Technologically expert engineering, collaboration among nations, the goodwill and prayers of family members of the trapped miners and everyone with a television screen and a caring God were the main ingredients that went into making a success of the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners trapped half mile underground for 69 days.The survival and rescue of the miners are all the more incredible when the history of miners making it back to the surface alive is not a good one.?
The success of the recovery of the Chilean miners, which has been followed around the world, is particularly pleasing for Chile as this time it has come out on the right side of a disaster; 147 lives having been lost in February this year when the 8.8 earthquake hit the country.?
Over the two months of entrapment underground, with the miners remaining relatively healthy and in good spirits, the engineers, the planners, surveyors, medical and other technical experts had the time to plot how to get through the rock surface and to meticulously plan the miners' rescue.
It obviously helped that the rescuers were able to get food, water and medical supplies down to keep the men hydrated, fed and expectant that they would be rescued and so able to keep them positive. That initial effort allowed the planners to go to work on strategising to get the 33 out and alive and in a condition which would allow them to make it to the surface.??
But the men beneath the surface, led by a former army officer, also conducted themselves in a manner that was organised, which gave them the opportunity to survive such an ordeal in temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius in that very restricted space. It surely is the natural reaction of people confined to a small, dark, underground, tomb-like space to become exasperated with each other and engage in various forms of destructive behaviours which would have militated against the chance of survival.
The operations of the Government of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera were certainly central to the success. Indeed, the entire rescue effort is sure to be studied for future reference as such situations regularly occur in the extremely dangerous business of mining beneath the surface.
Another part of the success story of all the 33 miners being brought out alive is the incredible coverage that has been given to the dramatic rescue effort by international television stations.
We now take this kind of picture-by-picture live coverage for granted but not too long ago such dramatic live streaming of television pictures was not possible. Among other things, the live coverage allowed people to share in the experience and for viewers all over the world to understand that people are people and the shared humanity and concern for the other person are the same everywhere.
The facility of reporters and other experts at the site to switch between Spanish and English also assisted in our appreciation of the rescue operations. As active as the regular television media has been the modern social media, fully engaging people across geographic and political borders as they furiously communicated with each other about this wonderful story of human resilience and the emotion that is driving the rescue.
Right here in T&T, viewers got emotionally involved, many of them crying with joy as each trip up in the capsule brought another miner to reunite with his closest friends and relatives.At another level, the often contentious relationships between Latin American governments such as the right-wing Chilean leader, President Sebastian Pinera and those with socialist orientations such as Bolivia's Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela were forgotten for the moment.
It is noteworthy that it took such an historic and transcendent human effort to get the three communicating with each other.