Andrew MacGregor Marshall
4h ·
Some people are mocking Oranong Suwannasri, a woman born in 1992 in the middle of nowhere in Roi Et province, who has become the latest favourite concubine of King Vajiralongkorn, as if it is a source of shame to be somebody who came from nowhere in rural Thailand and has now achieved success.
Her origins were far lowlier than even the current queen, Suthida Tidjai, whose Chinese parents in Hat Yai managed to muster enough money to send her to a useless university in Bangkok and launch her on a career as a flight attendant.
This was a dream way beyond the aspirations of Oranong’s parents, but they worked hard enough to send her to university in northern Thailand, for a while, and then she became a concubine.
We are all now seeing photographs of Oranong when she was a kid, and some people are sneering about the images, but what I see are pictures of a girl who grew up in nowhereville with nothing, but still did what she could to make the best of her life.
It’s not her fault...(beep).