La vida no vale nada

There is a famous Mexican song that says: "La vida no vale nada".
Life is worth nothing. It starts with tears and so it ends with tears, says the song.
I think about the song now, on the first anniversary of the death of the poor 65 miners that were trapped in an accident in a mine and whose bodies have not been recovered a year later.
According to the article in the NYT, the owners of the mine have spent $30 million dollars trying to recover the bodies. But I bet that the conditions of mining in Mexico leave a lot to be desired and that miners, who are usually fucked up everywhere else, they must be more so in Mexico, where human life and toil are worth less than in other places.
The article points out that the miners' union is divided in two, that one of the leaders is accused of corruption. And so it is... The faction that supports him called for a general mining strike today to commemorate the accident. But I'd like to know, has anything changed for miners since the accident? Are there more stringent safety measures in mines all over the country, are the families of the dead being compensated fairly? I hope so. But I doubt it.

Speaking of Mexico, president Calderón just gave about a 50% pay raise to the Mexican Army because they are fighting the very lawless and terrible Mexican drug cartels, who terrorize entire towns and buy everybody off, and who have taken to dumping heads of people in nightclubs, so that mostly you Americans can get your fixes of whatever it is you get high on. It seems like a good move, but then he'd have to do the same with the Federal police and the Judicial Police and everybody who is at risk of being bought off by the drug dealers, which is everybody. I'm sure he's doing this to be a good neighbor, but as has been said about drugs, the problem lies on the demand side, more than the supply.