Millions watched across the globe. As breath bated and eyes waited, emotional synapses fired and the much-too-often unnoticed nobility of the human struggle became evident. Posted on 10/16/2010 7:23:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
Sebastián Piñera's brilliant handling of the mine crisis showed the world his strong character while revealing weaknesses in the character of our own president.
Millions watched across the globe. As breath bated and eyes waited, emotional synapses fired and the much-too-often unnoticed nobility of the human struggle became evident.
Luis Urzúa, the last of the 33 miners trapped over 2,000 feet below the Chilean earth’s surface, was lifted to his freedom earlier this week. He was the last to join a reluctantly merry band of 33, meeting a new-found lease on life and potential untold wealth, fame, fortune, and adulation.
Not to mention goodies too.
Beyond the now ubiquitous protective sunglasses donned by each man, the group received Apple iPod Touches, Playstation 3s, Greek vacations, Elvis products, and $10,000 from a Chilean mining executive named Leonardo Farkas. Westernized lifestyles await the bunch as rumors of big-dollar book and movie deal arrangements hang in the balance.
The amazing outcome of the mine crisis was not always assured. On August 5, as the news of the trapped miners reached his desk, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera faced two choices. First, to orchestrate a rescue plan in earnest but in private, out of the public and international eye. Second, to take the tragedy head-on and enlist the best and brightest, and to do so for the world to see. To take a chance in leadership, or to take the road often traveled and not.
Piñera turned to his worldview and belief in the ability of any market — even in crisis — to meet a demand. He turned to his illustrious career in business. He drew together international minds on mining, geology, and science. He consulted America’s own NASA, which devised the “Phoenix” capsule that retrieved the men and a rocket-science, space-age diet to inhibit claustrophobic nausea during their nearly half-mile ascent to the earth’s surface.
Even more, Piñera consulted drillers at Chile’s state copper giant Codelco who found the 33 miners to still be alive 17 days after the cave-in. He garnered aid from internationally owned Collahuasi, whose rig successfully drilled the shaft that the men were lifted from.
Proving his character, it wasn’t until the dust had settled from the amazing international effort that the Chilean president struck a more combative note. “This must never happen again,” he said to the 33 miners gathered around him as they were leaving San Jose. He continued, promising stricter standards and safer work conditions for the nation’s mining industry. He thanked private companies and governments worldwide for their help. It is notable that he did not attack the Chilean mining industry or offer up the 33 as fixtures of the industry’s “greed.”
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera is known as the most democratically liberal and capitalistic of all leaders in South America. Flanked by a continent with more than its fair share of despots and tyrants, the contrast to Piñera could not be more evident. Juxtaposed to the abject poverty, misery, and prison-states that despots and tyrants create, the contrast to Chile’s vibrant free market economy could not be greater.
Beyond this, Piñera and our own President Barack Obama could not be more polar opposite. Obama is a man motivated by something mostly unfamiliar to Americans — redistributive anger and envy. Watching the Chilean president these last few days brought me to this.
In President Sebastián Piñera’s shoes, Barack Obama would have undeniably acted much differently. He would have turned to his “community organizing” background and been hamstrung by his naive and far-left, us-versus-them philosophical roots. He would have been paralyzed by a toxic combination of arrogant professorial theory and lack of real-world executive experience. He would have attacked the mining company for the entire 69-day affair. He would have done so right off the bat. He would have copped out and stuck to a rigid, defeatist, backwards ideology. And in his failing, he would have put responsibility on everyone around him, except himself.
Look to Obama’s attack on BP as his administration, amidst crisis, floundered and flopped like an oil-soaked pelican. Or look to the ludicrous banana republic-esque saber rattling against the Chamber of Commerce as November 2 approaches. Or even the “public enemy number one” fixation on Fox News. Or worse and most damaging to us all, the slavish hostility directed at income earners and entrepreneurs across this nation.
In crisis and challenge, Piñera lifted up his entire nation as an example.
Obama has petulantly, willingly, and unflinchingly brought his down.
Character counts and so do ideas.
What a world we live in to have to look to a Chilean president amidst a human emergency as an example of what America can, and will once again, stand for.
The very first thing Obama did in the Gulf was to send in the lawyers.
Pinera didn’t need to be President. He wanted to be President. He didn’t need to prove anything to anybody but he knew he could help Chile. Much has been writted about how tough Pres. Pinera was in business. Much more will be written about him as being a good and sucessful President of a very good and well managed country.
Bambi would still be awaiting an environmental impact study.
Aside from the president’s performance, I hope the miners don’t mess up their finances and/or lives like so many lottery winners do.
Any chance we can get a Hawaiin birth certificate for Sebastián Piñera?
I'd respectfully disagree with that. The first thing he personally did was go play golf...
man, you know things are bad when you’re coveting a south american politician.
1. he's an alum of Harvard University; and,
2. he wasn't born in the USA.
(Oh, wait . . . . )
I don’t know much about Chile’s Presidents leanings but one thing I’m certain about was his sincerity during the rescue operations.
His demeanor never changed throughout the entire rescue. Him and Chilean first lady greeted each and everyone of those miners with the same enthusiasm from beginning to end.
I dare say that had that been oblunder in his place, assuming he even showed up would have been for a photo-op for the first one then left for a round of golf. He hates the mining business anyway.
A true leader wouldn’t have done this
The first thing he did was tell the trapped miners to stop digging.
A true leader wouldn’t have done this
Chile has come out of this looking like a very advanced country with direct, strong leadership. This incident would not have turned out this way in most countries. Can you imagine how Iran or China or Russia would have handled this? They would have sealed the hole right after the cave in.
I was struck with how obvious it is Pinera values human life. Contrast that with Obama who has yet to acknowledge or express any concern at all for the murder of an American citizen on Falcon Lake.
I’ll ask him if he wants one!
The only one that arrogant pos, who currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is himself and no one else
It is not in O's nature to even think this way.
I was moved to tears when he led that crowd in their national anthem. There is a true leader, one we so desparately need in these times.
Not since President Bush threw the first pitch in Yankee stadium after 9/11 have I been so impressed.
We should have outsourced leadership to Chile for the BP Gulf Oil Crisis. It sounds like this guy’s on his game, didn’t summon attorneys, and didn’t blame (and thus shut down) the copper mining industry.
Agreed. He’s a textbook narcissist. The only emotion he ever exhibits is anger when he isn’t unconditionally worshipped. He seems incapable of empathy for others.
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