Right now, there are 128 coal miners in China who are trapped underground.

[Lyric]

Eleven of their fellow miners are already dead; the rest are trapped, buried alive under the earth, probably terrified, possibly suffocating.

I'm from West Virginia. Those of us in the coal mining states know what it's like to wait by the TV and radio, praying that someone in your community, maybe even someone in your family, is rescued from a collapsed mine before the air is gone and the methane creeps in to take its place. I wonder if they're writing notes to their families. I pray that they're uninjured, but with 128 trapped and eleven already dead, the odds are that some of them are hurting pretty badly, and that's an agonizing thought. Are any of them children, god forbid? I have no idea what China's rules are about child labor, but considering how *we* used child labor in the mines once upon a time, it wouldn't surprise me.

I'm shaken up. I just spent 45 minutes watching silly videos on YouTube, never realizing that somewhere in China, 128 miners are waiting to see whether or not the next breath is the last.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34074833/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Come all you young fellows so young and so fine
And seek not your fortune in the dark dreary mine
It will form like a habit and seep in your soul
Till the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal

Where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew
Where the danger is doubled and the pleasures are few
Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines
It's dark as a dungeon way down in the mines...

:cry:

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Aren't there always coal miners trapped underground in China?

:shrug:

It seems this is extremely common there.

[Lyric]

2. I'm not sure what your point is.

I have no idea about the statistics, but does it matter? Does it become less horrific and heartbreaking if it's more common? I'd think that would make it MORE horrific, but hey, what do I know?

[Drunken Irishman]

4. Who said anything about it not being heartbreaking?

It's just...the norm I thought.

[Lyric]

5. I don't think being violently buried alive and slowly suffocated is the "norm" anywhere.

It certainly isn't the norm in any world I'd want to live in. Chinese or American, they're human beings aren't they? I grieve and ache the same for them as I would for miners trapped in Utah, Kentucky, or West Virginia.

[Drunken Irishman]

8. Norm for norm's sake.

[bridgit]

26. Incidence of deadly mining accidents in China had been on the rise...

Some are citing an econ slowdown in China as reason for a recent decline, but I'm not sure that's an endorsement of Chinese mining tech

http://www.chinamining.org/News/2009-07-20/1248052479d26961.html

[Subdivisions]

3. That is, as always, terrible news, Lyric. I'm right there with you in

empathizing with how frightened those still alive must be and I join you in hoping they are all rescued. My positive energy goes out to them.

[myrna minx]

6. Working the black seam always brings panic and heartbreak for families and communities.

My heart is heavy and is broken for those lost, those still trapped and to their loved ones. :cry:

[bbinacan]

7. I'm in SW Pennsylvania

and my thoughts and prayers are with these guys.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. I hope they are rescued alive

but I also know that sooner or later China has to improve its hellish industrial safety standards. This is one reason labor is so damn cheap.

Here it took labor to demand it, and the rest of the country.

But for now, I do hope they come out alive.

[Mind_your_head]

10. China doesn't value the individual, AT ALL

They've got almost 2 BILLION 'individuals'

*I* personally value individuals and hope that these people make it out okay too.

Thanks for posting/caring about these miners!

:hug:

[anigbrowl]

17. You are gravely mistaken.

First, thre are about 1.3 billion people in China, not 2 billion. And if they you don't think they value each other individually, maybe you should read this: http://earthquakestrips.blogspot.com/search/label/Strips

[Mind_your_head]

27. Nice comic strips.

:eyes:
2.2.
thanks for the 'correction/education' *not*

I apologize that I got the 'numbers' wrong. I stand corrected 1.3 BILLION people vs. 2.0 billion. (I can't even wrap my head around a MILLION people, much less a BILLION)

[struggle4progress]

11. We go down the hole

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArpyEWi2pJ8

You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3IrnNAweM0&feature=related

Come all Ye Coal Miners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_TqxrZpkQU

[Lyric]

14. I love Harlan. Have you ever heard "Blue Diamond Mines?"

Kathy Mattea has an album called "Coal" that I highly recommend. It's bluegrass music that doesn't have the uber-twangy vocal. It's absolutely fantastic.

A sample--live recording of her version of "Harlan": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RltP6HsaXbA

[struggle4progress]

22. I have now

blue diamond mines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oLGXmwMppE

And many thanks for the Mattea headsup

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Thanks I learned some more music

the kind I love... the music of the working people

[Lyric]

16. For you too--please consider this album:

http://www.amazon.com/Coal-Kathy-Mattea/dp/B0013LPS6G

Listen to the previews. This is ALL music about miners and working people, and damned good music too. Kathy Mattea is a West Virginia native and the child of coal miners. She definitely knows what she's singing about.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. I just got it on the Itunes

and loaded into my machine, will be playing it on the morning.

[struggle4progress]

19. Miner's Lifeguard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN3mxSRkpD4

[Lugnut]

12. We have anthracite surface mining here.

My husband is a UMWA miner. Mining is dangerous for the miners and heart-wrenching for the miners' families. Tragedies like this remind us of that fact.

:cry:

[niyad]

13. how horrible--my thoughts and prayers go out to them and their loved ones.

[Lyric]

18. Update: Death count now at 31, trapped count at 82.

:cry:

[struggle4progress]

24. Among the 82 miners trapped underground, four have been saved ...

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/21/content_9017050.htm

UPDATE 2-China mine explosion kills 31, traps 78
Sat Nov 21, 2009 6:58am GMT
BEIJING, Nov 21 (Reuters) - At least 31 miners were killed and 78 remain trapped 500 metres (yards) underground following a gas blast at a mine in China, state media said on Saturday. The blast ripped through the mine around 2.30 on Saturday morning, when there were 528 people at work, but 419 got out safely ... http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKPEK30511920091121

[struggle4progress]

29. China Coal-Mine Explosion Death Toll Rises to 42 (Update3)

By Bloomberg News

Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- A coal-mine explosion in the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang killed 42 miners and left 66 missing, Xinhua News Agency said ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=arjgHa75hSPo

[struggle4progress]

31. At least 89 killed in coal mine blast: Rescuers try to reach 29 other miners still missing ...

deep underground

By Cara Anna
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, November 22, 2009

HARBIN — Rescuers working in frigid conditions tried to reach 21 miners trapped underground today as the death toll from a gas explosion in a northern Chinese coal mine rose to 87.

An additional 29 miners were hospitalized, including six with serious injuries ...

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/2009/11/22/1122china.html

[JDPriestly]

20. Thanks for posting this. China needs the equivalent of OSHA.

When this happens in an American mine, we investigate and demand answers and remediation. The Chinese workers deserve no less than our American workers.

[eppur_se_muova]

30. We haven't under Repug administrations.

Bu**sh** was all for giving mine owners a free pass on dead miners.

[anonymous171]

23. Oh man.

Hope everything turns out for the best

[amborin]

25. thanks for posting this! i hope they can be rescued!

[reggie the dog]

28. this is horrible