Mining in the area is probably 200 years old. It was one of the largest coal fields in the country, and although it was mostly exhausted, it now is dotted with small private mines. This does not mean however that safety should be skipped over any more than a mine with 1000 miners in it. Surely using old mine workings to get to the new face should ensure regular safety checks, new reinforcement and maybe even a new shaft in place. It was this old section of mine that collapsed. You'd think, after 200 years, we'd learned how to not go down a hole in the ground without loss of life, but apparently not. Meanwhile, 4 families, 3 of which are from Ystalyfera not 2 miles from my old home, are torn apart by their losses. Sadness and anger should not and do not mix well.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the net, some presumably teenage thug without respect for anybody or anything decided to set up a group on facebook. "I'm really sad for those four miners. LOL j/k, they were Welsh" was set up so that people can comment on the disaster and make jokes about the Welsh, sheep, leeks and miners. Sick was not the word, and within minutes objections were being put forward to facebook bosses, Police and MPs. Sure enough, as of this morning, the site has been taken down. But, and here's the crux, the creator will probably get away scott free. What FB should do is trace any other accounts to do with the creator and disable them, then contact the email providers who them disable him or her from ever having another email address again, contact the ISP who close his or her account, and even make their mobile phones no longer work.
Well let's face it, if they can't use the internet respectfully, they shouldn't be using it at all.
