HOW ABOUT A MAOIST HELL?:

Toiling in a Dickensian hell – the miners who fuel China (Jane Macartney, 11/14/05, Times of London)

[I]n the rush for profit, safety concerns get short shrift and the death toll from accidents grows steadily worse.

Barely a day goes by without a report of deaths from an explosion, flood, fire or collapse in a mine somewhere in China. In the first nine months of this year more than 4,000 miners were killed — an average of 17 a day and double the number a year earlier — despite a government campaign to close down unsafe mines.

But if Mr Zang is worried, he does not show it. “Am I afraid? What’s the point? If I die, I die,” he says as he climbs into a metallic pulley lift and starts a 100m (328ft) journey into the bowels of Henan Province.

That's the spirit!

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 14, 2005 10:02 AM