I sometimes think this blog should be renamed Doom & Gloom such is my propensity to dwell on the pessimistic side of the street. However, today is a 'Happy Day' because, try as I might, I cannot think of a single downside to the sight and sound of those Chilean miners appearing one by one from the bowels of the earth. As I write five have appeared and all today I will be wishing most fervently that by tomorrow they are all back on the surface safe and sound. They are ordinary men with, no doubt, their share of faults and vices, but if the greatest virtue is courage then those men stand absolved. I salute them, but not only them, also and most especially the three rescue men who went down in the first three runs to organise the situation below and who will be the last to return. Given my own chronic claustrophobia I simply don't understand why they are not all gibbering wrecks. I assume Spanish is the Chilean language so all I can say, no, shout, is - Viva!
ADDITIONAL:
Here they are, courtesy of The Daily Mail:
They must be looking forward to giving their wives a good seeing to.
Posted by: Gorilla Bananas | Wednesday, 13 October 2010 at 11:00
No doubt true but not quite in the spirit of the occasion, Gorilla!
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 13 October 2010 at 11:48
Don't know about anyone else, but I really do not consider these guys 'heroes' or anything remotely similar.
For instance, not one of them, as far as I am aware, had the simple guts to state that where they were supposed to be working was both dangerous and outside any rules which may, or may not, have been established by the Authorities.
Not one had the guts to state that he and his friends were being asked to travel into the guts of a mine without even an escape route possibility!
On the other hand, not many people have said much about the engineers who planned and carried out this remarkable rescue! Nothing about the tunnelling expertise required not only to hit the spot, but to have available all the kit ready to extricate the 33!
And before anyone asks, yes, I have worked underground, yes, I have placed safety complaints before management; and yes, the problems were resolved!
Posted by: Mike Cunningham | Sunday, 17 October 2010 at 16:32
Bit harsh, Mike! These are impoverished people taking on a risky job presumably for the money in order to keep their families. No doubt in time the true story of what went on underground will come out, and human nature being what it is, some will have behaved better than others. On the whole they seem to have remained phlegmatic, resolved and resourceful in a situation in which I, myself, would have been reduced to quivering, shivering uselessness. And actually, I saw today on Fox News, the return of the American mining engineers who set up the rig which eventually got through to the men.
Anyway, what the hell were you doing down a mine - don't you know it's dangerous!!
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 17 October 2010 at 17:08