TAKE AWAYS FROM THAILAND CAVE RESCUE
On June 23, 12 young footballers aged between 11 and 16 and their 25-year-old coach ventured into the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand after completing a session of football practice and became trapped when heavy rains flooded the cave. The boys and their coach who are all members of a local association football team were reported missing a few hours later and search operations began immediately.
However, attempts to find them were hindered by rising water levels within the cave system and no contact was made with them for about 11 days. The rescue effort expanded into a massive operation amid concerted global interest. After great efforts that involved delicate manoeuvring through narrow cave passages and mucky waters, British divers discovered the missing footballers and their coach to be alive.
They were found to be on an elevated rock about 3.2 kilometres from the cave mouth. As much as finding them was exciting news, rescuing them alive was always going to be a tough task. The options available were limited. One of which was to teach the boys and their coach basic dive techniques to enable their early rescue or wait for the floodwaters to subside at the end of the monsoon season.
After days of pumping water from the cave system and a respite from rain, four of the boys were rescued on 8 July. Rescue teams hastened to get everyone out before the monsoon was predicted to resume on 11 July. By 10 July 2018, all of the boys and their coach had been rescued from the cave.
Over 1,000 people were involved in the rescue operation, including Thai Navy SEALs, volunteers and technical assistance teams from multiple countries. Such was the diversity of the rescue effort that many have termed it a United Nations coalition. The delicate nature of the operation made a rescue chief at one point dubbed it ‘Operation Mission Impossible’. Conditions were so dangerous that a retired Thai Navy SEAL, 38-year-old Saman Kunan died on July 5 while trying to lay out oxygen tanks underwater in a tunnel.
No wonder wild jubilation erupted across the world upon news of a successful rescue operation. President Donald Trump of the United States described the operation as a “beautiful moment” in human history while German Chancellor, Angela Merkel described it as a “a wonderful message” to a hurting world. British Prime Minister, Theresa May, equally expressed her delight at the “amazing” success of the rescue effort.
On their part, the SEALs, who were central to the rescue effort revealed on their Facebook page that: “We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what. But what is sure is that all the boys and their coach are now out of the cave”. Also, while congratulating the boys, their coach as well as the rescue team for the success of the operation, Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) the body that governs the running of football all over the world, offers to convey the boys and their coach to Moscow to watch the final game of the Russia 2018 World Cup.
Presently, the 12 boys and their coach, who are said to be in stable medical condition, are quarantined in a local medical facility where they are being properly observed by medics. Now that the rescue operation is over, it is pertinent to draw a few lessons from this highly intriguing episode. The first and, perhaps, most vital deduction is what can be achieved in the world when mankind is united, irrespective of language, tribal, cultural and other such differences.
Though the recue team that embarked on the deadly mission was multinational in composition, it had only one mission: to save the boys and their coach alive. To achieve this, their language and cultural barriers never really mattered. What mattered was their primary mission of rescuing the boys. Indeed, there was such a global agreement on the urgency of the rescue mission that American entrepreneur, Elon Musk, had to fly to Thailand with a mini submarine and an offer to help in any way he could. The lesson herein is that there is no global crisis that cannot be surmounted when the mankind is united to confront it.
One message that we need to take home is the need to attach value to human lives.
So much blood is being spilled in the land that it seems no longer a big deal to us as a people. The Thailand cave episode is a veritable template for us on the need to review our attitude to the sanctity of human life.