This is a modern English hero. His name is Vernon Unsworth and he was awarded the MBE medal for what he did in northern Thailand in the summer of 2018.
You may recall that back then twelve Thai boys and the assistant coach of their football team became trapped by rising waters in the Tham Luang cave system. Their lives were in danger but they had not drowned. They were trapped in an air pocket far from the entrance. It took the efforts of hundreds of people to extract them from their predicament.
Key to the rescue effort was Vernon Unsworth who lived in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand with his Thai girlfriend Woranan Ratrawiphukkun. For many years, Vernon had been a caver, exploring cave systems both in Great Britain and in South East Asia. He knew the Tham Luang system better than anybody and had spent many hours mapping the labyrinth with its complicated twists and turns, its flooded and its dry zones.
I have been into pot holes in Derbyshire myself and I have a sense of their character - little galleries you have to squeeze along on your belly or your back, twisting left or right or up and down. It's not easy and I found it all pretty claustophobic.
The boys entered the cave system on June 23rd and it wasn't until July 10th that they all got out though one former Thai Navy Seal died during the rescue operation. His name was Saman Kunan.
Someone else who got involved was Elon Musk. He offered to get the boys out with a submarine that was quickly developed for the challenge. However, what he and his team came up with was totally inappropriate. It was inflexible and had an unreliable air supply. It plainly would not work and Vernon Unsworth and other members of the British cave rescue team said so describing the submarine idea as a publicity stunt.
Musk was piqued and angry about the dismissal of his ill-considered plan. Consequently, he referred to Vern Unsworth as "that pedo guy".
Later Vernon Unsworth attempted to sue Musk for defamation but of course Musk was able to buy the services of fancy lawyers to fight the case and he won. Apparently, in spite of his court victory, Musk did apologise privately to Vernon Unsworth.
In his entire life, Vernon Unsworth had never previously been accused of paedophilia and there is no record of him ever interfering with children. Musk just made it up to dirty the man's character in a hurtful and unjustifiable manner. Maybe Musk realised that the submarine idea was crazy but he got mad about the rejection anyway.
This is the kind of bloke Musk is. He only really cares about himself and his agenda. He is megalomaniacal. I wish he could be made to spend a week or two on his own in the Tham Luang cave system without his smartphone or any other opportunity to tweet his endless spoilt schoolboy messages on "X".
from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/fNYQl6n