Not to trivialise the situation, but since you bring up Hollywood, I just watched Reign of Fire yesterday for the first time, and I keep flashing back to the scenes of him and his mom in the elevator being chased by the giant bull dragon.
On a serious note though, watching the BBC coverage today is the first time it made me cry, they have a nice package showing the families at the site, very touching, (no cheesy music).
Seriously - I’m pretty confident assuming that if you’ve been trapped in a caved-in mine for seventy days, pretty much anything that will result in you not being trapped in a caved-in mine for 71 days is pretty damn welcome for anyone. And miners by definition are probably fairly comfortable with enclosed spaces.
One thing I can’t imagine is how good a hot meal, a hot shower, and a real bed must feel to those guys right about now.
Assuming it’s the same feed as I’ve been watching, I’ve been very impressed by the reporter Matt Frei. He’s a native German speaker, doing on-the-fly English to Spanish and vice-versa translations during interviews, with a producers instructions in his ear, all on a live satellite feed. That can’t be easy!
Personally I prefer Tim Willcox, who’s doing the same but seems to have actually built up a relationship with the people around the mine and has a nicer manner. Also I tend to be more impressed by English people who speak another language, like him, because I expect it from Europeans like Frei! (I also just don’t like Frei and never have, he’s not as discreet about his political bias as I like from the BBC, but that’s beside the point.)
Slightly closer to the topic, even my form (a somewhat troubled group of thirteen year old boys from the inner city) were fascinated and moved when I put the live feed on this morning during their tutor period.
the next fellow up (#21) is one of those who had a mistress. should be interesting. perhaps he should keep the hard hat on.
one news account gave the scoop on the sunglasses. oakleys about $280 retail. very nice of oakley to give them, they will need them for quite some time.
edit oooops $450.00 sunglasses!
Some douche on CNN just said: “They haven’t seen their families for 2 months! Can you imagine?” As someone who routinely went on 8-month deployments and spent a year in a combat zone, yes. . .yes I can. People do this every day as part of their jobs. Buried under 2000 feet of rock is no picnic, but enough with the hyperbole.
Yes, he’s been very good too, and you’re right he’s the one who’s done a lot of the “softer” interviews. I don’t recall him doing on the spot stuff like this before, I’ve only really seen him as a newsreader. Presumably the Beeb just went with the two faces with the best Spanish skills.
I think I’m subconsciously expecting that, too. But then I remind myself - these are engineers. They’ll notice if anything starts to look a little off and they’ll put a halt to the proceedings until they know it’s safe again. Sudden disasters with no warning are almost always just Hollywood fiction.
I thought the BBC TV coverage was very good. When I went to bed and switched on my internet radio to the World Service I was surprised to hear how many other reporters they had there.
I think BBC World News America is probably the best TV news in the US.
There is the small issue of not knowing if there will be more collapses while you’re waiting. I think a better comparison would be a submarine trapped on the bottom awaiting rescue than one without any problems.
Glad it all turned out OK.
Otara
It seems like one hugely brave lad, down their on his own. If all goes well, not long.
It’s great news and I don’t mean to detract from the triumph of it all or be critical of anyone but … I can’t avoid making an observation of what captures our attention (including mine) and what doesn’t.
How do we reconcile the fact that so many people die every day of things that are preventable? Just the amount of money that any one of the TV networks spent to get there would probably feed 33 staving people for a life time or buy who knows how many mosquito nets to save many lives from malaria.
I’m not sure what I’m saying here but you get my drift. I know it’s not a simple question. Just something to ponder about.
Just one rescuer left at the bottom now.
Just one to go.
622m. go lad
My husband is a merchant marine. Yes, people do this all the time, somebody has to keep the world going.
I am thrilled things worked out for the better. I am a big fan of Chile, and so is my husband, couldn’t happen to nicer people.