CORECTION posted 14 October 2010 at 5:18 pm: This post originally stated that there were 39 fatalities at the Upper Big Branch mine; the number of miners killed at UBB was actually 29.
I really appreciated John Pilger's article since he reflects on a number of issues that came to mind as I watched the rescue of miners from the San Jose mine in Copiapo, Chile. Just as I was immediately curious about why 29 miners had to die in the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia last April, I was curious about why 33 miners in Chile had became trapped in the first place.
Earlier today I suggested that questions of corporate accountability for the red sludge disaster in Hungary parallel what was eventually uncovered about TVA's contributions to the Kingston Fossil plant pond failure in 2008. In the aftermath of the UBB mine disaster, CEO Don Blankenship was called out on Massey's history of violations and screw-ups in the operation of their mines -- in particular, their part in the UBB disaster. Given the documented bad behavior of governments and corporations in relation to environmental justice, Indigenous rights and natural resource extraction around the world, I couldn't help wonder about about the situation in Chile.
Here's an excerpt from Pilger's article:
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. Read the whole article here...
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