The ‘Lucky 13’ great debate
There has been a lot of debate in the social media about the merits of rescue efforts to extract the Wild Boars football team and its coach, or the “Lucky 13”, as we might call them.
There is also much debate about the behaviour and apparent lack of discipline of the Lucky 13 – whether all this mess is of their own doing, in which case they should be condemned instead of being hailed as heroes.
Although all of the facts remain to be established, let’s look at the ones we know so far. With the exception of their coach, the Wild Boars are all teenagers or thereabouts (aged between 11 and 16), who are naturally a curious bunch. They were celebrating the birthday of one of their members and, presumably, wanted to do something special.
Unfortunately, they stumbled into a treacherous cave that won’t be off-limits until the rainy season. In that regard, they apparently didn’t do anything wrong. They shouldn’t be held responsible for the unpredictability of nature, which forced them deeper and deeper into the cave complex to escape from the rising water.
The saddest thing to say about the negative comments heaped on these poor kids is that they ignore a healthy society’s role in encouraging its young to explore the world around them – to allow them to be curious and have a frontier mind that seeks new discoveries, instead of staying in their comfort zones.
The debate should shed light on how well we will prepare a new generation of kids for the challenging Thailand 4.0 initiatives.
Anan Pakvasa
Bangkok
