Writing Homework Help

– Step one: Make Original Substantive Response to Question Posed ( answer the question in a professional way with some research ).

The question posed for step one is:

Consider Empathy, including perspective-taking and empathic concern, what does empathy have to do with the Chilean minors?

…………………………………………………….

– Step two: Make Two Substantive Responses to Two Substantive Posts by classmates.

The other 2 classmates will do step one as you will do it, so in step two you will response to their 2 original substantive responses to the same question posed.

Post 1

Empathy has to do with the Chilean miners in that a lack of empathy on the part of San Esteban Mining Company resulted in the collapse of the mine. Had the company considered the perspectives and concerns of the miners they would have followed Chilean mine safety regulations and had both an emergency ladder (that would have prevented the miners from being trapped in the first place) and adequate shelter with proper ventilation and emergency supplies.

I found NASA’s involvement in the rescue efforts suspicious as well as the lack of why in many of the articles I found on the cave-in event (at least until I tried searching “why did the chilean mine collapse). America inserting itself in rescue efforts makes a bit more sense to me knowing Chile is “the world’s top copper producer”. Given the amount of publicity the cave-in received, my assumption is the US feared public outcry against mining regulation enforcement in Chile which could have negatively impacted currently established copper trade, imports, and pricing. Another way to say this, I’m thinking the US and Chilean President Pinera masterfully crafted this bit of PR to hide in plain sight dangerous working conditions for miners and turn another tale exemplifying the horrors of late-stage capitalism into one of empathy and esperanza. As Pascale Bonnefoy points out from actually interviewing the miners themselves, “President Sebastian Pinera, a former businessman, has emerged as a leader willing to take on corporate irresponsibility, vowing to overhaul labor safety regulations and bring to justice those responsible for the accident, whether they are part of the company or part of the government. […] But laws and regulations aren’t the problem, says mining engineer Agustin Holgado. […] The problem is enforcement” (source).

A severe lack of empathy for the Chilean miners is flagrantly displayed by the unfulfilled promises made to the workers. Miners say they were litigated out of receiving compensation from the 2015 movie adaptation of their trauma and (as of October 2020) the miners have still not received their awarded $100k each from the compensation claim won against the Chilean government because the government appealed the compensation ruling and then delayed judicial hearings due to COVID (even though something like this could easily be done through Zoom). The miners have been left with PTSD from the event and many struggle to get by now forced to live off a subsistence government pension (source). Empathy is vital to human survival but the performative empathy on display in the Chilean mining disaster is a smoke-screen keeping large swaths of the public ignorant of the need for actionable change (in this instance needed in the enforcement of existing Chilean mining safety regulations). 

Post 2 

I had to go back and read up a little bit on the Chilean miners. I could not imagine being trapped below ground for a few hours let alone for 69 days. I have great empathy for those men and women that go underground to do that kind of work. There is something about going underground to work in a place where if something goes wrong it could mean life or death. It takes a special type of person to have the drive to accomplish jobs like that.

For those 33 people that were trapped one could only begin to understand the emotions and feelings that they were going through being trapped 2,300ft below the ground. Thoughts of wondering how long we will be down here, are they ever going to find us, or will we ever get out of here. I would imagine those were some of the thoughts going through their minds when they were down there. Other feelings and emotions that would have been a big part of this experience I could see being great full that they are alive and still have a chance to get out.

When I think of empathy in this situation it’s hard to really understand how those people felt during this time. A person can try to understand and have an idea like I just did about the feelings and emotions those people would have went through. Yet you don’t fully understand until you can talk to someone who has lived through it or go through something like that yourself. It is amazing to me what one can learn when they sit down and talk to someone who has gone through a life-or-death experience. You get to hear how that person sounds and has been changed from that experience, and that give a person the ability to fully understand and then share those feelings with others