The Horrifying Moment Mongolian Union Boss Sets Fire To Himself In Protest To Coal Mine Sales

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Yahoo News

By Anthony Pearce

This is the shocking moment a trade union leader set himself on fire in protest at the sale of coal mines in Mongolia.

The man, whose name is not known, had organised a press conference to discuss conditions faced by miners in the country and the sale of the mines to China.

However, as you can see in the horrifying video below, after beginning to address the room, he suddenly sets himself alight.

Other workers had told the media that miners working for Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi, which has 39 coal mines across the country, were already struggling to feed themselves and their families.

FULL story at link. GRAPHIC photos and video at link. It is disturbing.



Read more: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/horrifying-moment-mongolian-union-boss-114616232.html#yT4ZDtt

[LiberalElite]

1. Yes it is disturbing - I never

ever saw anything like that.

[Half-Century Man]

4. Don't google "Buddhist Monks protest Vietnam".

It will stick with you.

[LiberalElite]

6. I saw some still photos of them back then -

that was enough.

[happyslug]

2. This is the second largest "Coking Coal" Deposit in the world

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavan_Tolgoi

http://en.mongolianminingjournal.com/content/58189.shtml

The article does NOT mention the biggest "Coking Coal" and then do not define "Coking coal" but I suspect it is Bituminous Coal for the largest single find of such coal was the Pittsburgh Seam, first mined in the 1790s and still being mined (but now in West Virginia and Southwestern corner of PA).

Coking coal and Bituminous coal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coke_(fuel)

More on the Pittsburgh Seam of coal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_coal_seam



There are larger coal seams in the American West, the Pittsburgh Seam is the largest coal seam of the type of coal best used for making STEEL (thus "Coking Coal&quot as oppose to thermal coal. Thermal Coal is the name used for coal used to generate heat, mostly to fire electric generators.

[Nihil]

7. That was a very unfortunate juxtaposition of subject lines ...

>> "The Horrifying Moment Mongolian Union Boss Sets Fire To Himself"

> "This is the second largest "Coking Coal" Deposit in the world"

[happyslug]

9. I was just putting the importance of the COAL being mined in prospective

Last edited Wed Nov 18, 2015, 10:55 PM - Edit history (2)

This is high grade coal that these miners are being paid to mined, but it appears not enough to feed themselves or their families. Most of this coal is being shipped via trucks down the highways between these mines and the Chinese coast. Coal is best shipped by barge or rail, but the rivers are to small for barges in that part of Mongolia and the rail lines have not been built.

One of the reason is Mongolia uses Russia Rail Gauge of 1520 mm (Five foot) while China uses "Standard Gauge' of 1435 mm (4 Foot 8 1/2 inches). This particular Coal field is just across the border from China and thus the break in gauge is a factor in shipping this coal. In 2015 1/2 of all fright moved in China by rail was coal, thus in many ways the Chinese Rail Lines are maxed out in terms of coal and need expansion. Till that expansion in freight rail lines occurs a lot of coal from "Inner Mongolia" (Which is INSIDE China) and "Outer Mongolia" (Which is what is shown on world maps as "Mongolia&quot goes by truck and that is NOT the most efficient way to move coal.

Thus the pressure to keep wages down in Mongolia, so the coal can be sold at a price that if shipped by truck it is competitive with coal shipped by rail. In many ways it is cheaper for China to buy US coal, shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi River by Barges, then into ships to Steel Mills on the coast of China, then to buy coal shipped by truck from Outer Mongolia (An alternative is by Rail to the East Coast then to a ship, or, if lower quality Western Coal is desired, by rail to the Mississippi river then by barge to New Orleans and then by ship to China). Think about it, shipping coal from the US to China by rail, barge and ship is cheaper then shipping coal by truck from Mongolia, that is how more efficient barge and rail shipping is compared to truck shipping when it comes to bulk and heavy items like coal.

Thus why I brought up the issue of "Coking Coal", it is a factor in the price of coal and what this person was objecting about when he put himself on fire.

Please note, the Chinese MAY not be importing Coal from the US, but Coke, for the Chinese can buy Coke directly from US Steel from its Coke works outside of Pittsburgh. The Clairton Coke Works. outside of Pittsburgh, is one of the largest plants to convert Coal to Coke and it operates at a huge profit and one of the reason Pittsburgh still has one of the worse air pollution levels in the US.

More on the Clairton Coke Works:

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2013/01/31/us-steel-completes-clairton-coke.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/03/01/Clairton-plant-over-emission-limit/stories/201403010048

Thus Western Pennsylvania Coal production is important to this story, it is one of the reason these miners are being paid so little. It appears to be cheaper for the Chinese to import Coke from Pittsburgh then Coking Coal from Mongolia and convert it to coke themselves given the coal has to go by truck. This builds up pressure to reduce the cost to produce the coal and you end up with incidents like this one.

[Sunlei]

3. can only imagine how hard it must be to work in those mines & care that much about conditions.

[Plucketeer]

5. THIS is the sort of desperation

A FULL ON Republican government would incite. This is why we need a FIFTEEN DOLLAR an hour minimum wage - not TWELVE.

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. Wow. Someone finally topped Budd Dwyer

[happyslug]

11. A more recent example is the Arab Spring, sprung by a Tunisian who put himself on fire.

Mohamed Bouazizi put himself on fire on "17 December 2010, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation that he reported was inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi

He died on January 4, 2011 from his injuries, but the Dictator of Tunisia had to leave by 14 January 2011 do to the protest the resulted from the burning.

The news of the burning spread so fast in Tunisia that the President of Tunisia (who had ruled Tunisia for 23 year as a dictator) intervened and even visited Mohamed Bouazizi in the hospital (Mohamed Bouazizi was in a coma from the time the fire was put out till his death three weeks later). The burning became the rallying point for protests against the Government, leading to its overthrow.

The first reported case following Bouazizi's death was that of Mohsen Bouterfif, a 37-year-old father of two, who set himself on fire when the mayor of Boukhadra in Algeria refused to meet with him and others regarding employment and housing requests on 13 January 2011. According to a report in El-Watan, the mayor challenged him, saying if he had courage he would immolate himself by fire as Bouazizi had done. He died on 24 January. Maamir Lotfi, a 36-year-old unemployed father of six, also denied a meeting with the governor, burned himself in front of the El Oued town hall on 17 January, dying on 12 February.[57] Abdelhafid Boudechicha, a 29-year-old day laborer who lived with his parents and five siblings, burned himself in Medjana on 28 January over employment and housing issues. He died the following day.

In the six months immediately after Mohamed Bouazizi's death on 4 January 2011, at least 107 Tunisians tried to kill themselves by setting themselves on fire. The men who self-immolated were mostly young unmarried men from poor, rural areas, and had only basic education.[59] Amenallah Messaadi, who collated the figures and is head of the Burns Centre, said that people shouldn't glorify the act of self-immolation and "should stop adding fuel to the fire".[59]

In Israel, Moshe Silman set himself on fire during social justice protests and died on 20 July 2012. In Egypt, Abdou Abdel-Moneim Jaafar, a 49-year-old restaurant owner, set himself alight in front of the Egyptian Parliament. His act of protest helped instigate weeks of protest and, later, the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on 11 February 2011. In Saudi Arabia, an unidentified 65-year-old man died on 21 January 2011, after setting himself on fire in the town of Samtah, Jizan. This was apparently the kingdom's first known case of self-immolation.

Although these cases, with the exception of Egypt, did not provoke the same kind of popular reaction that Bouazizi's case did in Tunisia, the Algerian, Yemeni, and Jordanian governments have experienced significant protests and made major concessions in response to them.[19] As such, these men and Bouazizi were hailed by some as "heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution."

The wave of copycat incidents reached Europe on 11 February 2011, in a case very similar to Bouazizi's. Noureddine Adnane, a 27-year-old Moroccan street vendor, set himself on fire in Palermo, Sicily, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment that was allegedly inflicted on him by municipal officials.[63] He died five days later.[64] In Amsterdam, Kambiz Roustay, a 36-year-old asylum seeker from Iran, set himself on fire on Dam Square in protest of being rejected asylum. Roustay had fled the country for publishing works undermining the regime, and feared being tortured by the Iranian regime upon his return.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi

[LanternWaste]

10. Some idiot to chime in with "I hope his protest didn't inconvenience commuters

Some half-witted idiot to soon chime in with "I hope his protest didn't inconvenience commuters trying to get to work"