Does Ice Bucket Challenge water have to be cold?

The idea came out of the US (we’re guessing California) as a way to raise public awareness about motor neurone disease (ALS). Britney Spears, Ben Affleck, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey have all been very publicly doused. Then it spread to the football stars of Europe, and now it’s taken the Thai social media by storm. 

So far we’ve seen Tan Pasakornatee, Araya “Chompoo” A Hargate, Woody Militajinda, former transport minister Chadchart Sittipunt and Panya Nirankul shivering under bucket showers. Former premier Chuan Leekpai’s son Surabot was soaked and promptly challenged coup chief Prayuth Chan-ocha to take the dare. 

That doesn’t seem entirely likely to happen (although you can’t predict anything when it comes to Prayuth), but one other esteemed citizen has ruled himself out as a candidate for an ice bath. Kasikornbank CEO Banthoon Lamsam, widely admired as a wise man with a keen interest in the dharma, has released a formal statement lamenting that the Ice Bucket Challenge is “too western”. Instead, he suggests using holy water from nine prominent temples “to promote Thai culture and make it more auspicious”. 

Reading between the lines here, we believe Banthoon has just volunteered to take the challenge. Now we just need someone to round up the holy water.

 

High-flyer once flew low

Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld must know what he’s doing because Forbes magazine ranks him among Thailand’s richest 50 businessman. But here’s the thing, kids – he did lousy in school.

Yet another captain of industry whose schoolteachers were always less than impressed, Tassaporn tells Thai Rath Online he might be the low-cost airline’s major shareholder, but his academic record stunk. His five years at ABAC closed with a 2.01 GPA, just grazing the minimum requirement like a plane coming in on no fuel. 

“I sold computers while I was studying and otherwise played sports and went out drinking with friends!” he explains, sort of. But, as self-made men are always telling us, it’s experience outside the classroom that leads to success in real life, he says. 

Something else you probably didn’t know about Tassaporn is that he worked (also during school) on four movies directed by MC Chatrichalerm “Than Mui” Yukol – “Mue Puen” (“The Gunman”), “Khon Liang Chang” (“The Elephant Keeper”), “Salween”, and “Nong Mia” (“Song of Chaophraya”). 

“I was like a secretary to him, so I did everything. I spent my days in the editing room.” Tassaporn even did the English subtitles for “Elephant Keeper” when it was submitted for Oscar consideration. Than Mui could work for three days non-stop without sleep, he says. “To me, he’s a really great man.”

After managing to graduate, Tassaporn worked at Adams (Thailand), a confections firm, putting his marketing education to use. “It was completely different from working with Than Mui – his is creative work. At the candy company it was all about the system.” 

After five years he was off to Warner Music, and soon after that to Thai AirAsia. And no, he didn’t have one iota of experience in aviation.