A great cry arose from the entrance to the Tham Luang cave complex as the first of the young lads of the Wild Boar football team were stretchered to freedom. The world's media has descended on Chiang Rai province - the northern-most region of Thailand - to watch the drama unfold.
Every single one of those boys made it out of that cave safely, thanks to the dedication and selflessness of an international team of divers, who lost one of their own during the perilous mission to liberate the boys and their football coach before rising floodwater made rescue impossible.
The mission was meticulously planned. Nothing was left to chance. I am sure they even had someone monitoring Elon Musk's increasingly laughable attempts to propel himself into the thick of it. What started as a heart warming gesture of common humanity ended in something along the lines of "For fuck's sake Elon they've got it. They've got it, alright? You go home, have a hot chocolate, sober up - they're grand, they're grand."
In the interests of transparency I would like to asseverate that I am imagining Mr Musk ineffectually lunging at a bouncer keeping him at arm's length from a pub fight which has long since finished. Great word - asseverate. To proclaim positively and enthusiastically. Nothing whatsoever to do with severing.
In other news, England have just dramatically been defeated and a halt called to their best performance at a World Cup since Italia 1990. When I say never in all my life have I seen such a performance from an English squad, I mean it very literally. I hadn't made an appearance yet.
I perched high on my dark bell tower...erm sorry, balcony - I'll avoid the hunchback comparisons. Anyway, I perched high on my balcony in what was actually sweltering sunshine and listened to London celebrate victory over Sweden. And I mean the whole of London - the view from our place, before we get kicked out next month, is a vista from the tower at Pimlico, past the Houses of Parliament, the Eye, St Paul's Cathedral, the sweep of the Thames up to the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf, and right out again over the green expanse of Greenwich Park and out past the Thames Barrier towards Kent and Dover.
That Saturday, it wasn't just me. Everyone was high as a kite.
I had watched the previous England v Columbia in a sports bar under the Town Hall on South Bank. The atmosphere was electric and every single fan was lovely. This was worlds and hours away from the image of the typical English football fan which had loomed like a specter in my mind. Everyone jumped up and down and hugged each other and hooted and hollered. And not one bad word was exchanged between the English and Colombian contingent. 50/50 colombianos to limeys. 100% enjoyment from all sides. 'Twas glorious.
And glorious was that sunny summer Saturday - when all the cars and all the lorries on all the roads in Deptford, Greenwich and beyond beep-beep-beeped their elation. Everyone came together - it was magical.
Even the not-so-great bits redeemed themselves through the generosity of the human spirit. Many's a one I have spoken to knows all about the taxi smashed in Nottingham or the ambulance damaged in London. But do you know that a good citizen of Nottingham set up a very successful fundraising page to help with repairs? And that Millwall Supporters Club have raised thousands to help pay for the damage to the ambulance?
That's the kind of press which doesn't get the airing it should, perhaps because it doesn't have the visceral tug which gets a newspaper editor's Y-fronts tented, pasting pictures of plastered England fans jumping up and down on the emergency services' transport.
Look for the helpers...
The Wild Boars and the Three Lions got me thinking about teamwork. About my firm belief that we are all better working together as people and that the place of international agencies and bodies and trade associations and yea verily even fan clubs is growing ever more important in our world of instantaneous connectivity and shrinking borders.
I haven't seen much team work about in politics these days.
I am a very proud Remain voter. I will be the first to admit I cherish close ties to Europe. However, with a completely clear head I knew that the practicalities of the British public expecting a clean Brexit from the current pack of incumbents was pissing in the wind. Once you start, it's very hard to stop - it will provide temporary relief, but at what cost to your dignity and ah... trousers. Here the metaphor runs thin.
I always thought of Brexit this wise. Imagine, if you will a man in a crippling car accident. That was Britain after the financial crash of 2008. He wakes, kisses his significant other and expresses a desire to climb Everest. Wonderful, great goal - not everybody's first choice and you'll need to commit to a long and torturous program of training and strengthening. That'll be the saving and planning we should have already done. You'll give up on your social life, you'll rearrange you priorities. That'll be distancing yourself from your closest allies as you focus on Britain. You'll focus on yourself and not your cousin's wedding nor uncle's marathon nor friend's new baby. You'll talk about it non-stop, you'll understand there will be painful trade offs but it will ultimately be worth it.
Super, we say. Great stuff, not what we would recommend for you but it's a (democratic) choice so let's get to it.
I'm going now, you say.
"Say what?"
"Right now, get this cannula out my hand."
"Are you? You can't go now, we're waiting for X rays back."
"No I'm going right now."
"Alright, alright, calm down. Let's see what doctor says and I promise if it's what you really want then the minute you're discharged we'll set up a savings account. Maybe even a Just Giving... eh, here stop plucking out those wires!!"
Another imperfect metaphor, my point being that even though your long suffering partner (48%) may not like it we're all old enough and committed enough to democracy as a populace to compromise for the sake of our marriage. But for Heaven's sake before you take such a drastic step, have a goddamn plan and understand the consequences!
Team work isn't just a buzzword. It's necessary to our existence as a human race. It's the loveliest of us and the most practical of us and it is our ability to work together that creates a better world for everyone. If I could, I'd stop Brexit immediately in its tracks before we all suffer. But I am not so arrogant to assume the other side doesn't have a point. Nor to exonerate the EU completely from its responsibility to pull itself together on borders.
So to combat this, I wanted to give you some examples of really good teamwork you may have missed. Apart from the marvelous cave rescue and the inspiration to a nation of another football team.To prove we can all work together cross borders and cross nations. To quote Jo Cox, who echoed the wisdom of ages, far more unites us than divides us.
- Senegal & Japanese foot ball fans clean up stadiums after respective World Cup matches
- Huntington, Virginia's compassionate response to drug overdose
- Conservationists team up with large tech companies to protect elephants from poachers in Kenya
- European Bank for Restructuring & Development backs Tbilisi, Georgia's green bus scheme
- International researchers break through research into prostrate cancer and polycystic fibrosis
It is of the utmost importance to work together. To find compromise and congruence. To listen to each other and speak to each other kindly, calmly and with compassion and understanding.
We must do this, not because it is kind or gentle or easy. But because it is right and just and hard. In the end, the best things in life are.
A Devlin View
I am a very proud Remain voter. I will be the first to admit I cherish close ties to Europe. However, with a completely clear head I knew that the practicalities of the British public expecting a clean Brexit from the current pack of incumbents was pissing in the wind. Once you start, it's very hard to stop - it will provide temporary relief, but at what cost to your dignity and ah... trousers. Here the metaphor runs thin.
I always thought of Brexit this wise. Imagine, if you will a man in a crippling car accident. That was Britain after the financial crash of 2008. He wakes, kisses his significant other and expresses a desire to climb Everest. Wonderful, great goal - not everybody's first choice and you'll need to commit to a long and torturous program of training and strengthening. That'll be the saving and planning we should have already done. You'll give up on your social life, you'll rearrange you priorities. That'll be distancing yourself from your closest allies as you focus on Britain. You'll focus on yourself and not your cousin's wedding nor uncle's marathon nor friend's new baby. You'll talk about it non-stop, you'll understand there will be painful trade offs but it will ultimately be worth it.
Super, we say. Great stuff, not what we would recommend for you but it's a (democratic) choice so let's get to it.
I'm going now, you say.
"Say what?"
"Right now, get this cannula out my hand."
"Are you? You can't go now, we're waiting for X rays back."
"No I'm going right now."
"Alright, alright, calm down. Let's see what doctor says and I promise if it's what you really want then the minute you're discharged we'll set up a savings account. Maybe even a Just Giving... eh, here stop plucking out those wires!!"
Another imperfect metaphor, my point being that even though your long suffering partner (48%) may not like it we're all old enough and committed enough to democracy as a populace to compromise for the sake of our marriage. But for Heaven's sake before you take such a drastic step, have a goddamn plan and understand the consequences!
Team work isn't just a buzzword. It's necessary to our existence as a human race. It's the loveliest of us and the most practical of us and it is our ability to work together that creates a better world for everyone. If I could, I'd stop Brexit immediately in its tracks before we all suffer. But I am not so arrogant to assume the other side doesn't have a point. Nor to exonerate the EU completely from its responsibility to pull itself together on borders.
So to combat this, I wanted to give you some examples of really good teamwork you may have missed. Apart from the marvelous cave rescue and the inspiration to a nation of another football team.To prove we can all work together cross borders and cross nations. To quote Jo Cox, who echoed the wisdom of ages, far more unites us than divides us.
- Senegal & Japanese foot ball fans clean up stadiums after respective World Cup matches
- Huntington, Virginia's compassionate response to drug overdose
- Conservationists team up with large tech companies to protect elephants from poachers in Kenya
- European Bank for Restructuring & Development backs Tbilisi, Georgia's green bus scheme
- International researchers break through research into prostrate cancer and polycystic fibrosis
It is of the utmost importance to work together. To find compromise and congruence. To listen to each other and speak to each other kindly, calmly and with compassion and understanding.
We must do this, not because it is kind or gentle or easy. But because it is right and just and hard. In the end, the best things in life are.
A Devlin View
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