The recent harrowing rescue of 12 young boys and their soccer coach from a partially flooded Thailand cave network demonstrated beyond doubt that seemingly insurmountable odds can be overcome when the international community is committed to cooperation.
In case perhaps you also were trapped under a rock in a cave somewhere and had not seen the headlines, the group became perilously trapped in an air pocket after going in to explore the tunnels in the Tham Luang caverns ahead of sudden rainfalls that flooded portions of the complex, effectively cutting off their exit and leaving them stranded with a dwindling oxygen supply.
They were discovered by a British diver nine days later, launching a desperate rescue operation and race against time as officials feared further rains threatened to fully flood the chamber they found refuge in.
The world nervously watched the unfolding situation, and tensions as well as fears grew substantially when a professional retired Thai navy SEAL diver — Saman Kunan — perished after drowning while returning from delivering oxygen to the trapped group.
After all, if a professional career diver did not survive, what hope did some woefully inexperienced, hungry and weakened teenagers who might in such conditions be prone to panic have?
But the tragic death did not deter the remaining rescuers and volunteers, who seemed more determined than ever to succeed, no doubt driven to honour Kunan’s memory by ensuring their colleague’s sacrifice was not in vain.
And succeed they did — the group has since been brought to safety, much to the elated relief of their families and friends as well as even millions of random people around the world who were captivated by the daring, nail-biting rescue.
Throughout the dramatic ordeal, hundreds of experts flew in from around the world to offer their expertise. There were 90 divers — only 40 of whom were from Thailand while the remaining 50 hailed from many other nations.
If not for this collaborative undertaking, the outcome might well have been disastrous.
No country in a global community can succeed or prosper as an island on its own.
Time and again, history has shown us how much greater our potential is when people work alongside one another towards a common goal.
The recent rescue in Thailand is no exception, and will hopefully remind a world suffering from a resurgence of isolationist and protectionist policy that we are all indeed in this together.
In the passionate words of the late U.S. astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, who captured during the Apollo missions an iconic image of earth from the lunar surface, “From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a (expletive).’”
