President Obama’s “new approach” on Cuba has intensified the debate on U.S.—Cuban relations. Would you like to learn a bit modern Cuba, besides all the politics?
Cuba
is changing.
Among the
propaganda spouted by Cuban tour guide in 2013 was the statement: Cuban
scientists had patented a drug for cancer. When I got home, I found researchers in Havana had patented a therapeutic cancer vaccine to
treat a rather rare type of lung cancer (non-small cell). In essence, the drug
is supposed to rev up patients’ own immune systems to produce cells to slay the
cancer cells without injuring the normal cells.
This patent demonstrates two facets of modern
Cuba. Cuban scientists are doing competitive science. The Cuban government
recognizes the importance of commercialization of their research. My guide’s
comments suggest although Cubans are proud of their past, many think science
and economic changes are important for their future.
The U.S.
response to Cuba is surprising.
First off, I
was amazed by the tons of consumer goods being flown by American Airlines from
Miami into Cuba daily despite the embargo. I bet you’d be amazed, too, if you
saw the baggage check in for flights to Havana.
I was also
surprised to learn hundreds of Cuban scientists and artists had participated in
non-U.S. government-sponsored exchanges already. In June 2014, the president of
AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) even requested U.S.
government to sponsor scientific exchanges with Cuba. (Check out the editorial
“Science diplomacy with Cuba” in the journal Science on June 6, 2014.)
My trip to
Cuba turns into the thriller Malignancy.
Scientific exchanges were one of the early steps
in the normalization of U.S. relationships with China in the 1970s. Similarly,
the U.S. is apt to initiate more scientific exchanges with Cuba in the near
future. I thought Sara Almquist, the epidemiologist and heroine of my previous
medical thrillers Coming Flu and Ignore the Pain, would be the perfect
protagonist to do a little “scientific diplomacy” in Cuba.
I
wanted readers of Malignancy see more
of Cuba than its scientific aspirations. So I have Sara to slip into La
Floridita Bar, made famous by Hemingway, in Old Havana to meet a mysterious
Cuban. Is he just a potential colleague, a spymaster, or both?
I
suspect most Americans, including myself, know less about Cuban history than
they realize. Accordingly, Sara discovers interesting quirks of Cuban history,
as well as clues about those who are trying to kill her in Albuquerque, while
she explores historic Colon Cemetery and Plaza de la Revolución in Havana.
So visit Cuba
with Sara in Malignancy. Then you can
decide if the personality of Havana matches your expectations.
Blurb for Malignancy: Men disguised as police officers shoot at
Sara Almquist twice in one day. Albuquerque police suspect Jim Mazzone, a drug
czar who has tangled with Sara before, will order more hits on Sara. Thus when
colleagues in the State Department invite Sara to arrange scientific exchanges
between the U.S. and Cuba, she jumps at the chance to get out of town and to
see the mysterious Xave Zack, who rescued her in Bolivia. Maybe, she should
question their motives.
The book is available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle versions.
