Give those farmers something to eat (other than rice)

It’s “mission accomplished” for the fund-raising concert “Bare Ber” that musician Jirayut “Joe” Wattanasin and Saharat “Kong” Sankapreecha, his old chum from Nuvo, put on last Saturday, Joe announced triumphantly when he visited our newsroom yesterday. They pulled in Bt4.34 million for Thailand’s beleaguered rice farmers.
Petch Osatanukrah and the band Kampany joined the ex-Nuvo stars onstage, Joe said. “It was more practical to get the older artists because the young ones have difficulties with their label contracts.”
Not to worry: He and Kong have bags of cash to give away, which is what Joe wanted to clarify on his tour of the news outlets. Obviously they want to avoid any political entanglements, so the money is being divided up equitably into three parts.
The first segment will go to the families of the 11 farmers whose recent deaths stemmed from worries over the government’s rice price-pledging debacle. Each family will receive Bt200,000. Another share goes to people wounded in the political violence and the families of those killed, including police officers. They’ll each get Bt100,000. And the rest will help stock the kitchens that feed the farmers who are besieging the Commerce Ministry.
Helping the victims of violence was an addition to Joe’s announced plans, but not an afterthought. He said that’s what actually sparked his idea of holding charity concert in the first place. “I was saddened by what happened at Wat Sri Iam, where a man got shot. I saw his little daughter on the news and it was just so sad. I want to help.”
Joe claims he’s no good at verbally expressing his opinions or griping. “My strength is playing music, so I play music that can represent my love and caring.” As for the farmers, Joe was miffed to see them massing in Bangkok, but learned from the news that their daily meals were just rice with chilli and fish sauce. He figures they should be eating better than that.
He joked that the outdoor concert was too hot for his liking – the sun was blasting down. But his fervent hope that there will be no more violence was foremost in his mind. He’d rather not have to do any more charity gigs. “As a matter of fact, I already performed all the songs I have!”

Bad for business

On the other hand, singer Pongsak “Aof” Rattanapong was all set to perform in Chiang Mai and politics stepped in the way. His gig at the restaurant Pak Pong had to be called off after red shirts threatened the restaurant’s owners that Aof’s show could be bad for business and their clients’ safety couldn’t be guaranteed.
Aof hasn’t been a cheerleader for the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Council, but he has attended one of its rallies, and that’s plenty enough for the red shirts.
Aof has kept cool, posting on Instagram, “Yim su [Keep smiling].” Tell that to the restaurant owners, who still had to pay him Bt200,000 as a fine for contractual default. But it’s not like the Chiang Mai reds aren’t dispensing fair warning – they’ve told all the pub and restaurant owners to refrain from hiring any musicians who’ve entertained the protesters.
Someone joked online that Chiang Mai music lovers won’t have a lot of choice in performers, other than the regulars like Sek Loso, Visa Kantab and Tom Dundee. It’s not that funny, though.