Here is a sharp opinion.  Just an opinion, mind.  The facts are not available to me, so like any ordinary person I opine on the basis of what jumps to my mind, probably as a product of past observations & experience.

I refer to the report that President Bush plans to veto a new mine safety bill that the National Mining Association and the Bush Administration consider would “jeopardize achievements and efforts under way because of the MINER Act,” and “divert resources unnecessarily.”

Conversely the Democrats and the United Mine Workers favor the bill and state: “And now, the White House is offering a series of completely baseless excuses to explain its decision to threaten a veto of this urgently needed legislation.  President Bush should stop playing politics with people’s lives and work with Congress to enact mine safety reforms that were left unaddressed by the MINER Act of 2006.”

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It is hard to know whether to be encouraged or appalled.  It is hard to believe the numbers are real.  And it should remind anybody who gushes about the benefits of China taking over mines in Canada or third world countries that not everybody does everything equal.

I refer to the reports that China coal mine accidents claimed 20 percent fewer lives in 2007 than in 2006.  That sounds sort of good until you read further that 3,786 miners died in Chinese coal mine accidents last year: more than 10 per day! And as the report continues:

Independent labour groups have long maintained that China’s mining death toll is much higher than government figures, with local mine bosses and regional leaders said to be covering up accidents to avoid fines and costly shut downs.

That said, all that can be said is that mining can be undertaken without fatalities; but it will take a change in the “systems” of government, regulation, management, and work practices so profound, that the world as we know it will not be. 

Change may be in the air of the US primaries.  I see no comparable change in the air of mine safety.  But correct me, please, if I am missing something.