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Video: What does Red Bull do with democracy in Thailand?
2024 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 12:26
If you decide to drink one Red Bull in Thailand, know that yours could also be seen as a subversive and undemocratic gesture. At least by the many young people who in recent weeks have been protesting in favor of democracy, freedom and equality, and who tend to dislike the most famous of the world's energy drinks. In fact, they point to those cans as part of the problem. But how is it that a drink has become the symbol of the country's social and economic inequalities?
The answer has a name and surname (and also a nickname): Vorayuth “Boss” Yoovidhya. He is the young scion of the Thai family who invented Red Bull, and his name - known to the police for years - has returned to everyone's lips in recent weeks, bringing to the fore an old scandal that has never been resolved.
The invention of Red Bull
Vorayuth, 38 (age is not entirely certain, since it is one of the points he allegedly lied about), is the grandson of Chaleo Yoovidhya, the inventor of Red Bull. Chaleo Yoovidhya was the son of a poor Chinese immigrant family who raised ducks for a living. Ambitious and brilliant, however, Chaleo wants to change his life. While working in a pharmaceutical company, he had the intuition to create an energy drink for the working class: until then, in fact, the energy drink market was aimed at an elite audience. Yet it was the workers themselves who needed an edge, Chaleo told himself, and invented Krating Daeng, what later became Red Bull. A colossus of 7 billion cans a year, with 6, 6 billion dollars in revenue. Such a success that, at the time of his death in 2012, Chaleo Yoovidhya was the second richest man in Thailand.
The accident and the scandal
A beautiful story of entrepreneurial redemption, all in all, ruined just that year by his nephew, Vorayuth "Boss" Yoovidhya. It was September 3, 2012, and a black Ferrari speeding through downtown Bangkok at 177km / h tragically hit a police motorcycle, knocking the officer driving it to the ground and dragging his body down the dark street before. to get away.
On board that sports car, needless to say, was the grandson of the inventor of Red Bull. The investigators, following a trail of petrol left by Ferrari after the accident, arrive at the gate of the luxurious home of one of the richest families in Thailand. Immediately it is understood that the culprit is Vorayuth (although another man at the time claims to have been driving the Ferrari at the time of the impact), who is taken to the police station for questioning, but is released on bail, despite having confessed.
From then on, for all subsequent years, the heir to the $ 20 billion Red Bull fortune repeatedly postponed or deserted the summons of prosecutors, citing illness or business trips abroad as justifications. The court case is blocked, and the family of the policeman killed in the accident is still awaiting justice.
The latest developments and protests
Then, in 2017, almost five years after the accident, the police issue an arrest warrant, but it turns out that the young man has now left the country.
The story caused a scandal in Thailand, sparking protests from the population who for some time believed that the country's legal system unfairly favors the rich, and there are those who have clamored for the boycott of Red Bull, a metaphor for social disparity, a symbol of the rich man who can afford to kill a policeman and get away with it.
The controversy rallied in July of this year, when the Royal Thai Police confirmed that the Attorney General's Office had decided to drop all charges against Vorayuth.
Thus, in the wake of the public protests that this news caused, a new arrest warrant against Vorayuth, and the case was reopened thanks also to the emergence of new evidence, which suggests that the young man was accelerating at the time of the accident and that blood tests revealed traces of cocaine. Vorayuth is still a fugitive, and his lawyer claims he doesn't know where he is. Certainly not in prison, and Thais don't seem willing to forgive him.
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