The leadership of Chile President Sebastian Pinera, believing fiercely in globalization and free markets, and not believing in limits, seemed to make a critical difference.
Pinera refused to shut out foreign expertise. As the world focused on Chile’s miners underground, the rescue operation above was characterized by an Apollo 13-like sense of mission. Failure was not an option.
That gave the mission an international flavor a la “Star Trek.” Unlike President Obama, who invoked the Jones Act to spurn foreign offers of help in April’s Gulf oil spill, or Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who said “nyet” to American naval rescue ships after the Kursk nuclear sub sank in Arctic waters in 2000, leaving 29 to die at a depth of 650 feet, Pinera brought in the best brains outside his country to improve the odds of success
Read the whole IBD editorial.
Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal comments on the life saving drill bit technology courtesy of capitalism.
If those miners had been trapped a half-mile down like this 25 years ago anywhere on earth, they would be dead. What happened over the past 25 years that meant the difference between life and death for those men?
Short answer: the Center Rock drill bit.
This is the miracle bit that drilled down to the trapped miners. Center Rock Inc. is a private company in Berlin, Pa. It has 74 employees. The drill’s rig came from Schramm Inc. in West Chester, Pa. Seeing the disaster, Center Rock’s president, Brandon Fisher, called the Chileans to offer his drill. Chile accepted. The miners are alive.
h/t to Betsy’s Page.
