In case anyone has no clue what I am talking about, here are some links. :)
September 28, 2010
The Miners
According to the lead story on the news today, everything will be in place to save the Chilean miners trapped underground in just 15 days! Not that the miners will actually be rescued in 15 days, but all of the construction on the rescue tunnels will be finished then-- which is pretty awesome considering that the project was predicted to finish up around Christmastime. I know I'm not ACTUALLY Chilean, but I can't help feeling super proud right now. Chile was basically considered a third world country just a few decades ago, but today the country is so efficient, and its infrastructure so solid, that it has been able to deal with two major crisis within the past year-- the February 2010 earthquake, and now the mine fiasco. I don't want to get all political in this blog, but I can't help but compare how Chile has handled their most recent national emergencies with how the U.S. handles national emergencies. Here in Chile, the first question was, "What needs to be done fix this?" In the U.S., I think the first question would have been, "Whose fault is this?" I don't presume to be an expert on Chilean politics, but the news is on everyday during almuerzo and I haven't heard one person use the mine incident as an excuse to cast blame, spew accusations, and/or badmouth political opponents. I know Chile's not perfect, but I'm just sayin'... Viva Chile!
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I'm sure if chris christie (he doesn't deserve capital letters) was in Chile, he'd find a way to blame the earthquake AND the mine collapes on the teachers. We are, after all, apparently the root of all evil. Life in NJ......stinkbugs and all.....
ReplyDeleteI'm happy that you are so happy!! :)
I'm so happy about the progress on rescuing the miners. I read somewhere that the tunnels were completed, but that seemed so unlikely I assumed I misunderstood. It's wonderful that the miners won't have to spend as many months undergrounds as originally feared.
ReplyDeleteAnd I share your cynical observation about how it would be handled here. I would expect a certain political party to suggest that we can't afford to rescue them because of the deficit :-(