Why is agricultural work so awful and unproductive? "Productivity" hides a lot of things....like the taste of food or the fact that working in the fields to raise organic produce is probably healthier than working in a lot of toxic industrial environments.
As for Cuba trading doctors for oil...well, that's unfortunate, but it looks like a move that is needed to benefit everybody since that oil will likely be used to sustain some of those other highly productive jobs that everyone is touting.
Joanna