< Magazine Index > < Index For This Edition > < Subscribe >

Kirk Stephan studies alternative medicines and is a master of oriental medicine.  He has been practicing for 35 years and has established many alternative medicine clinics and exchanges around Latin America.  Every year, Stephan goes at least once to Cuba to discover what new alternative medicines have bee in use.  This has given Stephan a unique and ongoing view of this last bastion of communism in the western hemisphere.  Stephan's observations during his unique travels are insightful.  Viewed on his website - Click Here - Additional Resources Kirk Stephan's website  more Kirk Spephan Articles  Investing in Cuba

My 5th annual Cuba trip began on a magical, mystical, well, at least, archetypal note, with Venus, Jupiter and Mars all lined up pointing east, and Popocatapetl (the ancient active volcano near M. City) belching out a black cloud as we pulled in to Mexico City from San Miguel, and a large fiery one as we flew out the next day.  It was cold, too, so intense that flying in to Cancun I saw, for the first time in my life, not one American tourist!  Another real first for me: as I joined a group of Mexicans in a bus towards town, I was the only 'gringo' around!  I stayed the night as if I were really in Mexico.  No problem getting a seat on the next flight out to Havana, so I was on my way. It was the same weather story when we reached Jose Marti airport in Havana -- Cubans hunkered into their warmest available jackets and parkas, half of them sniffling and hacking with colds. It took me a couple of days to catch up, then I caught one, too.  Shuffling about the streets in my goose down jacket was another first this far south.  It did an empathy number on me though the Cubans seemed so much more miserable than me.

My resistance probably became low when I couldn't locate my girlfriend.  Besides my regular medical research, I'd come to see her and Cuba itself with it's out-moded communistic, repressive ways and secret police that didn't hold the attraction for me it had in prior years.  European tourists were all around.  Most of the hot musicians have now been relegated to the touristy bars and clubs of Old Havana.
 

Yaisy lived in the far opposite corner of the country, in Santiago de Cuba.  According to her friend and neighbor, Irasema, she was visiting Holguin, up-country, and should return by the end of the weekend.  When she hadn't, and when I heard she'd be gone all week, I got sick.  Guess I've had a few colds over the years, but this was a zonker. I stayed in bed 'til Thursday. I finally got through to my sweet gal who'd been tending to her Mother in the countryside, another victim of this crazy cold wave. Of course the temperature never went below 40, but it was really something, here. Though recovering, my energy level was hovering around zero plus 2 or so.  When my girl finally called me by phone, I had to tell her I was unable to travel to those far reaches, but I would pay her plane ticket to come to Havana for our reunion. This was tantamount to telling a North American girl in Los Angeles that her lover from Europe had arrived, but she'd have to travel to New York in order to see him!  All this was compounded by the fact that Cubans aren't allowed to just travel about at will. They're supposed to have special documents to leave their hometowns and a good reason for doing it.

It’s hard to accept the occasional ‘apartheid’ working here in both ways (Cubans pay in pesos, 20x1, tourists in dollars, and it’s considered a crime for Cubans and foreigners to socialize except under certain conditions).  This time I at least saved $190.  She did it, hopping a plane in spite of her "... terror of the things," she explained to me later when we were alone. And when leaving to go back home a week later, she decided to return by train or 'gua-gua' (Cuban, for bus), “no matter how long it might take ....”
 

Havana is starting to shape up.  The trickle down effect from the tourist dollars is actually working as predicted by Fidel.  Roll over Ronald Reagan.  Paint began appearing this year and is making most of the difference. There's nothing more morose than beautiful architecture crumbling and going all rain-streaked and gray colored.  In the next couple of years, I guess, it'll be looking a lot more like it did in the old capitalist glory days. Every year there seems to bring another 180 degree shift. The tourist dollar has trickled down to the markets now, and every store is crammed with goods. A very few years back  it was even difficult to find toilet paper.

Cuban's are a happy and proud people, but surrounded by sad, gray, fungus streaked architecture isn't very funny. This scenario isn't helped by Castro’s banning of all incandescent bulbs (possession is a crime!) in favor of the stark coldness, and cheapness, of fluorescent ones.

On the brighter side, the alternative medicine clinics I regularly visit are becoming more popular. The peoples' natural suspicions of the government's acupuncture and herbal clinics seems to be abating and for the first time the staff didn't have the usual couple of hours to spend gossiping and socializing with me.  Instead we discussed some of the new protocols which have been developed.  There's nothing shabby about contemporary Cuban medical science.  I even met a scientist from San Francisco attending a series of seminars for some of the world's most renowned geneticists!! 

My main thrust, though, was toward the ‘alternative,’ and I studied some of the more recent developments in herbal research, including a new product invented by the Cuban herbal genius, Eleuterio Paez.  This patented formula allegedly relieves all of the symptoms of arthritis, rheumatoid OR osteoarthritis!
 

Amidst the ups and downs of watching repressed freedoms side-by-side with the new abundance.  For example, beef has now become legal to have in one's possession, and occasionally can be found in the supermarkets.  Before beef was reserved for tourists staying in government hotels.  There's not much change in people's attitudes, though.  People still  commiserate over government policies while carefully avoiding any comment or reference to ‘Big Brother’ Fidel. I would say the nostalgia and fun of the “Buena Vista Social Club” survives in Cuba, brightening an otherwise cold horizon.  I gathered the fruits of my research into the newest revelations in alternative medicines, said good bye to Yaisy, boarded my plane and returned to Mexico City.  I'll be back, though.  After so many years of traveling to Cuba, it's nice to see progress.

Send Comments to Kirk Stephan - Click Here -
View Stephan's website - Click Here -