conclusion 221the Sihe Coal Mine under the State-owned Jincheng Mining
Group, said an offi cial with the provincial coalmine safety super-
vision bureau who declined to be named. ‘No more deaths will
occur in the mine as the rest of the miners are all safe,’ Tai Jie,
an employer of the general offi ce of the mining group, told China
Daily in a telephone interview yesterday. She was the only person
on the managerial staff who could be reached to comment on the
fates of the more than 600 miners. The tragedy happened on the
fourth day of the Year of the Dog, according to the lunar calen-
dar. Local sources told China daily that most of the miners were
from villages nearby who had hoped to earn some extra money by
working during the Spring Festival holiday. (p. 111 )The fi rst extract is an attempt by the American Coal Foundation to
integrate the processes of mining as a pedagogical classroom game,
illustrated by ‘cookie mining’ (or removing the chocolate chips from
cookies). The overall aim of the exercises is to fi nd ways of max-
imising profi t. Nowak’s scathing juxtaposition of these materials
foregrounds the disparity between toothpicks, paperclips, human
bodies and machinery. Coal Mountain Elementary – through its
arrangement and fi lleting of this primer – communicates contempt
for the intrusion of corporate interests into the teaching of elemen-
tary school mathematics. This is highlighted with a later extract
which encourages: ‘Working in tandem to complete the profi t/loss
worksheet might be helpful for those with math-related learning
disabilities’ (p. 130 ). On the facing page the citation from China
Daily reports in bald facts the Sihe Coal Mine disaster and the sub-
sequent inability of authorities to immediately comment or accept
any responsibility. The bare reportage does, however, present a
humanising of the disaster with the general comments on nearby
villagers aiming to earn extra income by working through the
holiday. Compare these rather clinical statements with an extract
from one of the Sago testimonies:
When we got back to the fresh air base, the backup
team had performed a task that we were initially sent
in to recover the fi rst miner that they located. And he
was on a stretcher that was loaded in another scoop in