As Haitians engage in their latest war for survival, it is instructive to see how certain neighboring nations responded to this crisis, for a nation\'s response unveils its motive, its fears and its hopes.

The U.S., Haiti\'s wealthiest northern neighbor, is a country which has had an outsized history of political, military and economic intervention, rushed in armed troops, like the 82nd Airborne; young men with weapons and war training, to a land facing a natural disaster from earthquake.

Cuba, although its next largest neighbor, is a country of modest means, with a GDP closer to African states than European ones. It sent 500 doctors, equipped with medical supplies, who helped to mobilize nearly 400 Haitian doctors, all graduates of their Latin American Medical School. The Haitians, like students from all over the world, trained for free in this Cuban medical school, now had the opportunity and chance to help their people.

Fidel Castro, a fervent writer since leaving office, wrote within days of the Jan. 12th earthquake:

Hour after hour, day and night, the Cuban Health professionals
have worked non stop in the few facilities that were able to stand,
in tents and out in the parks and open air spaces, since the
population fears new aftershocks.[3]
Cuban doctors worked to find and help their Haitian colleagues
who lived in earthquake ravaged neighborhoods.

And the former Cuban Head of State turned to Haitian
history: Haiti is a net product of the colonial, capitalist and
imperialist system imposed on the world. Haiti\'s slavery
and subsequent poverty were imposed from abroad. That
terrible earthquake occurred after the Copenhagen climate
change summit, where the most elemental rights of 192
member states were trampled upon.[4]

In a pithy end to his essay, Fidel summed it up thus:

\"We send doctors, not soldiers! \"[4]