I’ve had a few days off from this harsh mistress called “Judge and Jury” (call it the Thanksgiving Turkey hangover) but the world certainly hasn’t stopped.
The most compelling story of all the ones out there now has to be that of the Chilean miners, trapped under the earth for over 60 days while crews worked frantically to come to their rescue.
From the moment this story came to light, I couldn’t help but thinking of a great old song my dad loved to play when I was young…
Tonight, this story has a much better ending than that of this great Jimmy Dean tune to be sure, but I have to say that I was not convinced that it would turn out as well as it did.
Think about this… 33 miners buried so far beneath the earth that you could fit the CN Tower between them and fresh air. Sending a metal tube (The Fenix… perfect name for this operation as these men are certainly rising what would have felt like certain death) no wider than a man’s shoulders up and down this bored out hole on a pulley system, rattling against the rocks as it goes down only to come back up and do it all over again. Millions of things could have gone wrong and somehow, disaster was averted and today we are not talking about a tragic event that killed 33 men. Instead we have a story of triumph over the longest odds. We are talking about human ingenuity and cooperation that saved lives.
While the celebration of this victory should be embraced and enjoyed, the mining industry had best be prepared for the intense scrutiny it is about to face. Before the miners were even brought to the surface there had been questions about the horrible working conditions these men put themselves in. The lack of safety standards, accusations of regulations being ignored altogether…all need to be addressed so that we can minimize the risk of seeing this happen anywhere else.
In closing… a note of thanks to anyone with a gig that puts their own lives in danger. Regardless of the reasons why you do it, whether it is saving the life of someone else, or furthering industry… I appreciate your work. Because I certainly don’t have the cojones to do it myself.
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