Laura Wronowski
Odysseus and President Sebastian Pinera
The Odyssey is a story that involves a leader named Odysseus who has many responsibilities to own up to. Sometimes these responsibilities involved making decisions that were not always beneficial for everyone. In Book 12 of The Odyssey, the goddess Circe warns Odysseus that he will have a hard decision to make while heading back to Ithaca. It was either have six men eaten by the monster Scylla or lose the whole ship by the deadly Charybdis gulping Odysseus and his crew down. Both of these scenarios are not pleasant but as leader, Odysseus knew he was forced to chose one. Circe explained to Odysseus that “No, hug Scylla’s crag—sail on past her—top speed! Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship than lose your entire crew.” (A434)
A similar story to Book 12 of The Odyssey is found in the NY Times. “Trapped 68 Days, First Chilean Miners Taste Freedom” (NY Times) resembles how the President of Chile, Sebastian Pinera, demonstrated the same responsibility of tough decision making that Odysseus had to make. For months Chilean miners were trapped underground. It was on August 5th when this horrible accident occurred and Mr. Pinera was forced to decide the next step. The choices were spend millions of dollars of the countries money to try and rescue the miners (even though they were not 100% sure there were any survivors) or not try to rescue them and possibly lose the next election vote due to wasting money. Similarly, these were very hard to chose from but Mr. Pinera chose to rescue the miners, regardless of the spending that was necessary. The article mentions that “It has involved untold millions of dollars, specialists from NASA and drilling experts from a dozen or so countries…” The equipment and strategic planning involved were very costly to Chile as well.
The best result for everyone is the most important decision to choose. Regardless of the consequences, Odysseus and Mr. Pinera ultimately knew what choice to make and this illustrated a true quality in their leadership.
Works Cited
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/14/world/americas/14chile.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Barrionuevo, Alexei; Romero Simon. “Trapped 68 Days, First Chilean Miners Taste Freedom”. New York Times 13 October 2010, New York ed.: The New York Times International A1 and A8. Print.
