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Lifestyle > Family

An olympic sized effort that fell on deaf ears

Our athletes are now in London and while the masses pray for medals, the story of another group of talented Thais who travelled abroad recently to compete armed with big ambitions _ and a few oboes _ remains unsung

Published: 29 Jul 2012 at 00.00
Newspaper section: Brunch

The government has announced it will pay one million baht to any Thai who brings home gold. Well, then, this week my column is not a column per se. It is an invoice. Bear with me and I will explain.

I happened to be at Suvarnabhumi airport as 37 Thai athletes left for London last week.

My, what a commotion.

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mrsdonesh
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Discussion 4 : 30 Jul 2012 at 16.134
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Well said Andrew. They should all now be written into a soap as a promo for the orchestra. But as you say, won't happen it does not fit the image. Brilliant achievement.
the following are the links plus a video if any one is interested.
http://www.sclfestival.org/index.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqT80ljZKrM
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cjc
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Discussion 3 : 30 Jul 2012 at 10.433
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Thank you very much for writing this story. With all the bad publicity that Thailand has recently received, you would think that the government would jump at the chance to advertise such a prestigious award; usually the high-ups seize any photo opportunity with a Thai winner of any event!

Andrew, you are heavily involved in the Thai media I believe - would it not be possible for you to browbeat or bully some TV channel to put these youngsters on to a programme? I am surprised that Sorayut Suthasanajinda didn't use this story!

Again, thanks for an uplifting story.
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commonman
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Discussion 2 : 30 Jul 2012 at 08.332
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Perhaps the infamous Thai cultural minister did not see fit to recognize their achievement because they played Western classical music. Come to think of it, I don't see much support from the minister for Thai classical music either. He seems fixated on what culture should not be rather than what is good.
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ttoronto
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Discussion 1 : 29 Jul 2012 at 18.511
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Thanks khun Andrew for the announcement. Congratulations to the SIAM SINFONIETTA ORCHESTRA led by Somtow Sucharitkul on winning GOLD at the prestigious Summa Cum Laude Festival in July 2012. Kudos to Singha Corporation for their show of encouragement and support. Well done everyone!
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