In this newsletter: A SHORT INTRODUCTION

1) CMT REORGANIZATION PLANS! (I'm giving thousands of dollars away!)
2) SO WHAT CAN WE DO IN CUBA?
3) OUR NEW COMMITTEE STRUCTURE
4) 2 SMALL THINGS YOU CAN DO NOW (DON'T SEND MONEY!)
5) LEGAL TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES TO CUBA

INTRODUCTION.

This is the occasional newsletter of Caribbean Medical Transport, www.cubacaribe.com.
I promised everyone that I would not overburden any reader, and I think I have kept
that promise. This is the 8th newsletter send out in two years, so we could say
that it appears quarterly. There are about 2,500 people on the mailing list. You
got on this list in one of two ways:
1) You wrote to me about Cuba sometime in the last 10 years.
2) Somebody put you on our mailing list by going to our web page and nominating
you, thinking you would be interested in the work we do in Cuba.

1) CMT REORGANIZATION

I think it is time to do some substantial reorganization of how we go about
our work in Cuba.

CMT was created to deliver donated medical supplies to Cuba. We could do nothing
by ourselves. With the help of many, many friends, we have played some role in the
delivery of 21 containers over the last six years. I always felt that we should
have been able to do more, but we have to work with the permission of both governments.
It should be the easiest thing in the
world, loading donated supplies onto a boat and ship them to a place where people
need them, but the governments complicate everything. We always need to find the
space where the two governments permit us to operate.

Over the years, that space has become smaller and smaller, to the point where
we are pirouetting on the head of a tiny pin! So, IN ADDITION to the work in Cuba,
let?s ALSO be effective and efficient in other places.

CARIBBEAN MEDICAL TRANSPORT WILL GIVE 5 GRANTS OF $1,000 EACH TO EXISTING NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE SENDING OR WANT TO SEND CONTAINERS OF DONATED MEDICAL SUPPLIES
TO JAMAICA, THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, COLOMBIA, GUATEMALA OR OTHER PLACES. We have
partners in mind, but please write if you would like to apply for a $1,000 grant,
for yourself or if you would like to nominate someone you know. The application
process is very easy- just tell us what you are doing! Later I?ll report on who
received the grants!

We'll STILL send containers to Cuba, but until such time as that gets easier
(may it be soon) we are also going to work in places where it is already easier.

2) SO WHAT CAN WE DO NOW IN CUBA?

The weak link of this organization has always been ME.

So I'd like to reduce that weak link by allowing other people to do the kinds
of things that they want to do! I've always believed that decentralized organizations
can achieve much
more than highly centralized organizations. Alcoholics anonymous is a good example.
There is no leader of AA. There is no Board of Directors, nobody gets paid, no
one person or group of people making strategy and marshaling forces and making decisions.
What there is, is a shared philosophy by which people volunteer to help each other.
And AA is one of the most effective organizations that the world has ever seen.

So here is our shared philosophy:

We want to encourage every good person to develop worthwhile projects in Cuba-
projects that benefit humanity, and projects that benefit individuals.

That's it! But as you can see, it is much bigger than sending donated supplies.
The key is to create committees of interest

3) COMMITTEES

The essential element of cooperative, volunteer effort is a commonality of interests.
In the example of AA, the voluntary interest is in limiting or eliminating the abusive
behavior that can be associated with the consumption of alcohol. People who share
that interest get together and help each other achieve their goals.

Those of us who love Cuba already have our own particular interests. All we have
to do is allow people with a shared particular interest to communicate, electronically
and otherwise, and we could see an explosion in the amount of work that gets done-
work that doesn?t have to go through me!

Here are two examples:

1) We met someone who is a former Board Member of the largest animal welfare
organization. He loves animals everywhere, and when he realized that he could combine
his love of animals with his interest in Cuba, the lights went on. We were able
to send him to Cuba, where he met the people of ANIPLANT, the best Cuban NGO dedicated
to the care and protection of animals. And then he started calling HIS contacts,
and now we have a project. We are collecting money and supplies, and we are going
to make a huge difference in the ability of ANIPLANT to protect animals all over
Cuba. They can hire a veterinarian for $20 a month who will do sterilizations all
day long, if we can supply the veterinarian with small surgical instruments and
anesthesia and a small amount of medication. We don't need to send containers.
We could fit everything they really need on a few pallets, fly it over from Miami,
or maybe individual animal lovers will carry anesthesia over person by person.
And we s
upport it all with money.

2) Just this week we met someone who has become an expert on an affliction called
Xerderma Pigmentosum. There are 57 cases that we know about in Cuba- - a very rare
disease caused by a lack of pigment in the skin. The people with this syndrome lack
vitamins and creams and some clothing and some other items. The person who contacted
us has his own network of friends, so we are going to support his project with money
and supplies and technical assistance, such as our travel license and our shipping
license!

So that is how the committees will work.

PEOPLE WITH COMMON INTERESTS WILL FORM COMMITTEES, AND TALK TO EACH OTHER AND
OTHER PEOPLE YOU ALREADY KNOW

The role of CMT will be to provide a little bit of organization, and support the
projects that YOU want to do with money and with donated supplies. And since we
have a travel license, we can authorize people to travel to Cuba to take charge
of these particular projects (provided
that we meet the OFAC guidelines)

OK, I am going to ask for your help to create these committees. I want to hear
from all 2,500 of you!

Here are some areas of interest:

Animal welfare
Sustainable Agriculture
Addiction/alcoholism
Conservation
Architecture/Historic Preservation
Literature/ art
Music/ film making
Education
The handicapped
HIV
Cancer survival
Judaism
Christianity
Santeria
Chiropractic

etc etc.

That's the idea. It is simple.

4) TWO SMALL THINGS YOU CAN DO! (Don?t send money!)

A) Tell me which committee you are interested in. Of course you can invent your
own committee! Tell me what you are really, truly interested in!

B) SEND ME A COPY OF YOUR EMAIL LIST, especially people
who love Cuba, but not only the people who already love Cuba! We are going to create
more love by involving more people, people that we already know! Or, send a copy
of this email to the people on your list.

This whole thing is a little like the Meet Up campaign that launched Howard Dean,
the ex governor of my State of Vermont. If we start with a few dedicated people
who are willing to talk to a few friends, we end up with thousands of people who
will accomplish all the work, out of love and dedication and shared interests.

IT DEPENDS UPON US

I've been writing to hundreds of you for 10 years. I know you are interested
in Cuba. Many of you are fanatically interested, insanely interested and dedicated.

So, let me please repeat the TWO SMALL THINGS I HOPE YOU CAN DO

A) SEND ME AN EMAIL ABOUT YOURSELF and your particular interests in Cuba. Just a
paragraph or two, although if you have a novel, I?ll read that also. I'll answer
every email. Where are you from? How did you get interested in Cuba? Where do
you live? What are your particular interests? I?ll use that information to help
get you on a committee! Then you can talk to each other, and go to work!

B) SEND ME A COPY OF YOUR EMAIL LIST! Do it right now! Or send this email out
to the people on your list. Talk to other people!

Don't send money!
Don't do anything difficult!

If you agree to do steps one and two, we will soon be working on scores of new
projects! We will authorize some of the best people in the world who wish to travel
to Cuba, and we will set them free to do wonderful work, with the help of other
people who want to be involved.

We got a deal? Great!

ONE LAST NOTE

Soon enough relations with Cuba will be normalized. People will freely travel here
and there, whenever they want. People will follow their heart, and engage in the
world of human endeavors. We don't have to wait. We can prepare for that world
now, by forming committees, and going about our interests.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

5) TRAVEL OPPORTUNITIES

Our travel license is valid until Feb 2008. We are going to use all our available
licences this year. Please write and reserve a license if you wish to travel to
Cuba legally. PS. Since I am doing this work, I know other groups that have licences.
I often am able to match people who don't meet our particular travel licence
with the travel license of a different group. I love to do that because travel is
a positive good, apart from all the good that travelers can do. If you are a US
resident who wants to travel to Cuba legally, or know someone who wants to do that,
please write!

As always, gratitude, passion and affection

Rick Schwag, Caribbean Medical Transport
cuba@together.net
http://www.cubacaribe.com/