Who would have thought that a major world lesson would come from deep inside the almost 10km long Tham Luang cave in the Doi Nang mountain range of Thailand? Nobody saw it coming, and yet last night we all sat entranced by the hashtag #ThaiCaveRescue, feverishly refreshing our news feeds, as we waited and hoped for the news that all twelve members of the Wild Boars football team (aged eleven to sixteen) and their twenty-five year old coach would be rescued.
I have boys of similar age who also play football. It wasn’t a hard stretch to imagine myself in the shoes of those worried and anxious parents, having to put their trust in total strangers to bring their boys home. Yet I don’t think you had to be a mother or even a lover of football to be invested in this story. As time went on, it clearly became a story about humanity.
Expert divers, the best of the best, from around the world, joined Thai Navy Seal divers on a completely voluntary basis to help free the team. By all accounts the cave posed enormous threats with winding passages, flooded chambers and zero visibility. Experienced former Navy Seal Saman Gunan, sadly lost his life taking oxygen into the cave before the first rescue attempt began.
In addition, volunteers from around the country, travelled to the cave site to provide food and encouragement to the divers. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, even imagined and had built what was dubbed a “child submarine” to extract the boys. While some doubted Musk’s motives, it demonstrated what was possible when a group of people are determined to work together and make something happen.
Even the media packs from around the world played according to the rules, maintaining a safe distance, not pestering waiting families and relying on sources close to the operation to convey news back to all of us. As it turned out, we didn’t need voyeuristic photos or video of distressed parents – we were all just happy to be kept informed as we waited.
The world was in need of this win. Inundated with bad news daily, it can be easy to feel a sense of hopelessness. A sense that there is so much evil and self-centredness in the world, good can never prevail.
But here we had people from different cultures and languages, different religions and lifestyles, different socio-economic backgrounds and beliefs, all working together for a common goal. People weren’t asking to be paid for this dangerous work – they came to just help. Everyone wanted to bring those kids out alive.
It quickly became clear that this was no easy feat. Expecting children as young as eleven to cave dive at all, let alone in such treacherous conditions, was asking the impossible. The world held its breath. Yet with each boy who emerged, hope grew.
And our hope was rewarded with success – the whole team out alive. Certain world leaders could learn a valuable lesson from this story. Using fear to control their constituents and propagating a narrative of “us versus them”, they keep shouting that we need to insulate ourselves, worry about ourselves first, look after our own even if it means ignoring the plight of others in need.
How wrong they are. The Thai Cave Rescue showed quite the opposite. With cooperation, understanding and shared ideas, the impossible can be a reality. Just imagine what feats could be achieved around the globe if we applied these same qualities to other problems.
A little humanity goes a long way. This group of young footballers, their coach and their rescuers have taught us lessons about bravery, resilience, team work – and most of all hope. Let us never forget them. Let’s use that spark of hope lit in that dark cave and spread it around the world.
