I watched Chris Matthews’ of Hardball Fame while he reported on the beginning Rescue Operations of the Chilean Miners, until it had gotten so laden with gobbledygook that I couldn’t take it any longer and turned the channel. When Matthews (trying so hard to fill time) started in with a spiel about how the miners came from generational mining families and even went so far as to say something like... These miners come from families with a long tradition of mine work. It’s in their blood, handed down from father to son (paraphrasing)... Actual quote below:
MATTHEWS: "Let‘s talk about the culture of the miner. You know, I grew up with it only in the movies, basically, "How Green Was My Valley" and the guys, the old Welsh coal miners going underground in terrible conditions. And today, of course, still in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, you‘ve got that tradition of guys going down there, coming up with their faces covered with soot and having to take a shower, and obviously, that bonding that goes on. But the guts it takes just to go down there every morning with your lunch bucket and your light on your helmet—what is that about? Is it a certain kind of person? Is it inherited from father and son, the guts that it takes to be a working guy a mile or so beneath the surface of the earth 40 hours week?"
All I could manage to mumble, before I turned to something more interesting like an "All in the Family" rerun was... Holy baloney, where is this man coming from? These miners are down deep in the Earth digging for metals to help make the rich, richer... BECAUSE... It’s a damn job and they do it to put food on their family table. They risk their lives because the Chilean government is in cahoots with the corporate world and allow (with little or no regulation) the corporatehoodlums to get away with unsafe practices so they can accumulate more wealth and more power. (sound familiar?)
Today I came across this article (Chile's Ghosts Are Not Being Rescued) which begins with:
The rescue of 33 miners in Chile is an extraordinary drama filled with pathos and heroism. It is also a media windfall for the Chilean government, whose every beneficence is recorded by a forest of cameras. One cannot fail to be impressed. However, like all great media events, it is a facade.
The accident that trapped the miners is not unusual in Chile and is the inevitable consequence of a ruthless economic system that has barely changed since the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Copper is Chile's gold, and the frequency of mining disasters keeps pace with prices and profits. There are, on average, 39 fatal accidents every year in Chile's privatized mines. The San Jose mine, where the trapped men work, became so unsafe in 2007 it had to be closed - but not for long. On 30 July last, a labor department report warned again of "serious safety deficiencies," but the minister took no action. Six days later, the men were entombed.
What a world we live in where truth is chewed up, spit out and swept under the proverbial carpet so that those at the top of the heap can stay up there and paint reality any which way they wish; while those who live at the bottom, in a real world of victimhood, are subjugated by those who hold all the keys.
If you would rather read some bitter truth instead of being spoon-feed sugarcoated BS by the media, read the rest of this startling article HERE. thinkingblue
PS: I am thrilled that the miners were rescued, one of my favorite fables is THE ONE LITTLE STARFISH story, which goes something like this:
One morning an elderly man was walking on a nearly deserted beach. He came upon a boy surrounded by thousands and thousands of starfish. As eagerly as he could, the youngster was picking them up and throwing them back into the ocean.
Puzzled, the older man looked at the young boy and asked, "Little boy, what are you doing?"
The youth responded without looking up, "I'm trying to save these starfish, sir."
The old man chuckled aloud, and queried, "Son, there are thousands of starfish and only one of you. What difference can you make?"
Holding a starfish in his hand, the boy turned to the man and, gently tossing the starfish into the water, said, "It will make a difference to that one!"
Until our species can escape the Greed that grips it, inhumanity towards one another will sadly continue.