A true hero
The world has been watching with bated breath for the rescue of a Thai football team of kids trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave; the reason I have been refreshing Twitter all weekend. Now, the first group of boys has been expertly pulled to safety. Support for the rescue (let’s call it slacktivism) poured in from various corners of the web predictably. As Harsh Goenka tweeted, “The first time the entire world is cheering for the same football team. The resilience of the young boys, the bravery of the divers, the prayers from all corners — this mission reignites my faith in humanity.” Agreed.
But one thread on Twitter from user @yvonelim9 went particularly viral about the backstory of the 25-year-old assistant coach, Ekapol Chanthawong. The thread, having been shared and liked over 13,000 times, speaks of the orphaned boy who grew up wanting to be a monk and then proceeded to use football as a means for children to excel academically. For those raising an eyebrow at the legitimacy, the thread was taken from The Straits Times piece, in which the coach was described as the life-force for the team during this unimaginably tough time.
People like Chanthawong remind us to keep the good people around, especially when life and the Internet are teeming with some seriously questionable personalities.
Speaking of heroes
Plant for the Planet is a global project worth getting your gardening hands dirty with. The organisation was started in 2007 by 9-year-old Felix Finkbeiner — who was inspired by Wangari Maathai, who planted 30 million trees in Africa in 30 years. He hopes for the world to have planted a trillion trees to save what we have left of our ecosystems.
And so far, Finkbeiner has observed 15,21,46,92,757 trees planted. I bring this up now because our world isn’t exactly thriving and young minds like those of Finkbeiner help secure a part of our future.
