printThe following is from “A Vote For Chile’s President,” my latest WND column:
“President Barack Obama took to the podium well before President Sebastian Piñera did. Chile’s president bided his time patiently with the group of rescue workers in hard hats, until all 33 miners had surfaced from deep within the San José copper-gold mine, in northern Chile, where they had been entombed for 69 days.
If not for the translator’s running commentary, I would not have guessed that the man with a beaming smile—so different from Obama’s gleam of dentition and Bush’s demented grin—last in-line to meet and greet the miners who ascended from hell, was no other than Chile’s president. Sebastian Piñera wife, first lady Cecilia Morel, was equally low-key, fading into the background and ceding to the heroes of the unfolding drama.
The images transmitted from Camp Esperanz showed no swat teams, personal body guards, or retinues of handlers and props—the sort of ‘presidential comitatus’ that accompanies the head of the American hyperpower everywhere.
At ‘Camp Hope,’ the pensive group of rescuers and their president looked like a band of brothers. The media scrum did nothing to shatter what was almost a religious atmosphere. All present—mining men, the rescued and the rescuers, and their families—seemed oblivious to the din from the outside world. Nobody appeared star-struck; few were playing to the cameras. All present had eyes for one another alone. Expressions of joy were all the more poignant because so dignified. There was no slobbering, no Geraldo-Rivera hyperbole.” …
The compete column, now on WND.COM, is “A Vote For Chile’s President.”
Next week I hope to introduce you to the work of a dear friend, Professor Dennis O’Keeffe, who has just written a gem of a book about Edmund Burke. My conversation with Dennis will be the first of a two-part interview. You’ll enjoy it.
And do read my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society.
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UPDATE (Oct. 16): Star Parker in “What Chile can teach America about freedom”:
But back just a little less than 40 years ago, Chile was a typical, poor South American nation, with intrusive government and sluggish growth.
How was it transformed?
Read a short essay called “How the Power of Ideas Can Transform a Country,” by one of the leaders that made it happen – Jose Pinera.
He relates how, in the mid-1950s, the Catholic University of Chile signed a cooperation agreement with the Department of Economics of the University of Chicago, then home to the world’s top free-market economists, including the legendary Milton Friedman.
Milton Friedman’s classic “Capitalism and Freedom” explains how individual liberty can only thrive when accompanied by economic liberty
Thus began the education of a generation of young Chileans in the wisdom of economic freedom.
Beginning in the late 1970s, these young leaders, with newly minted Ph.D.s, helped implement new economic reforms in Chile protecting private property and promoting free trade.
A graph showing annual economic growth in Chile over the last hundred years looks like a hockey stick. From the early part of the twentieth century until 1980, the line is flat, averaging less than 1 percent growth per year. But beginning 1980, growth takes off in a vertical surge, averaging over 4 percent per year.
Dear Ilana,
Brilliant. You weren’t the only one to notice this.
only yesterday I wrote this mail to a friend.
See below.
best wishes,
Phil
Like everyone else I was interested to follow the recovery of the Chilean miners.
What was more interesting was to compare the response of the Chilean government and people with that of America’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
They were both types of mining companies and they both had accidents probably due to safety procedures being not adhered to. But the response of the people was completely different.
The Chilean government ministers were straight away on the site to get the problem solved. In America it took ages before the government got involved.
When they did get involved, Obama’s aim was not to see what he could do to help the people or understand the problem, but to put blame on those already doing their best to solve the problem, then talk about who could be sued for what.
During the time they were down the mine, the miners had regular prayers.
When they came out, many of the miners wore teeshirts saying “Thankyou Lord”. Others got on their knees and lifted their hands to heaven with thanks. Another said that he put his trust in God and said that the devil was trying to destroy him, but he thanked the Lord.
I might not have heard that here, but I did not hear public thanks to God for the oil spill in the Gulf being as big as it could have been or being stopped.
There is obviously more sense of God’s favour in Chilean than in the American government.
Best wishes,
Phil
Dignity, class, common sense and a belief in God. Chile obviously has a long way to go.
Wonderfully said, Ilana. That was one of the most beautiful moments in history.
It is interesting how the nations that experienced communism first hand (Chile, Estonia, Czech, and even China) seem to be running the fastest away from socialist economics even as America plunges headfirst towards socialism.
Republican socialist version: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=215325
And a list of the things the Republicans will not do after they take over (partially because they cannot do some and mainly because they will not do so):
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=215697
Pinera and much of his cabinet were schooled in libertarian economics and/or worked at free-market think tanks – how much OPPOSITE to “community activist” Obama and orthogonal to most Republicans as well.
But, perhaps, we can claim that Cecilia Morel Montes said “for the first time, I am truly proud of my country”!
Dear Ilana:
Thank you for your insightful commentary on a great story. The differing styles of leadership by ‘our’ leaders compared to that of President Sebastian Piñera of Chile was well illustrated. The cultural strength of Chileans in this crisis was truly impressive.
I was impressed on at least a couple of fronts. The first was that the miners, the families, the rescue team, and the Chilean president were not ashamed of expressing their Christian faith. Secondly I was impressed by the teamwork displayed by the rescuers, the engineers, technitions, and many others who helped in the rescue effort. Finally I was impressed with the Chilean president. I’ll have to admit when I started watching the rescue I honestly didn’t realize that one of the men I was watching was the Chilean president.
A few days ago, the dweebs at NPR were claiming that the rescued miners’ interaction with the President were staged by the Chilean government. I don’t know what to make of that, given that no President of ours in recent memory ever came off as genuine to me.
But they also said the Chilean gov’t forbade any foreign media from being at the site of the rescue. I wonder if that’s true?
There was a time in American history when those in positions of power thanked God for difficult military victories or feats accomplished. As recently as 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts, first to orbit the Moon, read from Genesis on Christmas Eve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqQdP5328FY&feature=related
Those times are long gone in America. Rather than seeking God during times of trial, we have leaders like Obama (and of course, not only he) seeking to figure out “whose ass to kick” when a destructive event takes it toll. That is not leadership; it is reality TV, with its accompanying flamboyance, narcissism, and total ineffectiveness.
The Chileans, fortunately, did not learn from our recent examples. Much of their nation sought God during the miners’ 69 day trial, and their President was at the forefront, not seated behind some desk in Santiago commanding underlings. It’s interesting that no earthquake occurred during the time of the miners’ captivity to hamper rescue efforts, particularly since Chile is one of the most earthquake-active locations on the planet. Even a small quake in that area might have sealed the miners’ fate. God elevates the humble, and humbles the proud.