http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOteYufGOg

I indirectly saw plenty of the dark side of it and this sad ballad is very apt.

Working Man"


It's a working man I am
And I've been down underground
And I swear to God
If I ever see the sun

Oh for any length of time
I can hold it in my mind
I never again
Will go down underground

At the age of sixteen years
Oh he quarrels with his peers
He vowed they'd never
See another one

In the dark recess of the mine
Where you age before your time
And the coal dust lies heavy
On your lungs

It's a working man I am
And I've been down underground
And I swear to God
If I ever see the sun

Oh for any length of time
I can hold it in my mind
I never again
Will go down underground

At the age of sixty four
He will greet you at the door
And he will gently lead you
By the arm

Through the dark recess of the mine
He will take you back in time
And he'll tell you of
The hardships that were had

It's a working man I am
And I've been down underground
And I swear to God
If I ever see the sun

Oh for any length of time
I can hold it in my mind
I never again will go down underground

I never again will go down underground

Funny how we've gone from burning rubbish to burning coal!

But there are still miners working in horrible unsafe conditions all over the world, like the ones in S Africa who got shot when they went on strike, or the ones in Chile who were buried underground. You'd think in this day and age they could get machines to do this sort of work?

Machines now do much of the work, but still need men to operate them.
In addition there are many variable factors and problems continually occuring, that can only be sorted out by guys being down there at the sharp end in the filth and foul air at the coal face.

see its got you confused

we have gone from Jerez to Thatcher to Mineworkers, its so easy in BES

mining machines have to have a man to operate them, they are not yet fully automatic and can't tell when the seam alters course.
that is why all the cries about the amount of coal left in closed UK mines falls on deaf ears.
and I know I wouldn't want to travel 5miles out under the North Sea to a coal face, where the water dripping in is pure North Sea.

To give just one example, only guys at the face can check the roof for safety and see what supports are required or even if it's safe to continue.
Roof falls are only one of the many risks down below.

When the last underground mines closed round my way back in the 60s guys were lying in water trying to hack coal out of seams less than 2 feet high.

Still have surface or opencast mining even now, been going strong since about 1950 on my place.
Even been back and ripped the same land up on three seperate occasions, taking out a deeper seam each time with improved equipment.

Well, I'd have thought that if they can invent unmanned drones they can kill people with from thousands of miles away, they can devise and install some equipment that would check this?

But miners' lives in developing countries are cheaper, I suppose.

Such as the US I suppose ?

I recently watched a documentary series about present day underground coal mining in the US.

Despite the fact that they were continually bringing in new equipment, most of the same dangers and health risks still clearly exist, many things can only be done and checked out manually and it is still a very hazardous occupation.

Also I spent some time in the company of some of these guys when I was over there a few years back and it was surprising how similar their outlook and experiences were to the locals from my own area from many years previously.

Not just miners lives, all lives of ordinary people are cheap in many countries. They are being killed by fellow muslims because they are Shia, Sufi. They are being killed because they come from another village in the next valley. Life is cheap. For how long has Sudan been a killing ground for those born in the right or wrong place

Unless it is you or I that should kill one by accident, then see how cheap life is.


so have things settled down in Jerez now ??
Presumably there will be major changes at the next local elections.

I spent much of the late 70s and 80s in West Africa, and can never dismiss from my mind the high sided Motorway trucks heading up the appalling roads to the latest stage of work on new roads to nowhere.
Labourers and other workers sitting perched 20 feet up above the bouncing empty metal body. Many were injured, some killed, a risk they all knew. But the alternatives were not working, walking (for a day) or travelling in the metal body with temperatures of 100 degrees.
We have easy choices in the developed world.