Lang III - Letter to the Editor I

TASK: YOU HAVE READ AN ARTICLE IN A GENERAL INTEREST MAGAZINE. THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE, WHICH GIVES ITS GIST IS: “Chilean miracle: a story of greed, a story of human greatness.”

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR RESPONDING TO THE POINTS RAISED IN THE ARTICLE AND EXPRESSING YOUR VIEWS.

Dear Sir,

I wish to congratulate you on your article “Chilean miracle: a story of greed, a story of human greatness” which was published last Sunday.

First of all, I would like to say that your analysis on the mine business in Chile was most thought-provoking. I speak as one of those millions of people watched the rescue of the 33 miners without realising that far from a miracle, what happened at Copiapó was not but the result of human greed. I was shocked to become aware of the wild precarious conditions under which miners have to work; and even more upset I became to find out that such conditions are not improved in order for companies to be able to tighten their belts and obtain higher profits than the ones they would receive if they sticked to mine safety and health conventions.

Nonetheless, it was a breath of fresh air to read about the huge efforts that the Chilean people and the international community have made in order to rescue the 33 lives on a completely disinterested and cooperative basis.

Before congratulating you once again, I only want to say that I hope that this letter will, provided they still haven’t done so, induce other readers to read your work and become aware, as well as I did last Sunday, of the whole story behind the Chilean miracle.

Yours faithfully,

Mariana Zárate