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Cheers for coal mine rescue but boos for safety lapses
By Pixel Pan |
April 9, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
ON Qingming Tomb-Sweeping Day (April 5) when Chinese commemorated the dead, tens of millions of people watched live on national television as 115 coal miners were pulled to safety.
For eight days and eight nights, 153 miners had been trapped underground as water flooded the unfinished Wangjialing mine in Shanxi Province. The search continues for the remaining missing miners.
More than 3,000 workers participated in the rescue work. Authorities of the highest command mobilized resources from around the country. For days, they furiously pumped water out of the shaft in the slimmest hope that it would save lives.
Each survivor was attended by a dedicated emergency medical team. Reporters choked with sobs, trying to tell the audience how survivors strapped themselves to tunnel ceilings with belts to avoid drowning. It was a most amazing rescue effort by any standard.
Tragically, it is a miracle for what would otherwise have been China's deadliest mine disaster in more than two years.
There were signs of leakages before the water flooded in, but they were determined not dangerous. The problem is that this is not a story of how small or illegal the Wangjialing mine was, the problem is this is an all-star, state-owned company, one of the biggest in the region, rushing to get the mine up and running, as it sits on an agenda set in local development plans.
Safety checks were a three-step formality of walking about, dining and entertaining. This is how a coal miner describes safety procedures in general as he sees them.
China produces 37 percent of the world's coal with 70 percent of the industry's cost in human lives.
There were scandals that some family members took bitter comfort in knowing that a deceased miner could bring them meager cash compensation equivalent to their entire life's savings.
Tragically, we see the economic imperative that drives young men to work in the harshest of conditions of a Chinese coal mine.
But, think for a second that it is the same imperative that drives through the chain of command and the mentality of a generation of people. It doesn't make negligence and indifference towards human safety any more excusable.
(Pixel Pan, Shanghai)
For eight days and eight nights, 153 miners had been trapped underground as water flooded the unfinished Wangjialing mine in Shanxi Province. The search continues for the remaining missing miners.
More than 3,000 workers participated in the rescue work. Authorities of the highest command mobilized resources from around the country. For days, they furiously pumped water out of the shaft in the slimmest hope that it would save lives.
Each survivor was attended by a dedicated emergency medical team. Reporters choked with sobs, trying to tell the audience how survivors strapped themselves to tunnel ceilings with belts to avoid drowning. It was a most amazing rescue effort by any standard.
Tragically, it is a miracle for what would otherwise have been China's deadliest mine disaster in more than two years.
There were signs of leakages before the water flooded in, but they were determined not dangerous. The problem is that this is not a story of how small or illegal the Wangjialing mine was, the problem is this is an all-star, state-owned company, one of the biggest in the region, rushing to get the mine up and running, as it sits on an agenda set in local development plans.
Safety checks were a three-step formality of walking about, dining and entertaining. This is how a coal miner describes safety procedures in general as he sees them.
China produces 37 percent of the world's coal with 70 percent of the industry's cost in human lives.
There were scandals that some family members took bitter comfort in knowing that a deceased miner could bring them meager cash compensation equivalent to their entire life's savings.
Tragically, we see the economic imperative that drives young men to work in the harshest of conditions of a Chinese coal mine.
But, think for a second that it is the same imperative that drives through the chain of command and the mentality of a generation of people. It doesn't make negligence and indifference towards human safety any more excusable.
(Pixel Pan, Shanghai)
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