Where No Doctor Has Gone Before: Cuba’s Place in the Global Health Landscape

Acknowledgements

xi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While I hold that fateful wave fully responsible for setting this project in motion, I, too, hold responsible all those who have provided their support throughout this project. Without them, this could never have succeeded the way that it did. As the author of this book, my role was actually minimal. Those who have invested financial support, provided supervision, built networks, gave their warm beds, or gave their not-so-warm couches, and who always encouraged this project to move forward are the ones who have truly made this study possible . I will take a moment here to give them all well-deserved acknowledgements and thanks and to explicitly state that I hold them accountable for seeing this through. To the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation: thank you. This foundation offers financial and networking assistance to scholars to engage Canadians about pressing social issues. Its support, dedication, and encouragement are refreshing ingredients in how to approach international research. There is simply no way that I could have completed this study without the Foundation, and I will be forever grateful to them for it. Foundation President P. G. Forest, former President Stephen Toope, and interim President Fred Lowry have done so much for the Foundation and its members, and they have been personally involved in helping me to develop and initiate this project. I sincerely thank them for their time and encouragement. A very, very special thanks goes to Josée St-Martin, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty in handling my travels, untangling confusion, and always offering her support. Et plus, je veux donner un merci à Bettina Cenerelli, Stéphanie Forest, et Michel HardyVall ée pour leur assistances dévouées. As well, I thank my fellow scholars, notably William Tayeebwa, David Mendelsohn, Karen Rideout, and AnnaLiisa Aunio. They are friends and colleagues alike, and I am extremely grateful to have worked and grown with them. I thank the Social Science and Humanities Research Council for its substantial financial assistance throughout this project. As well, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Dalhousie University has offered generous support for the production of this book. xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Dr. John Brohman has been a dedicated and encouraging mentor throughout this process, and I greatly appreciate his efforts in helping to prepare grants, build theoretical frameworks, and wade through mountains of edits and typos. Dr. Jerry Spiegel has played a consummate supervisory and mentorship role throughout this process. Jerry has gone above and beyond the call of duty to provide workspace in Vancouver and valuable professional development and networking in Ecuador and Cuba. I also extend thanks to Dr. Robert Woollard and Dr. Eric Hershberg for their comments on this work. I sincerely thank Dr. John Kirk of Dalhousie University for his dedicated mentorship over the years and for moving the idea of Cuban medical internationalism into the forefront of Cuban studies. His advice and support for this research project and his assistance with publications has been exceptional. Dr. W. George Lovell of Queen’s University has continued to be a close ally, offering assistance and advice throughout. Dr. Susan Babbitt of Queen’s University has also been very supportive in helping me overcome some of the conceptual roadblocks to this study. Thanks also go to Dr. Gregory Marchildon, Dr. William Coleman, Dr. James Tully, Dr. Michael Erisman, and Dr. Daniel Weinstock. Also, the late Honourable Jacques Hébert played an important role in opening doors for this project in Cuba. I am very thankful for his personal encouragement, which helped to bring the idea of this study into action, and I extend my condolences to his family for losing him at the end of 2007. A big thanks also goes to the staff of the Canadian embassy in Havana, particularly Simon Cridland, Ram Kimini, and Alexandra Bugailiskis. Thanks also to Diane Applebaum and MEDICC for their outstanding work in Cuba, and for bringing me on board with their 2007 delegation to Havana. I would also like to thank Duncan and Nora Etches for their assistance in introducing me to the medical world in the early days of this project. Big thanks go to my colleagues in International Development Studies at Dalhousie University: John Cameron, Nissim Manathukkaren, Theresa Ulicki, Matt Schnurr, and Owen Willis. I give a very special thanks to Marian MacKinnon and Nicole Drysdale for their selfless support, and also kudos go to Ms. MacKinnon for her dedication to bringing students to Havana through an...