Cupid's arrows flying as protesters too fall in love

The more creative dissidents in the so-called Art Lane near the Chidlom rally site have come up with a campaign called “Bok Rak Prathet Thai” (“Tell Thailand I Love Her”). The usual array of artwork and crafts is on sale to raise money for the cause, but with a romantic flourish this time.
You can have Sannarong Singhaseni paint you a personalised bouquet of Linel by Le France flowers on posh paper for Bt500. That’s a “special” price, he says on Facebook – he’d rather not say what he usually charges for his art. Get there early because it’s first-come, first-served.
Another veteran artist, Sakwut Wisetmanee, will be selling his “Love” T-shirts and prints of the portrait he made of His Majesty the King.
Meanwhile Art Lane mainstay Benya Nantakwang will make sure that it will, as usual, be a fun-filled atmosphere this Friday.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Helping Farmers 101
Since the government has come up empty in its search for a quick fix to pay off the massive debt it owes the country’s rice farmers for the formerly popular price-pledging scheme, the good citizens have kindly offered suggestions for feeding the growers’ starving bank accounts. While Ms Yingluck waits for a brave bank to surface with a patriotic loan, she might take heart in these ideas.
Actress Rhatha “Yaya Ying” Pho-ngam has designed a T-shirt for “a group that wants to help the farmers” with the proceeds from sales going, fittingly enough, to a “fund to help farmers” launched by Prasith Boonchoey, president of the Thai Rice Farmers Association. The money will specifically be given to the really needy farmers – those with no money in hand for food or their kids’ schooling.
Red Sunday leader Sombat “Nuling” Boonngarmanong wants to buy large lots of rice from the government’s stockpiles under a plan called Khao Thai Chuay Thai (Thai Rice, Help Thailand). Sizeable public donations would be needed to purchase the rice, which would then be handed over to trusted groups like the Duang Pratheep Foundation for free dispersal to people in need. Nuling is well connected in NGO circles and hopes they can help arrange not-for-free distribution to other countries or the World Food Programme, maybe even for the long term.
As we mentioned here earlier, songwriter Boyd Kosiyabong is organising a concert next month called “Serm Kraduk Sanlang” (“Supporting the Backbone”), another fund-raiser for the folks whose labours traditionally form the country’s economic spine.
And PDRC leader Suthep Thaugsuban, who’s always walking around Bangkok anyway, is organising a “walking rally” that he expects to collect Bt10 million, money that will initially go to the rice growers who have joined the anti-government protests in Bangkok.