In the early hours of October 13, one by one the Chilean miners were rescued from their pit of despair. The world watched as a spectacular high-tech pod was lowered into the ground to lift these 33 men up to the life they thought they’d never see again.
It was bittersweet to see how innovative governments could be if they wish: sweet because of the effort organized to help innocent civilians, bitter because it is so rare.
And bitter because this particular copper and gold mining company has had numerous safety infractions over the years and despite being closed in 2007 due to a miner’s death, was reopened without actually addressing all the safety protocols it was in violation of.
And bitter because a media spectacle was made of the rescue mission starring the country’s first-ever right-wing President, billionaire Sebastian Pinera, who is one of the few allies the United States has in South America.
It is possible, we saw with our own eyes, for governments to be instruments for improving the world, rather than destroying it. That naive childhood wish or Miss Universe knee-jerk answer of “world peace” is a real possibility, so are we to believe that governments don’t actually wish to enact it?
Look at Pakistan: the government could easily be donating much more money and resources toward helping the recent flood victims and the internally displaced persons before them. The resources are there, the funding has been made available, and perhaps, even, a few of the wealthier government types could part with a tiny fraction of their vast accumulations to donate to the cause of helping the people they were elected to serve.
Or look at the United States: it sent over NASA experts to help the Chilean rescue mission, but when Hurricane Katrina happened in its own backyard, the best it could do was herd people into sports stadiums and announce that “major combat operations are over” or something like that. New Orleans is still suffering from Katrina 5 years later.
Then what are the voiceless masses to do? In Chile, the family of one of the miners trapped in this disaster filed a lawsuit against the mine owners and government inspectors for gross negligence and safety lapses just 3 weeks after the mine collapsed and just days after the miners were discovered to be alive.
Now several more of the miners families have joined the suit.
So while President Pinera has been cruising on a rise of political capital from framing this entire fiasco as a patriotic event, he will be watched closely for signs that he will in fact take action against mining companies that refuse to abide by safety protocols and government representatives who allow them to get away with it.
He will be watched closely by the Chilean people should another horrible mining accident occur in mine-rich Chile. And because an international media event was constructed to demonstrate the power and compassion of Pineras right-wing government, the world is now aware of the Chilean governments failure to take the safety of its miners seriously and will be watching should similar unenforced safety violations result in similar precarious situations for miners.
Sixty-nine days after being victimized by poor working conditions, the Chilean miners and their families have demonstrated two important things to the world: that governments can, when they wish, help people, and that individual citizens can make a difference if they speak up for change. While trapped in the mineshaft, 63-year-old miner Mario Gomez, who has been mining since he was 12 years old (yes, he was a child laborer, sadly), sent a note to his family telling them he is well and stating that the company has got to modernize.
With a few words, he took a stand and though it was his right to be angry, he gently noted that now things must change.
In the next few weeks, once the journalists have left Copiapo, more facts will be revealed about mining in Chile how against international child labor laws, some of these men have been working to support their families since childhood. How the Chilean government has disregarded its own laws for mine safety. How the mining company who owns the San Jose Mine in Copiapo, has gotten away with failing safety regulations. And how the owners of the mining company whose assets have now been frozen by judges orders, can live with themselves knowing they are responsible for this incident and the deaths and accidents that have occurred at this mine over the years due to their companys disregard for safety.
But for now, let us revel in the positive: it was nice, after all, to see a government help pull people out of the ground, rather than put them in it with war, economic violence, and government oppression.
The writer is US-based political analyst
