As one put it, echoing so many voices. It was an international celebration of humanity. Not far off the point was the comment of one panelist of CNN that if only world leaders cooperated in the same way the international diver volunteers who converged in northern Thailand did, then this world would be a lot better place to live in. Sadly, the ego or pride of people gets in the way, and consequently, the vested interests. And so we have all sorts of conflicts everywhere.
At least, the Thailand cave rescue affair showed us how cooperation can achieve an almost impossible task. It was nothing less than a miracle, everybody got out safe after surviving about two weeks of being trapped in that cold, dark, almost hopeless situation—and then their having had to go through more than four kilometers of narrow and winding underwater tunnel, where the visibility was almost zero.
Every expert interviewed by CNN around the world said the mission was very dangerous. Some of the boys did not even know how to swim. Then there was the possibility of some of the boys panicking while underwater in the narrow tunnel. No one could have predicted how they would have reacted in such a scary situation. The death of one of the Thai Navy Seals underscored all the possible dangers. His death due to some accident as to his oxygen supply system while on a supply missionwe did not go in vain. This made everybody involved to be more careful and called for more safety measures to be implemented.
Thus, the Australian expert on cave rescue and perhaps other medical experts mildly sedated the boys to greatly reduce the possibility of panicking while in that strange journey underwater. And two diving experts escorted each boy. One was in front guiding the boy while the other was at the back carrying his oxygen supply tank.
The area was swarming with volunteers. The chefs of Thailand were cooking for everyone and there was even a Filipino teacher there who volunteered as rock climber to try and search for possible other escape routes on the upper portions of the mountain.
When everybody was out, everybody was so happy. One American expert on cave rescue interviewed by CNN could not stop his tears of joy. Others were speechless.
Indeed, amazing, amazing. If we could only implement such degree of international cooperation in other aspects of life in our global village.**