HAVANA -- Want to help the poor and oppressed of Cuba without aiding and abetting the Castro regime? There is a way, and it starts with milk and medicine.
    
   In a society long known for being child-friendly, the milk shortage brought about by Marxist economic practice here greatly distresses Cubans. When a baby is born, parents get a card that is supposed to entitle them to a quart of milk per week until the child is 7 years old. But Cubans regularly say that some milk never shows up and other portions are watery. They say the type of milk distributed to children ages 3 to 6 is of such low quality that many children have stomach problems.

        The health-care system also is a mess. Medical visits are free, but medicine is scarce. Hospitals (except those restricted to Communist leaders and foreigners) are seen as unhygienic, and at one hospital, the new tradition is BYOX -- Bring your own X-ray film.  At a pharmacy that?s supposed to be one of the best-stocked, since it?s across the street from the Havana Children?s Hospital, everything from A through V -- antibiotics to vitamins -- is scant.

        Milk and medicine could be sent in containers through the Port of Havana, but everything coming that way is subject to a government that is now two-thirds kleptocracy and one-third ideology. One shipment of milk for children turned into ice cream for tourists. Medicine often goes to special hospitals used by Communist Party officials.

        A better alternative is already showing itself to be possible: Some individuals, such as those on humanitarian visas who bring in medicine or powdered milk packets with their personal luggage, do get help to those truly in need. Church-related groups distribute medicine or transport milk to the eastern part of Cuba, where shortages are particularly severe.

        One scholar in Havana suggests that the person-to-person approach might be impractical: ?You?d need a whole army of people to bring in bags of medicine.? An army of people. Hmmm. Where have we heard an expression like that before? Ah -- George W. Bush has proclaimed, ?We will rally the armies of compassion in our communities.  This will not be the failed compassion of towering, distant bureaucracies. ? In every instance where my administration sees a responsibility to help people, we will look first to faith-based organizations ? ?