Victor Segovia, 48, kept a diary of life below, asking those above to send down more pencils and paper. He has five children, is an electrician and plays guitar.Dario Lopez-Mills
It was the best product placement in the history of advertising. As the miners trapped 300 floors underground reappeared one by one in Chile's Atacama desert, we couldn't help but notice how surprisingly cool they looked. After 69 days in that stench and dirt and despair, we expected people who would need immediate help. Instead, popping out were super Chileans, all decked out and ready for calendars. They entered as workers, they came out running as if they were on Mad Men. With a little help from their corporate sponsors, of course.
Their vulnerable eyes were protected by Oakley sunglasses. Comparing them with the Oakley catalogue, they appear to have been Flak Jackets with photocromic lenses. Price? Only $450. Average salary of those trapped underground? In the $950 range.
To monitor their heart rate and blood pressure during ascent, Los 33 had small monitors wrapped around their wrists. Pictures are not good enough for definitive judgment, but it was likely an Omron HEM-650 with IntelliSense® (" garantía 5 años"). Some of the miners are of an age when usage of a wrist monitor is not recommended any more, due to diminished responsiveness of the blood vessels in that area, but, hey, you couldn't pack a nurse in the capsule that took them out. There were families outside.
Most of the men were clean-shaven, since razors and shaving cream had been lowered into the mine several days ahead of the rescue. It's impossible at this moment to find the brand names (in coming weeks, we'll almost certainly have a commercial that begins, "When, after 69 days, Los 33 needed a shave, what did they use?"), but I'd place my bets on one product, and we don't even need to mention it.
Nice and clean green shirts, on top of which each miner wore a T-shirt - just the way they usually dress when going underground. On those cream-coloured T-shirts, printed inside a large red area: "Thank you Lord, because nothing is impossible for God" - and "The Jesus Film Project" on the sleeve. The JFP site claims this film is so effective that, "every four seconds, somewhere in the world, another person indicates a decision to follow Christ after watching the JESUS film." Donations are tax-deductible for those living in the United States, just in case you were wondering.
Will the Chilean miner now replace the New York firefighter as the international symbol of toughness and courage? We shall see. But one lesson is already clear: Every rescue team in the world has to have a stylist in its ranks.
Dragan Todorovic is a Yugoslav-born Canadian writer whose novel Diary of Interrupted Days was short-listed for Commonwealth and Amazon awards.