No doubt Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan thought he was doing the right thing today when he cleared his schedule and rushed to a coal mine in Western Turkey, where an explosion and fire had just killed 274 workers and trapped another 100 or so – all of whom are now feared dead.
But it’s hardly surprising that grief-stricken relatives and co-workers pelted his motorcade with rocks as he was leaving, or that people have taken to the streets all over the country to vent more anger than grief. After all, Erdogan is making it painfully clear that he’s more interested in defending his administration against claims that it ignored repeated warnings about mine safety than in acting as the nation’s comforter in chief:
‘We as a nation of 77 million are experiencing a very great pain [but] explosions like this in these mines happen all the time. It’s not like these don’t happen elsewhere in the world,’ he said, reeling off a list of global mining accidents since 1862.
(The Huffington Post, May 14, 2014)
Erdogan is clearly no Bill Clinton, or even Barack Obama, when it comes to helping his nation grieve. But, as my title indicates, there’s no denying the truth of what he said about explosions like this happening elsewhere, including in the United States.
In fact, here’s what I was constrained to observe in 2010, after a similar explosion trapped 155 workers in China:
I heard an American mining expert on CNN asserting that Chinese authorities are so hell-bent on mining coal to fuel China’s booming economy that they couldn’t care any less about enforcing standards to ensure a safer work environment for miners. The implication being that American authorities put safety first by exerting far more rigorous oversight.
But this jingoistic expert seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the United States has its own record of mining tragedies, including one in Utah in 1984 that killed 27 and another in West Virginia in 2006 that killed 12…
But, in addition to demonstrating the inherent dangers of mining, this latest tragedy in the United States confirms that the motto of ‘profits over safety’ applies as much here as it does in China.
(“Coal Mine Tragedies in China and the United States,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 8, 2010)
And who can forget the drama that played out for 69 days later that same year in Chile, after a collapsed mine trapped 33 workers.
Which is why, even though his remarks came across as cold-hearted, Erdogan should be forgiven for trying to put this tragedy into perspective.
Incidentally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, logging is far more dangerous than mining — with an average of 127.8 per 100,000 loggers dying each year in work-related accidents. Mining did not even make the list of 10 deadliest jobs, which included farming, truck driving, and fishing. How’s that for a little perspective.
Having said that, I’m acutely mindful that any condolence I offer now might come across as equally cold-hearted. Nevertheless, my heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to all families and co-workers affected.
NOTE: I think even CNN will concede that this disaster marks the end of global interest in the fate of missing flight MH370, especially coming on the heels of saturation media coverage of stories about those kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls and the racist rantings of Donald Sterling.
Related commentaries:
Coal mine tragedies…
Chile…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Wednesday, at 4:33 pm