at vast expense) are responsible for his.
Some OWNERS still know it is all insane nonsense – for example Jeff Bezos (the owner of Amazon) knows it is all insane nonsense. But his Washington Post and his Amazon Prime pushes it anyway.
Damn him – damn Mr Bezos to Hell.
There are better examples of modern slavery. But this is certainly hard.
It’s funny that no leftists are taking action against it. It seems as if it was about something completely different
Even George Orwell in 1940 (in ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ IIRC) wrote of the Nazis that
before noting that in other respects this modern restored slavery was worse than the practice on the US cotton fields (actually, it was much, much worse). I don’t wish to pick on Orwell particularly, but it is relevant to Paul’s point that even so level-headed and honest a left-winger as Orwell should write unreflectingly as if private ownership were worse, when of course the historical record is that the state typically treats its slaves yet more brutally than do private owners.
In other modern medical slavery news…