IN HAVANA, written on a wall there is a slogan accredited to young communists: “Amor es la major ley” (love is the best law). What would you give to live in a society where love is proclaimed as the best law? Words like “love thy neighbour as thyself” are often spoken at this time of year but it is Cuba that provides an example the like of which the world has never seen before. 

In 1998 when Hurricane Mitch devastated Nicaragua and Honduras, Cuba immediately sent medical personnel to help. But instead of just short-term emergency relief Cubans pointed out that “the permanent hurricane of poverty and underdevelopment kills more people every year than these hurricanes just did…”

Many of those treated had never seen a doctor before so Cuba came up with its own version of the “teach a person to fish” story. They immediately set about transforming a naval academy on Cuba’s north coast, just west of Havana, into the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) and it was officially opened by Raul Castro a few months later in March 1999.