Singer-actor Pakin hit by tide of criticism for planned Mekong charity swim event
Singer-actor Pakin “Tono” Kamwilaisak came under rapid fire from netizens due to his controversial “One Man & The River” charity project.
The hashtag #Tono became a trending topic on Twitter with more than 100,000 tweets as of Thursday afternoon.
Pakin plans a grand swim across the Mekong River from Thailand’s Nakhon Phanom province to Laos’ Khammouane province and then back again – a total distance of 15 kilometres.
The swim, scheduled for October 22, is aimed at raising funds to buy medical equipment for two provincial hospitals on both sides of the river.
On Thursday, however, netizens took to social media to voice their concerns that Pakin’s project is reckless, especially during a season of heavy rains and rising tides in the Mekong. “Swimming across the river would be dangerous to himself and local officials, who have to supervise the event,” one netizen commented. “There are many better ways to raise funds for hospitals that do not involve this kind of risk.”
He will only end up increasing the workload for the doctors and nurses, another netizen said.
Others, meanwhile, questioned the Public Health Ministry as to how a Nakhon Phanom hospital had become so underfunded that it needed to raise funds through a celebrity event, while yet others urged an inspection of the budget distribution.
In an interview, Pakin said he visited the hospital earlier and was told by the doctors there that it lacked the necessary equipment to treat an overwhelming number of patients.
He added that if the weather or river conditions became too risky, he would call off the ambitious swim.
