That guy again

During and after Saturday’s final, seen live on TV, the social media were going nuts. 

The semi-final against China the day before earned Channel 7 more than 7.5 million viewers. That leapt to 17 million for the final. So there were a lot of people on the social networks thanking Channel 7 for the free coverage, as well as ThaiBev for sponsoring the broadcast and supporting our athletes. 

Channel 3 talk-show host Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda stole a little of 7’s thunder by personally attending the final match in Nakhon Ratchasima and posing with the team. He even joined them on the long walk from the stadium to their hotel, as the girls had promised local heroine Suranaree – on a visit to her monument – they would do if they won the championship. 

Somehow, though, Channel 7’s coverage missed out on the various Sorrayuth-related events. 

 

Rihanna has mixed views of Phuket wildlife

Pop singer Rihanna inadvertently became a whistleblower on a brief holiday visit to Phuket last week after posting photos on Instagram showing her cuddling an endangered slow loris. The adorable little squirrel-like guys have huge eyes, so you’d cuddle one too, but the problem is that the law protects them from cuddling. 

“Look who was talkin’ dirty to me!” Rihanna innocently quipped, but the Phuket police didn’t see the humour in it, busting two men on Sunday for using the loris as a magnet for tourists along Patong Beach. Two lorises were confiscated as part of what the authorities call a years-long effort to crack down on vendors exploiting wildlife. 

Meanwhile Rihanna’s Instagram photos drew a quick quarter-million “likes”, so wildlife-protection groups have their work cut out back-spinning the message, along the lines of “Yes, they’re adorable, so help us save them!” One of the singer’s fans got the idea, commenting that the specific loris in danger of being crushed to death by Rihanna have “hopefully been taken into good care, and fortunately this situation can provide more awareness on the exploitation of exotic animals. It’s a pretty sick business.” To such noble sentiments, fans better acquainted with Thailand warned that the “crackdown” would crack up in a few days.

Rihanna observed more wildlife on Phuket, tweeting a series of reports after viewing “bizarre” sex shows, and even using an “Only in Thailand” hashtag. (Children should stop reading here and move swiftly on to the comics page.) “Either I was phuck wasted last night,” the polite young lady wrote, “or I saw a Thai woman pull a live bird, 2 turtles, razors, shoot darts and ping pong, all out of her pu$$y.” 

Local blogger and chronic author of letters-to-the-editor Richard Barrow let sarcasm chime: “Of course, there are no sex shows in Thailand and animals are not exploited for the tourists. So I am sure everyone will just blame Rihanna.” Well, Lady Gaga did provoke Thai ire by tweeting about shopping for a fake Rolex watch while here. With Rihanna’s expose, Kathu district chief Veera Kerdirimongkol pointed out that sex shows are against the law. He’s not fibbing, of course, just lax in enforcing the law. Evidently we need foreign celebrities to point out such embarrassing things and cause a stir, however. Hopefully Justin Bieber will notice something dreadful while he’s here for his show on Thursday and mouth off about it.