Transcript for the Piece Audio version of World Tour Radio presents Mining, Miners, and Music
On Oct 24, 2006 one of the world?s largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations ? the World Wildlife Fund - released their 2006 Living Planet Report. With climate change and its potentially dire consequences on the lips of mainstream media, the 8th such report might finally do more than reach deaf ears. The report claims that the world?s natural ecosystems are being degraded at a rate unprecedented in human history. Summarizing data collected and analyzed since 1970 on more than 3600 populations of 1300 land and water vertebrate species, the WWF (as they are called) say that humanity?s Ecological Footprint ? or our demand on the biosphere ? has more than tripled over the past 40 years?exceeding biocapacity, or what the earth can regenerate by 25%...creating an ecological debt as they say. And fossil fuels ? according to the report ? is the fastest growing component of our global footprint ? increasing more than nine fold since 1961. In our unquenchable thirst for economic growth and energy, join me Andrew Reissiger as we look at mining communities in West Virginia, northern Mexico, Potosi Bolivia, and China ? as we put a face on the price of future today on World Tour.
The assumption that humanity is evolving and that progress is the keystone lies at the heart of the western collective conscience. But what if things don?t inherently evolve. And what if the inhumane harsh realities of the past persist into the present? Although it seems to be something from a forgotten era the truth of the matter is that mining has never gone away. We grow up and forget the things that once were difficult for us moving on to the next challenge. As children, we counted by using our fingers?one, two, three ? touching each little digit to keep track. And then one day we could skip ahead to 20, 40, 60 and 80 ? all in our minds, without the fingers and toes. Only multiplcation and square roots stood in between us and that ?A? on our report cards. In a similar fashion, while technology has brought us fast forward to where we are today, we forget that our iPods and our Direct TV are still intimately connected to such simple things as digging in the dirt. Ok?well back to 1?s, 2?s, and 3?s.
We need electricity. We eat it up. We demand new technologies. But we forget the true infancy of our energy approach ? that 50% of the United States? electricity continues to be derived from coal?from the black rock of the earth. Just like saying that it takes money to make money?it also takes coal to make electricity. Even when we say we need to spend more on researching alternative energy sources, we?re still saying let?s burn more coal. If half of the United States? electricity comes from this do-it-all fossil fuel, then I guess you could say 1 in 2 computers are coal driven. And now I understand why I have that loud fan spinning away in my CPU. So just to check email, we information hungry people NEED people who are willing to risk their lives in mine shafts ? But these brave men and women don?t descend into the earth for the greater enjoyment of technological advancements like email. They are simply putting some bread on the table and takin care of their families.
We learn in elementary school that gunpowder, fireworks and dynamite were first invented in China around the year 900. And it should come as no surprise that the earliest known use of coal too originates in what is today the fastest growing economy on the planet. As far back as 3000 years, the Chinese probably used coal taken from the Fu-shun mine in North Eastern China to smelt copper. Archaeologists say that the Chinese thought coal was a black stone with the ability to burn. Any ordinary farmer would have seen the value in an alternative to wood for keeping warm. And if these stones could burn and produce the kind of heat needed to extract copper from its ore, I imagine that there were probably a handful of businessmen with light bulbs going off in the heads dashing off to speak to the emperor.
Mining can change the course of a nation. The discovery of silver in Bolivia made Spain richer beyond imagination. The California gold rush certainly helped to populate the west and solidify the United States hold on former Mexican territory. And the possibility of a new life in northern Chile was brought about by copper mining.
Anita?s story?
In 1544 the unlucky Incan Indian Diego Huallpa stumbled across a shiny rock on the Mountain named Sumaj Orko ? or Magnificent Mountain in Quechua. I say unlucky because one year later this Magnificent Mountain was renamed the more economically fitting ?Cerro Rico? or rich mountain in Spanish?and the city of Potosi was founded, quickly becoming the center of the Spanish empire. Plain and simple ? Cerro Rico WAS the site of the largest silver deposit EVER found. And just over 100 years after its discovery, Potosi became the largest city in the Western Hemisphere equal to the size of Paris and London combined during that same time. It?s estimated that 8 million indigenous and African slaves died working those mines ? That?s roughly equal to the modern day population of Bolivia. A popular saying goes that enough silver came out of that mine to build a bridge all the way from Bolivia to Spain. In response, others have said that you could build a bridge to Spain AND back with the bones of the dead miners.
Husking corn flower
Who knows where taken x2
I learned in your heart
The reason that I did not quiver x2
There in front of the hillside
There a guy died x2
Get done with everything, gal
Your young guy died
Get done get done gal
Your young guy died
In 2004, I had the opportunity to visit the mines of Potosi. They still have a sad but magical charm ? something that awakens the adventurer in those of us crazy enough to descend into such a dark and dismal abyss. Although the silver has been exhausted for well over a hundred years, locals still eke out a living on small deposits of tin, magnesium, and zinc. The city of Potosi is nothing like it once with its silver lined streets and ornate churches. But with its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and investment from Spain, the crumbling churches are slowly regaining some of their past glory. While usually facing west, all the doors of the cathedrals in Potosi face the south towards the towering rich mountain so that in past times, the mines could be blessed by the priests. Today, so many youth leave Potosi in search of work?elsewhere in La Paz or even southward into Argentina walking along the roads strumming their charangos ? the five stringed local invention based on the Spanish vihuela. (rene) Rene Bonifaz, a local charango builder says that workers used to tote along their charangos for companionship as they led groups of llamas packed with silver towards the Pacific coasts. Whether a myth or fact, miners have often used music as a means of expression and escape from their labors.
Wherever mining has existed, so to has the steady influx of labor. Mining creates jobs. And when immigrants travel long distances in search of work ? overseas for example - oftentimes the cost of the passage has been secured with a labor contract?a sort of indentured servitude. And so frequently the migrants news conditions aren?t any better than those he or she was escaping.
By the mid 1800s, having experienced the height of Imperial Chinese Influence, the Quing Dynasty was on the decline. Overpopulation and the scarcity of land forced many people, especially from the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian to seek a better life. Young men went abroad looking for work, hoping to send money back home to the extended family. Beginning in 1850 and responding to years of drought, famine, flood, and war - a radical movement called the Taiping Uprising ravaged southern China. During more than a decade, as many as 20 million people were killed. Political unrest, constant warfare, a weak and corrupt government, and foreign intervention in the opium market contribution to massive Chinese emigration. More than 2 and a half million fled before 1900. Of these, more than 322,000 Chinese attempted the journey to the United States between 1850 and 1882.
Large-scale Chinese immigration to the United States began in the late 1840s, when news of the discovery of gold in California reached the Far East. In 1851, 3,000 Chinese made the journey across the Pacific to Gum Saan or Gold Mountain as San Francisco was called. One year later, more than 20,000 arrived. For the next twenty years, Chinese immigrants arrived at a rate of more than 9,000 per year. After the Gold Rush, Chinese communities sprang up in urban areas not only in California, but in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, and Montana. By 1883, 100,000 Chinese men and 6,000 Chinese women called home west of the Mississippi.
Because of the economic benefits to the region, the U.S. initially welcomed the Chinese with open arms. An early governor of California proclaimed them "one of the most worthy classes of our newly adopted citizens." Like others who headed to the gold fields of California, Chinese immigrants believed they would "strike it rich," and return to their homes and families in China to live out their lives in luxury. Their perceived goal of returning home, and a clinging to their native language and culture, distanced them from other immigrants who came as permanent residents. Unfortunately, it also provided a rhetorical weapon that could be used to exclude them from certain rights and privileges. When their presence was no longer a financial attribute, Anglo-Americans viewed the Chinese as competitors. Hostility grew. A "foreign miner's tax" of more than $20 a month was imposed on Chinese workers. Mining camps posted notices threatening John Chinaman ? as they were called - with beatings or death unless they abandoned their claims. They were run out.
A popular miner's song of the day shows us the racism of the Gold Rush:
"John Chinaman, John Chinaman, but five short years ago,
I welcomed you from Canton,
and I wish I hadn't so.
I imagined that the truth, John,
you'd speak while under oath.
But I find you lie and steal and cheat.
Yes, John, you're up to boat.
I thought of rats and puppies, John,
you'd eaten your last fill;
But on such slimy pot pies
I'm told you dinner still.
Yes, John, I've been deceived by you,
and all your thieving clan,
for our gold is all your after, John,
to get it as you can."
Initially drawn to the west by dreams of gold, in the end the Chinese provided 90% of the manual labor for the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad.
?Fall down shaft, fall of timber, explosion or blast accident, skull fracture, fall of earth or rock, suffocation, suicide down mine shaft, drowned.? This is the possible fate that miners live with every day. The United States averages about 30 mining deaths each year ? compared to some 8,000 in China. But it was breaking news back in January of 2006 when 12 men died in the West Virginia Sago mine, making it the deadliest mining accident since November 1968, when 78 miners - including the uncle of then state Governor Joe Manchin, died in an explosion.
West Virginia is one of the nation?s poorest states and coal mining has been an integral part of the Mountain State since the 1800?s. It?s woven into the very fabric of the state -- a statue of a miner stands at the state Capitol and even the state's seal depicts a miner with a pickaxe. In Potosi Bolivia, a similar kind of statue stands more than 10ft tall in one of the last neighborhoods as you climb up the city streets towards Rich Mountain. And as is the case in China and Bolivia, over-mining in West Virginia has resulted in crumbling shafts. Still today despite its dangers ? mining is seen as a job where you can make good money without having a college degree. According to the state Coal Association, West Virginia miners earn an average of $55,000 a year. Locals say "It's the highest-paying job around, and of course, it's the most dangerous job, too."
This is well documented in the 1976 film Harlan County USA by director Barbara Kopple which tells the story of Kentucky coal miners striking in early 1970?s. Above and beyond the labor issues, the film takes a hard look at the living conditions, health issues, and poverty faced by Harlan's residents -- the human toll that goes along with the mining industry.
Lining the Rio Grande and 512km of the Texas border, sits the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler have set up assembly plants here. But for those that want more than a moderately growing economy saddled upon the back on mining, boarder crossings are feasible from the town of Piedras Negras ? or Black Rocks in English. In the 1500s exploration by the Spanish into this harsh desert region was slow because it contained no gold. But today, it?s known that about 95% of Mexico?s coal reserves are found in this area - feeding nearby steel mills and electricity needs.
Two hundred million years ago, geologists believe that the Gulf of Mexico extended across this area, allowing lush vegetation to thrive. Fossilized plants are now buried deep below the desert, and their remains yield about 12 million tons of coal a year.
When an Austrian engineer discovered these energy riches in the late 19th century, northern Coahuila state quickly transformed from a sparsely populated region of cattle ranchers to an industrial powerhouse. Thousands of Japanese immigrants came seeking work; some of their descendents, with Japanese surnames, are still here.
Coahuila coal feeds steel mills in Monclova and Monterrey, the country's third-largest city. Two coal-fired electric plants near the Texas border supply as much as 8 percent of Mexico's electricity.
As a result, dozens of towns live and die on mining, none more so than Palau. Its central plaza features a statue of a gold-tinted miner and a memorial for a 1939 accident that killed 67. At the main church, the priest and a seminarian are former miners.
All know the risks of one of the world's most dangerous professions, and, for the most part, they accept those risks.
Over the years, Coahuila mines have not been exempt from their fair share of fatal mining accidents. The worst occurred in 1969 when more than 153 miners were killed in a pit at the village of Barroteran. In 2001, another 12 people died in an accident at a neighboring mine. In Feb of 2006, an explosion trapped 65 men more than 2km below the surface in the Pasta de Conchos mine in San Juan Sabinas Coahuila. Since then, only one body has been retrieved.
Miners said they had complained in previous weeks about the smell of gas at the Pasta de Conchos mine, but were told to keep quiet and keep working. The owners of the mine, Grupo Mexico, have denied workers' claims that safety procedures were not followed. Mine operators say the blast was an accident and the mine, about 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas, had passed recent government inspections. But several miners have complained of being sent to work in dangerously unstable shafts without training or proper equipment. "They give you basic equipment and no training," said Clemente Rivera, 28, a Pasta de Conchos mineworker whose two cousins and a neighbor are part of the 65 killed.
Norteno is the type of music most associated with this region. And a Corrido is a genre that loosely translates as ?ballad? or ?story song?. Corridos serve as a type of musical editorial page and play a vital role in reflecting and shaping public opinion. The following song ?El Corrido del Minero? or Ballad of the Miner is a refelction on an unnamed mine along the Mexican-American border. La Matanza or the slaughterhouse is located at level 18 in the mine. The song goes:
In the name of God
I'm going to the mine
To prepare my many drills.?and also my leather vest.
I'll go down to level 18?to prove I'm brave,?well, more than four miners:
here's where they gave up.?Soften up, hard rock;?soften up, little girl,?for I'm going to drill you
with blasting powder and dynamite.?Soften up, hard rock;?don't be so cruel,?for I'm going to drill you?six days out of the week.?When I work straight ahead,?my waist doesn't hurt,
and the drill goes faster:?let the drill spin and spin.?When I work bending over?my waist doesn't hurt,?and they gaze at me,?with the drill grinding.?Soften up, hard rock;?don't be so cruel,?for I'm going to drill you
six days out of the week.?In the name of God
now I'm going to the mine,
So why do so many accidents happen? Methane gases naturally buildup and fires and explosions are inevitable when safety regulations are ignored and when ventilation systems are inadequate or even non existent. It?s not enough for laws to exist, if they aren?t enforced. When demand is high and profits are too attractive, old mines deemed unsafe are reopened. It?s pure economics when mine owners find it cheaper to bribe officials than to upgrade safety equipment.
In China?s Shanxi province, 166 miners died in an explosion in November 2005 because company executives threatened job termination or continued work despite repeated fires.
In China and Bolivia mining is accomplished using the same methods that were employed hundreds of years ago. A US miner is not only less likely to die but, using the proper modern equipment, he can produce up to 40 tones of coal a day compared to just one for his Chinese counterpart.
Technology and automation have greatly reduced mine deaths overall in the US. There were 133 mining deaths in 1980, and only 22 last year. But why do two explosions in West Virginia cause the Governor to put a temporary moratorium on mining while some 8000 deaths in China go rather unnoticed? For every 100 Chinese deaths 1 U.S. miner dies. During the 10 year period of 1992 till 2002, mining accidents killed 434 miners in the US. 59,543 died in China.
In China, coal accounts for three quarters of the nation?s energy compared to 50% in the US. But the coal China does produce still can?t quench its thirst for this stuff called the black rock. Energy needs are outpacing production. Oil imports were up 40% in the first half of 2004. Despite such a deficit the WWF?s Living Planet Report puts China?s ecological footprint per capita at only number 69. The top 3 Nations that were shown to have the largest demand per person on the biosphere were the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and Finland.
The World Wildlife Fund website poses the question ?How many have we got?? in large font which fades into an image of the earth?rich shades of blue, green, and brown with wisps of white clouds gently floating above. This welcoming lush earth is set against the pitch black of a starless space. We are then asked ?How many do we need?? and the earth divides like a developing cancerous cell into 2,3,4, and 5 clone planets. Then all fades away.
The October 2006 release of the WWF?s Living Planet Report comes on the heals of a UN study which states that greenhouse gases have hit a record high and other warnings that world fishing stocks could be wiped out by 2048. With so much terror and fear related news in the media today, it feels like no surprise to learn that our earth is on the edge of swallowing up coastal cities like Cape Town, Venice, and Miami turning sun bathers into climate refugees.
I can?t help but to think of the 1984 David Lynch film Dune, an adaptation of Frank Herbert?s cult novel about space travel and mining. It?s the year 10191. On a dry and desolate planet called Arrakis or Dune, two rival families battle over the control of Melange - a spice which in addition to permitting space travel, its also a fountain of youth drug. It?s highly addictive and a symbol of wealth to its conspicuous consumers. Melange only exists on the Dune planet and war soon erupts over control of the mines. It?s said that ?He who controls the spice, controls the universe? a frightening parallel to our own hunger for fossil fuels and the global effects of our collective demand for them. (Rob quote)
While in Bolivia I met sixteen year old filling a bucket with rock as fast as he could. When it was full, he put his shovel down and the 1 ton bucket raised up on a wench through the ceiling ? he informed me that he was on Christmas vacation from school and wanted to earn a few cents. Up above on the barren hillsides of mines, children were playing ? learning. Today in Bolivia, the mines are cooperatively owned and there isn?t much governmental oversight. While in China, mining companies sometimes act like they own the town.
In the Jungshwey village of southern China, workers must run out at any hour of the night to shovel raw coal onto the train. They say they receive no pay for this, but keep track for years on end in hopes of some day being compensated. In Jungshwey, miner mortality is 11 times the national average.
The work of Miners ? like firefighters and police ? is a dangerous occupation. But somehow the driving force behind mining seemed utterly different than fighting fires and crime. When wages ARE given, they are set to entice working. In the Jungshwey province that might be the simple hope of one day BEING paid. In the Liaoning province where 213 people died in Feb of last year, a miner can make 1,500 yuan or $200US a month. A farmer would have to work six months to earn as much. In West Virginia, miners make more than school teachers. Mexican miners earn less than every other Latin American miner?anywhere from $1 to $10/day, but still a decent wage for the Coahuila province.
Outside of the Cerro Rico mine where that unlucky Incan Diego Huallpa unknowingly started would become almost 500 years of destroying the mountain, I sit with a group of 5 younger miners. It?s a weird cross between the past and the present. While their transistor radio blares out Christmas ads and electronic dance music, they pass back and forth a cup of 180 proof alcohol. Cigarette smoke fills the cold Andean air, their cheeks tightly filled with coca leaves to offset altitude sickness and hunger. At 14,000ft I guess one need something to take the edge off. Even though I know the oldest is barely 30 and the rest are boy, their faces look almost twice that ? their hands are dry, scarred, and tuff like leather?their eyes curious yet weary of me. They are quiet ? for the most part?simply reflecting on the hard days work and enjoying their comradery in the remaining hour of daylight?outside the mine.
Gold, silver, copper, coal, zinc, magnesium, tin, granite, uranium ? the list goes on and on. This show is dedicated to all of the miners of the world. To all of the hard work they endure and all they have to deal with in order to ? as they say ?just put some bread on the table.?
Well thanks for tuning in to this edition of World Tour. You can visit worldtourmusic.com for playlists and more information about the show, including how you can help its continued production. Send us an email at worldtourmusic@yahoo.com and let us know that you?re listening. Until next week, same time same place my name is Andrew Reissiger and this is World Tour Radio.
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