Last week’s extraordinary rescue of 12 teenager soccer players and their coach from monsoon-flooded caves in Thailand will be one of the defining stories of this generation.
It has all the hallmarks of great literature: an ill-fated adventure into a cave before sudden floods trap the boys, a chance discovery by a cave diver, an improbable rescue scenario competed against the odds with international teams working together against the clock to save these lives. You wouldn’t make a movie that was this unbelievable – but of course Hollywood studios are already reportedly probing for one.
But, above all, it has been the courage and bravery shown, both by the young boys (who were trapped in darkness for 10 days before being found, without food or water; and then had to scuba dive out of the caves, many having never swum before) and the rescuers, one of whom died while placing spare oxygen tanks.
It really has been humanity at its finest.
The world needed a human triumph like this to remind us of how wonderful we actually are.
It hasn’t been a good year to feel good about being alive, has it? Certainly not in South Africa where new President Cyril Ramaphosa is so trapped by the ANC’s internal squabbling that he can’t actually effect real change – I’m hoping the word “yet” is still applicable here. It’s so bad that the NAC has appointed such shysters as Ace Magashule its secretary general, convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni as the head of its anti-corruption group and former North West Premier Supra Mahumapelo as the head of its political school. To say these three men are disgraced is to understate the point.
The Thai cave rescue became the biggest thing in the world, despite the World Cup in Russia. It concluded just in time for our new local hero Kevin Andersen’s own herculean efforts to make the Wimbledon final. What a performance, in both the quarter and semi-finals, that has written our new “marathon man” into the history books.
We just need to be reminded occasionally – as we were when Ramaphosa won the ANC’s internal elections – that our country, and the world, can be a better place – the kind of place Nelson Mandela envisaged. His 100th birthday yesterday was celebrated by former US President Barack Obama’s first visit back to Africa since he left office. And how have we missed his dignity and eloquence.
The cave rescue was also a reminder of how some technology is still ideally suited to certain events. Television is still the best way to follow a breaking story like this, with its scary visuals of caves.
I found myself in front of a TV on many occasions with family – or strangers at restaurants and in shopping centres – watching in wonderment. It unfolded, as news does, on Twitter, through mobile news apps, short video clips – and those all-important infographic explanations of those winding underwater tunnels that the rescue entailed.
It’s back to the grindstone this week but what an uplifting demonstration of humanity, our inherent goodness and our willingness to do good things for others that we saw last week.
This column first appeared in Financial Mail