Proof that People care More about Tiger Woods

[NickD 202]

OP just had to compare Woods with climate change, guess it's a fair comparison, both subjects have a very strong element of BS associated with it. This weeks issue of People's was fairly interesting, super hot 40-50 year old women. But like me, they left out my wife.

[thongd4me 69]

Woods Goes to Thailand - not such a warm "homecoming"

Woods reportedly received an appearance fee of $1 million to compete in Bangkok while unwittingly taking on the role of political kingmaker.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecom billionaire and prohibitive frontrunner to become Prime Minister in January's election, is reported to have

footed the bill for Woods in return for a couple of photo-ops. As a council member of Kasetsart University,

Thaksin was also pivotal in awarding Woods an honorary doctorate of philosophy in sport. Woods' handlers informed the university

that he was on a tight schedule, however, and that the ceremony could only be 15 minutes long and held at his downtown hotel instead of at the university.

"It took him 15 minutes to get something that took me four years," one student complained in a local paper. After the ceremony,

a clearly flustered Dr. Woods was greeted in his hotel lobby by a noisy group of 100 fired employees of sportswear giant Nike

(which has a $100 million endorsement deal with Tiger), protesting the layoff of 1,016 workers in September.

"Woods should be able to understand why that company can give him so much money," says Lek Junya Yumprasert,

a Thai labor committee official. "It would take workers here 72,000 years to make that kind of money."

Woods was swallowed by a phalanx of security men and quickly exited without comment.

[thongd4me 69]

Woods Goes to Thailand - not such a warm "homecoming"

Woods reportedly received an appearance fee of $1 million to compete in Bangkok while unwittingly taking on the role of political kingmaker.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the telecom billionaire and prohibitive frontrunner to become Prime Minister in January's election, is reported to have

footed the bill for Woods in return for a couple of photo-ops. As a council member of Kasetsart University,

Thaksin was also pivotal in awarding Woods an honorary doctorate of philosophy in sport. Woods' handlers informed the university

that he was on a tight schedule, however, and that the ceremony could only be 15 minutes long and held at his downtown hotel instead of at the university.

"It took him 15 minutes to get something that took me four years," one student complained in a local paper. After the ceremony,

a clearly flustered Dr. Woods was greeted in his hotel lobby by a noisy group of 100 fired employees of sportswear giant Nike

(which has a $100 million endorsement deal with Tiger), protesting the layoff of 1,016 workers in September.

"Woods should be able to understand why that company can give him so much money," says Lek Junya Yumprasert,

a Thai labor committee official. "It would take workers here 72,000 years to make that kind of money."

Woods was swallowed by a phalanx of security men and quickly exited without comment.

I've been reading "The King Never Smiles" by Paul M. Handley (banned in Thailand, Yale University Press)

It occurred to me that the people see Woods as a proxy for the King, who is also a zillionaire but is better known for his largesses.

One of the hazards of being a public figure is that people expect you to solve all their problems, even if your role is not political

and you are not a social welfare agency. Technically he's a private citizen but because of his public activities has become more of a public one.

I think it's more in Tiger's personality to give his donations quietly (I'm sure he does that) but people EXPECT him to be like the King

and come in on a magic carpet and solve all their problems.