Count your blessings if your job is not classified as high-risk. No one is immune to occupational hazards but some jobs are riskier than others. I was reading about the 16 Nepalese mountain guides killed on Mt Everest over a week ago and I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like doing that job. I break into a sweat just making the short walk from my house to the main road and it’s not even uphill. Imagine having to climb thousands of feet of steep rock in freezing temperatures, carrying heavy loads including clothing, bottled oxygen (for the foreign climbers as it is deemed too expensive for the local guides), food, ladders, ropes and other materials needed for the ascent. They are also required to spend more time on the most dangerous parts of the mountain, essentially securing the route and reducing any potential risks for the paying climbers. If something goes wrong, as happened with the April 18th Avalanche, the guides are more likely to die as they are the ones directly in harm’s way. This reminds me of folk tale back home, of men who would fall on swords, literally, to protect the king. I guess it’s the equivalent of today’s food tasters and the Secret Service who are ready to take a bullet for the President. Like I said, some jobs are more risky than others and I think it would be easier to take them on if the pay is good. But the truth is that most of these jobs have poor pay. The Everest mountain guides apparently make between $500 and & $5,000 a season depending on the status and generosity of those they’re guiding up the mountain, who themselves pay around $42,500 for a 60-day expedition. It’s a multi-million dollar industry but it’s the mountaineering companies and government that take the bulk of it. It’s just like the mining companies and lucrative clothes factories in Bangladesh, Indonesia where corporations rake in profits but aren’t eager to share any of it with their employees. It’s disappointing that survivors of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh only recently got some compensation. $700 is all they got. What can that do for someone who lost both legs in the tragedy and will forever be confined to a wheelchair, assuming they can afford one? What can that money do for a mother who lost her only child? People leave children behind. Who pays their fees and makes sure they have a safe place to stay and food to eat? Why don’t employers think of these things? Maybe I’m naive but I don’t understand how anyone can be comfortable sending men down an unstable mine knowing it could collapse anytime or that a gas leak is imminent and not do anything to ensure their safety! But even if that didn’t happen, they’re likely to contract respiratory diseases from dust and chemical exposure. Why is it so hard to offer them meaningful insurance coverage when their only fault was choosing to work for you?
