By Philip Shaw M.Sc.

With Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque Ph.D

We had a little bit of a hiccup with East-West this fall as the 15,000 mile separation between the authors does cause a good interruption once in a while.  I know Dr. Haque has been in London England and Sri Lanka and I’ve been riding a combine.  Interestingly enough, our last edition talked about the World Cup of soccer and in the intervening time one soccer nation captured the world’s attention with the mining accident near Copiagpo Chile.

If you want a wonderful recap of the mining accident in Chile go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Copiapó_mining_accident.

That link to the Wikipedia website gives an exhaustive account of the $20 million rescue effort to free 33 Chilean miners from entombment.  I remember very clearly when I first heard about the mining accident in Chile and how difficult the situation it must have been.  Whenever I hear of mining accidents, hope is in such short supply.  So when I saw the first indication from the Chilean mine that 33 miners were still alive I at least held out some hope that they might see the surface of the earth again.

I had my first experience with going underground into a mine earlier this year in Sudbury Ontario.  Northern Ontario is a laboratory for mineral extraction just like much of Canada.  I must admit I was a bit nervous going underground and viewing the mine because what if it caves in.  I think that most of us have had that thought even though most of us are a million miles away from experiencing anything like that. Needless to say when I did get to the Sudbury mine shafts, it was about as spooky as I wanted it to be.  Mother Earth is what it is but I prefer to stay on its surface.

The rescue of the 33 Chilean miners was a very good new story.  Sure there are issues, legal issues with what went on and they are playing out right now. Of course the other thing that is playing out is celebrity.  With 1 billion people having watched the rescue of the 33 miners their popularity is worldwide.  There are even some people who say the miners may have came out of their own personal hell but now they are headed into another type of hell badgered by the specter of celebrity.  Of course if you are working for miners wages a few months ago and now you have the possibility of making a lot of money just through personal appearances I suppose you could put up with that.  There celebrity status in Chile will surely know no end.

So I will let it play out how the world considers the Chilean 33 as we move forward.  One discussion that Dr. Haque I have had through the years is how the world doesn’t know South America.  I have talked about this many times before where the world’s headlines are full of things going on in regions of the world that have “strategic interest”.  For instance, Western newscasts, lead to stories on the Middle East even though the people that live there are a tiny minority within this world.  The world’s media usually completely ignores South America and parts of Africa.  For instance if there was not a Chilean mine accident this past summer, you can bet you’d never hear about Chile.

In my own case, I have very good reason to be interested in South America.  As you all know I write and speak about world commodity markets.  It just so happens that Brazil and Argentina has the world’s largest production area of soybeans.  I have been invited to go to South America many times but of course have not been there.  Last year Dr. Haque invited me to go to Tanzania.  He had a student that wanted him to go there.  I could not go there but I’m wondering if the both of us should go to South America.  It is one part of the world that both of us don’t have very much experience with.

That will have to change.  One reason it needs to change is because of the increasing influence that South America is having on the world economy.  For instance the importance of Brazil to the world’s economy is growing just like China, India and Russia.  Last year Brazil tried to broker a deal between Iran and Turkey regarding nuclear technology.  It was almost like the worlds media didn’t know how to deal with that.

If the Chile mine accident did one thing other than shining a light on South America it helped us focus on the human race.  The story of the miners could have taken place anywhere and of course the success made it that much better.  In the future we’ll surely hear much more about South America.  Let’s hope this time it will be just as inspirational.

Chilean showcase on rescue – lesson for others
Dr. A.K. Enamul Haque Ph.D

Like all of you, we were also glued to the television screen watching the rescue operation for the 33 miners who were literally buried underground for about 66 days. Chile rarely appears in the global media.  The last time it appeared on channels around the world was when the government of Chile wanted Pinochet, the ex-president of the country for crimes against violation of human rights during his reign.

South America is far away from Asia and so it is likely that we often forget about them.  However, problems in Bolivia, football in Brazil, Maradona of Argentina, drugs in Colombia, comments of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Cuba, all appears in our media whenever the situation arises. It is true however, that we never watch them so intensely as we did during the rescue mission for the 33 miners.

The plan, the execution of the plan, the media coverage, and the arrangements all made it like a well rehearsed media event.  It made the Chilean government a hero and made the country and its citizens proud of themselves.

It has also given others a hope that any nation can do it if they mean it. In most similar events, the government, and the mining company and in some cases even the family members would have given up hope for finding them alive.  The biggest shock to me was to discover that they were still alive!  After this, what Chile did is simply a miracle.

As Phil has rightly mentioned that the mining accident and the rescue operation has portrayed a shining South America onto the world map.  What I liked the most is the planned execution of the final events of the rescue operation – each of the mining workers came out cheerful, well dressed and well composed in their mood. It showed the intelligence of the government to provide a more mature glimpse of Chile to a billion viewers around the world.  To all of them, I say long live Chile.