What I read
In the BBC News article “ 'Come home': Thailand clings to hope for boys trapped in cave”, Thai teen football team and their coach were reported have been stuck in Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chang Rai, Thailand, leading to concern and worry among not only families of the missing people but also Thai publice as a whole. As many people use their social media to express their sympathy and cheer up the rescue team who are continuously searching for the unfortunate people in the flooded cave with hashtags such as “the strangers we want to meet the most”, “13 lives must survive”. Moreover, several Thais posted artworks online in order to support search and rescure effort.
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My response
As we can see from the news that this incident frustrated many Thai people and they pray for those ill-fated children to come back home safely. However, there are some people who blame that it is the boys’ mistake putting themselves in danger because there is a sign at the entrance of the cave which prohibits travelers from entering that flooded cave unless they are allowed. Besides, one singer also posted on Facebook that “many people have to be at risk to help rescue [the boys] and many of them have sent their supports, food, amenities to them, leading to chaos in Thailand nationally. Although this incident shows love among Thai people, after I thinked about it twice, I think that we are helping 13 people who enter that cave for whatever foolish reasons that we don’t even know”.
To make the matter worse, some people attempt to make this matter relevant to spiritual belief. To illustrate, some who claim themselves to be mediums, a person who can communicate with the dead, claimed that the thirteen football players are dead and their spirits are still struggling in the dark flooded cave. Furthermore, some make a rumor that the children have been trapped in the cave because they did something that offended the spirit in that cave so this is a punishment from that spirit. In addition, some are trying to foretell the days the boys will get out of the cave to be famous during the difficulty of another.
These are the other sides of the matter which mostly happens in Thailand when something draws a lot of attentions from majority of people which I think they are a good mirror reflecting the logical fallacy of a number of Thai people, especially those who are undereducated. First of all, the person who condemned the children who entered the cave should consider that such compliant cannot help anything get better but raise the controversial issue to the society. The thing we can do today is to encourage rescue team to do their best. Moreover, the person, who want to gain fame by exploit another’s misfortune as an opportunity to grasp attentions from people who look forward to seeing the return of the lost boys, should be more compassionate to the family of the lost or at least stop causing nuisance while the society is already in turbulence.
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My question
Do you agree with the idea blaming that it is the trapped boys’ mistake to enter the flooded cave and they should not be given such help?
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Thank you Minnie for a very thoughtful response for us to think about after reading your strong summary of the article. As I was reading your response and question, I had several thoughts, but I'll let your classmates respond first.
ReplyDeleteThank you for starting us off with such a great blog post, although the topic certainly very sad. I hope that the unlucky boys are rescued.
In my opinion, I think that one part of a whole mistake is the trapped boys' part for getting into the cave. However there are many other parts of this mistake, for an example, there should be a proper and official warning or preventive measure for not entering the cave, not just a sign. Also, the trapped boys' fault is not that severe that we should let them die torturingly. Moreover, most of them are youth, some of them are just primary school boys. However, after they can come out of the cave, we should teach them sincerely. Everyone should learn from mistake and try not to let the same mistake happen again.
ReplyDeleteI think debating whether or not we should help the victims is rather off the point regarding the situation. Once we know that there are victims trapped inside the cave, we have no choice but to help them out of the cave. It doesn’t matter what they did before being trapped. Let me give you an example. Suppose there is a serial killer who get shot by police while capturing him. Luckily, they manage to get him to an emergency room. While waiting for an operation, someone in social media raise issue that we should not treat him because he is a murderer and deserve to die like this. How many doctors are going to buy the idea? I am quite sure there are none. Once he becomes a patient, doctors have no choice but to do their best to save his life. No matter who he is or what he did before. The same goes for the trapped boys case. Once they are victims, the rescue teams have no choice but to do their best to rescue them. It doesn’t matter whose fault that is. As far as I know, the rescue teams know what they have to do and have done really good job there.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with the idea of blaming trapped boys and coach for making mistake because they risked their lives to the situation that harm might result. However, those victims should be rescued because they deserve the right to life as they are human-being and the government is responsible for search and rescue services. Importantly, the safety of rescue team must come first, no one should sacrifice life to this incidence.
ReplyDeleteWhether they should be blamed or not for being reckless and causing a lot of trouble, I was extremely glad to wake up a couple of days ago to the news that they had been found alive and well.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, they can now be taken safely from the cave, although this is also going to prove very challenging. I think I would have been terrified sitting in the dark for so long, with nothing to do except worry about whether I would get out alive. Perhaps being part of a group would help, but it's certainly not an experience I ever want to have.