Ironically, despite many important things happening in our world, people have spent more time in the past few weeks talking about superstar Will Smith and his "Oscars slap heard round the world" than the Russia-Ukraine war, the pandemic or climate change.
Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you must have seen the footage or at least heard the news about Smith invading the Oscars stage and slapping Chris Rock, a comedian and the host of the Oscars after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia. Shortly after, Smith was awarded the Oscar for best actor for his portrayal of Richard Williams in King Richard and he used his speech as an opportunity to make a tearful apology to the Oscars and his fellow nominees saying: "Love will make you do crazy things." We also learned that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences later decided to ban Smith from the Oscars ceremony for 10 years.
While I'm not here to talk about celebrity gossip, I found it interesting how the incident divided people and showed everything that's good and bad in the world. An on-stage biff between two celebrities over a silly joke quickly became a hotly-contested topic as millions debated what was the right or wrong thing to do. But while the percentage of those who agreed or disagreed with Smith's actions in the US could be split 50/50, what surprised me was that the majority of people in Thailand somehow agreed and supported Smith's actions and said it was the right way to respond.
