When hearing that mine explosion happened in Shanxi Province again, my heart sank. At least 77 miners died in the accident. One person has not been found until now. There is little possibility for him to be alive. Several people who were responsible for the safety of the mine were dismissed a few days ago. The amount of the compensation is totally 28,060,000 yuan. The company has received the money from the Shanxi social security department. That is the latest development of the event.
According to the preliminary investigation, there are mainly four reasons for the event:
They did not do well in ventilating the mine.
They did not administer the use of the gas properly.
The people who were in charge of the safety of the workplace were not so responsible.
The safety measures were not put into use.
In fact, the calamity can be avoidable if only the related people had paid more attention to the safety work. Now I can only feel pity for the dead people and their families. There is one woman. Her father and husband both died in the accident, which pushed her into the hell. She was so shocked that she even forgot crying when she was informed of their deaths.
No matter how much money is given to her, the trauma she suffered can not be healed. Something needs to be done to prevent such events from happening again. China has vowed for years to improve safety at its mines, but its mining industry is still the world’s deadliest.
The deeper reason is that the government privatizes the mining concession. To earn more money, the employers do not invest in the safety devices. They do not respect the lives of the miners at all. They would rather spend money on keeping the deaths back. Of course, some officials are accessories. So mine explosion happens in Shanxi Province frequently. At the same time, the development of industry in the whole country relies on the coal produced by Shanxi. There is no choice but to produce more to meet the need. The over mining for coal also causes the explosion.
I have to say that every time I see the coal, it seems that I see blood. Shanxi sacrifices too much for the development of China, not only recourse but also lives. As I am from Shanxi Province, every explosion makes me so sad. Every year, thousands of miners die from that. This time the governor of Shanxi Province WANG JUN made an apology for what happened with tears. I sincerely hope that government can do something about that, not only tears.
I feel your sense of injustice and share your view that more should be done for miners who put their lives at risk each day so society can modernise quickly. This seems to be part of what is inherently very unsatisfactory about life in the 21st century. While there has been great advances made in science and technology, no society can solve the problem of its poorly educated not having the option sometimes of avoiding jobs that will not allow them to go home safe and sound at the end of the day to their loved ones. It is obvious that their employers are not able to appreciate the extent of their plight which leads to their taking saftety measures much less seriously than they should. This is a consciousness that should be instilled into policy makers to ensure that workers in dangerous work environments are protected against mishaps as much as can be made possible with modern science and technology.
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