The drama had its genesis on August 5, 2010, when a section of the ancient mine collapsed, confining miners to a communal cell without warders. Modern mines have contingency exits, this one did not, a typical handmaiden of jungle capitalism. For 17 days none knew the miners' condition; fear, anxiety, and grief gripped the miners' families, and ran like a coordinating current through the world community, thanks to modern communication technology.
If you thought the mine rescue was celebrated by Chileans everywhere, you would be wrong. One Stella de Gracia, owner of a Chilean restaurant in the South of London, ostensibly an unforgiving Pinochet victim was cool: "What is there to celebrate?