The Miracle of Chile from around the world

 
232Views 0Comments Posted 15/10/2010

What the Papers Say

Hundreds of millions of viewers around the world watched live the Miracle of Chile as 33 miners trapped for 69 days were rescued from their astonishing ordeal. This is how writers on both sides of the Atlantic saw the event.

The last  rescued miner

Matthew Parris, the Times: "Long after the now-gripping details of the Chilean miners' rescue have faded from memory, one strong impression will linger in my mind. It is the surprising nationalism of the Chilean people. Their flag and their national anthem has been everywhere, their patriotism a powerful backdrop to the whole story."

Editorial, the Daily Telegraph: "For Chile, struck by a dreadful earthquake in February and which this year celebrates its bicentennial, it has been a unifying national achievement - even if questions have yet to be answered about safety at the mine. Those are for later. For now we should celebrate the miracle of San Jose."
 Jeff Goodell, speaking to MSNBC: "They [the rescued miners] are being reborn into a world that they know nothing about, unlike the one that they are used to. They are going to be flown around with foreign leaders, get tickets to soccer games, be asked to speak to corporations, and there will be a lot of pressures put on them that they are woefully unprepared for."
 Charles Glass, the Independent: "More miners will die in Chile, in South Africa, in Russia, China and in the US, where the Obama administration has reduced the fines on coal-mining firms for breaching safety regulations. The world cares about workers when they are stuck at the bottom of the shaft, but not when they venture into subterranean depths every morning before the sun rises, work there until their hands bleed and come up with dust-coated lungs."
Gonzalo Rojas, El Mercurio: "The Chileans have not forgotten that beyond the pain and labours endured by rescuers, only One could guarantee the miners' safety. The miners have invoked God, their families have prayed to God, rescuers have been attributed to God, the authorities have relied on God, and we as mere spectators are now giving thanks to God."

Andrew C. Revkin New York Times:   "In a world where so much is unpredictable and confoundingly complicated, where the forces dividing communities seem far more profound than the forces that draw us together, the simple power of those embraces as each man emerges from his dark dungeon is a potent tonic." 

Editorial, La Tercera: "The particular characteristics and circumstances of this event quickly elevated it to something more significant: a disaster that resonated with millions of people who were not directly affected by it, but who knew it was a human tragedy to which they couldn't remain indifferent. The intense interest with which the international press has covered their rescue and the encouraging messages that have arrived in Chile from all over the world as a result of this coverage are tangible demonstrations of how the ordeal of '33' has touched emotional fibres everywhere." {jathumbnail off}