Dan Mabey has been watching the drama of Elian Gonzalez with even more interest than many Utahns.
Mabey, director of the Utah State International Business Office, was in Havana earlier this year when 6-year-oldElian was just emerging as the world's most famous Cuban after Fidel Castro -- and certainly more beloved than the bearded dictator -- after the boy was rescued at sea in November.
Mabey and his team were in Cuba as part of an international trade show, a pretty neat trick considering that the U.S. government bans Americans from trading with the communist-ruled island located 90 miles off the U.S. coast.
Not to worry. Mabey and company weren't doing anything illegal. They were there representing Utah's biomedical firms, medicine having a special exemption to the no-trade rules. The term "biomedical" itself has been interpreted rather broadly to include such things as health-care supplies and nutritional products produced by such Utah companies as Nu Skin, Nature's Sunshine and Ultra Dent, a dental health-care company.
The delegation also represented the Utah Life Science Association, an industry group that promotes the state's life science and medical industries, much like the Utah Information Technologies Association (UITA) promotes the Utah's high-tech industries.
Ironically, the Clinton administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce heavily promoted the medical trade show in January as an attempt to develop some inroads to the Cuban economy and raise the awareness of the Cuban health-care industry of the advances in medicine that have taken place since the revolution in 1959 when Castro came to power.
But the attempt blew up in the government's face when at the last minute Cuba denied entry visas to every state and federal government entity except Utah, which had a booth at the show manned by Mabey and Patrick Didier, who is in charge of the International Business Office's Latin America desk.
Is it really possible that Cuba's health-care system has been frozen in time over the past 41 years? For the broad populace, that seems to be the case, Mabey found.
"To me, it was like visiting China 15 years ago," he said.
Mabey found four levels of health care in Cuba: The average Cuban citizen, who gets very limited care; The tourist level, which he describes as "fairly good;" Government bureaucrats, who get another step up in care; and the military, which gets the best the country has to offer.
But even that may not be much by American standards. Mabey found Cuban doctors to be uneducated in the latest tools and technology of medical care.
"They are reported to have the best medical training, but how good can it be if none of the doctors know how to do arthroscopic surgery? They were seeing rather common devices and procedures at this trade show that were completely new to them. And they were very impressed."
That was another thing that struck Mabey. Despite the four decades of estrangement from the United States and the enmity building over the Elian media event, he found most Cubans to be very friendly and cordial.
Even at the structured protests over bringing Elian back to Cuba, it was clear to him that the "protesters" were just playing their parts in a government-mandated pageant. "You talk to people on the street and they would trade places with Elian in a heartbeat," said Mabey.
Moreover, Mabey found the entire Cuban economy to be "dollarized." The government may not like America, but it has no problem taking American money.
So what came out of the great Utah/Cuban trade show? Not much, really. Mabey concedes that it has been difficult for Cubans to follow through and order products that the Utahns took to the island.
"We put a wedge in the door trade-wise," said Mabey. "It was intriguing to be a part of that first step, especially since Utah was the only state represented at the show. We planted seeds that we don't expect to harvest this year, but this regime will pass one day, and perhaps then our efforts will bear fruit."
E-mail max@desnews.com or fax 801-236-7605. Max Knudson's column runs each Monday./I?