The chilean miners are safe, now what?

The Chilean miners are safe, now what?
I must confess that I have been glued to the drama unfolding in Chile in regards to the miners that were trapped seven blocks beneath the surface. Where it not for my busy schedule, I would have gone to Chile to be present when they finally were rescued after 69 days in the darkness of a cave. Luckily, technology allows the whole world to be present through the wonders of television or the internet and I am sure that hundreds of millions saw the moment when the first miner came out.
By the way, it is so interesting to see how personality plays such a big role in the way you behave. The first miner out, Florencio Avalos, father of two children, is a timid introvert. He comes out of the mine and hugs his wife and child, very low key. His lovely little kid was crying, very excited to see his father after such a long time and such difficult circumstances.
The second miner rescued, Mario Sepulveda, is an extrovert and he emerged from the mine shaft looking like a cheerleader, joking with workers, pumping his fists, jumping up and down in front of reporters and the first question he asked his wife was “How is the dog?”
The cluster of tents assembled in the Atacama Desert, that captured the world’s attention and their hearts, for more than 60 days, will be torn down. I wonder if they should have kept it as a tourist attraction.
Can you imagine the amount of people all over the world that would sign up for a tour to the exact place where those miners were trapped? I wonder also how many would sign up to go down into the mine using the same equipment that brought the miners up. How long before the cost of the equipment is recouped and they start making money?
This whole ordeal demonstrated the greatness of Chile as a country. They are now a first world country, probably the only one in Latin America. The way they handled the whole incident was simply superb and they should really be congratulated.
Why not continue to expose their success by opening it up for tourists? Anyway, food for thought.
So, now the lives of those 33 miners will never be the same. New jobs, vacations to exotic places, invitations to meet with president, probably opportunities to meet with presidents of other countries, movie and book deals will probably await them.
The team of psychologists assembled to treat the miners will have their hands full, I can assure you. That sudden change of lifestyle for miners that were used to making $1,600.00 a month, the fame and the extra money that it will bring, could be difficult to handle.
They will be admired and praised for their perseverance and will be showered with gifts and money and they have weeks if not months of parties and events ahead of them, including weddings which were postponed because of the accident and joyful meetings with babies born during that time.
But, believe me, there soon will be a reality check after all the hype goes away and then and there, is when they will need the most help.
The very happy extrovert, Mario Sepulveda, when he went to the hospital, one of the Doctors treating him said that Sepulveda told him about an internal “fight with the devil” that he experienced when he was trapped inside the mine. Dr. Guillermo Swett also mentioned that the youngest miner rescued, 19 year old Jimmy Sanchez, appeared to be having problems coping with the whole situation and seemed to be exhibiting early signs of depression.
The oldest miner rescued, Mario Gomez corresponded regularly with his sister and she said that from the letters it seemed that her brother was close to a breaking point before the rescue. He is the sickest of all the miners, until now, with a case of pneumonia and the moment he got out of the mine, he dropped to his knees in prayer.
Then we have the case of Yonni Barrios.
A trained paramedic, Barrios previously took care of his elderly diabetic mother. Inside the mine, he became a very valuable resource because of his medical knowledge. While trapped underground, he administered medicine to the miners and vaccinated them against the flu. Some of the miners called him "Dr. House," after Hugh Laurie's character in the Fox program which is popular in Chile
It turns out that Barrios had a secret life. He was a bad boy and now he has to pay for the consequences. He might have been very successful cheating on his wife but the accident blew his whole romantic life apart.
Marta Salinas, his wife, first sensed something was up when she discovered another woman was also inside the camp, anxiously waiting for Barrios. The discovery prompted a fight, a war of words between the two women. The mistress, Susana Valenzuela, said she had met Barrios on a training course a few years earlier, and that he was planning to leave his wife for her. Imagine, under these circumstances, for a wife to find out about something like this. Salinas said Valenzuela had "no legitimacy" and refused to address her by name. At the beginning, she stuck with her husband, in spite of his infidelity. She said: "[Barrios] is my husband. He loves me and I am his devoted wife,"
What is very interesting is that when Yonni found out that both his wife and mistress were in the camp waiting for him, he asked both women to be on hand to greet him, like a nice happy family.
It seems that he forgot that he married a woman of principle and she decided that she didn’t want to be a part of it and left the camp. In fact, this is what she said before the rescue:
"He asked me to come, but it turns out he also invited the other woman and I have decency, “This is very clear: It's her or me."I'm happy because he was saved. It's a miracle from God. But I won't attend the rescue."
When Dr. House came up, he fell into the arms of Susana Valenzuela, his 50 year old mistress.
I remember a very old electrician friend of mine when I was a high school student at Sacred Heart Academy in Santurce and I worked as a messenger in Mueblerias TarTak, who once in a while sat me down to give me advice he had learned at the university of hard knocks, another way to say the university of life. “If you have a mistress, make sure that if you are ever caught, you won’t mind spending the rest of your life with that woman”.
I wonder if Yonni wants to spend the rest of his life with his mistress or with his wife, but he sure will need to make a decision very soon. He has been married to Susana Salinas for 28 years which is a very long time.
Unfortunately, Yonni’s case is not unique. At least five wives, as of now, there might be others, have found themselves dealing with mistresses at the rescue site. There might be other mistresses that had more self respect and didn’t show up. Some of these women will now fight for the compensation offer to the miners. In fact, one miner is said to have four women fighting over him.
Another hero, in my opinion, is Manuel Gonzales, an employee of Chile’s state cooper company. He was the first rescuer to volunteer to go down into the mine shaft at the start of the relief operation. Mind you, he volunteered, on his own free will, to risk his life to save others. He went down and supervised the operation inside the mine with two other volunteers, and he was the last one to come out.
Even as they were all celebrating after he came out, he brought up the subject of mine safety with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. He said to him “I hope that things will be done correctly...especially dealing with mining concerns that things be done right. This is what I want”.
A long investigation is already under way to inquire into what in the hell prompted 700,000 tons of rock to collapse the San Jose mine on Aug. 5, trapping all these men. Top government regulators have already been fired and at least 18 smaller mines have been closed for safety violations. Even President Pinera acknowledged that the mine "never should have functioned as it was functioning. It had a long history of violations." This could become a hot political issue for Pinera, whose country gets 40 percent of its earnings from the mining industry. The conditions that allowed the mine to collapse "will not go unpunished," said the President, who is Chile's first center-right leader in a generation and a target for the Chilean left who hate having a billionaire entrepreneur as president of the country.
My friends, this story will be around for a very long time and I dare to say it will be extremely interesting.