Bumper crop of ideas for Boyd's concert-pledging scheme

Though outside the country at the moment, Boyd announced on Facebook on Thursday that the show next month will be called “Serm Kraduk Sanlang” (“Supporting the Backbone”). The performers will waive their usual fees so that all of the proceeds can go to the farmers who the government was supposed to pay for their rice but, you know, can’t. 

“We still have to discuss how we’re going to distribute the money directly to the farmers in a just and transparent manner,” Boyd says. “We don’t want to get involved with politics. We’re open for suggestions.”

The announcement was well shared and drew nearly 500 encouraging comments and various ideas. Vuthipong Chowvhuvech suggested buying the farmers whatever they require – seeds, tractors, etc. Chanont Kosoltanapiwat said a portion of the funds should be used to seed a bank cooperative that could bail out farmers in need. 

A lot of people gave Boyd the contact information for farm groups and, perhaps even better, concert suppliers and technicians offered to help, among them firms called Ask Stage and Charlie Lighting. In fact there were dozens of offers of help – folks willing to do anything at all. And T-shirt designer Kikatoot Korn had already come up with a graphic for the souvenir shirts!

 

Tough guy a softie

Caretaker Transportation Minister Chadchart Sittipunt, newly revered on the social media as a “net idol” and “the world’s toughest transport minister”, is getting a kick out of the unsolicited attention. He seems to enjoy being able to make people loosen up in these trying times.

Nation TV’s Noppatjak Attanon interviewed him on “Nation Midnight” on Thursday and learned that Chadchart’s friends had been keeping him apprised of the latest online craze, in which people post photos of themselves dressed and posed exactly like he appears in an amusingly casual recent picture. 

He said he was particularly taken with the plastic action-figure that someone made of him in black shorts and a black tank top, even carrying a plastic bag. “What are people going to do with it? And how can I get one? I want one so my boy can play with it!”

Chadchart admitted he was worried about his image at first. “Nothing is worse than bare feet and shorts!” he laughed. “But, well, it is me and there’s nothing wrong about it.” 

Noppatjak asked the net idol if he had an idol of his own. Yes, he said – his parents. His dad is dead but his mother and brother allegedly opposed him joining Yingluck Shinawatra’s Cabinet. No, he said, they were more fearful about him entering politics in the first place. “But I talked my mother into understanding my decision.” 

His mum has become his most important mentor, he said. “She’s always the first one to call about an issue and sometimes she points out that what I’ve said isn’t good.” As for his twin brother Wanchai “Tour” Sittipunt participating in the anti-Amnesty Bill protest, “that’s normal and we respect each other. We’re identical twins but we needn’t think the same on everything. I just wish society was more like that, embracing different ideas.”