Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about sovereignty here in Thailand. There is kind of a lot going on here, set me kind of get into this. Initially I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Strident PM declares, 'Thailand will defend its sovereignty'. And then the opening line, I urge those who are watching this video, go check that out but I am not going to quote a lot from this. I really want to talk about this more conceptually than anything. That said, quoting directly: "Thailand is a strong and united country and will not tolerate maltreatment, accusations and threats to its sovereignty, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra declared on Monday, as the territorial dispute with Cambodia dragged on."

Well let me first of all preface this by saying, I'm a naturalized Thai. I love this country. I came here; it adopted me; it took me in. I don't want to see anything bad happen to Thailand at all. And when it comes to territorial disputes as far as I'm concerned, not one inch of Thai soil should ever be ceded to anybody and I myself would be willing to do what needs to be done if necessary, to keep that from happening, okay. So I want that to be clear from the outset. I don't know if you have noticed from some of my videos, I may be more paranoid than natives are here to the notion of foreign influence, foreign colonization and things of that nature. Back home we would call that the fervour of the converted. Basically you converted to this thing and so you are very, very passionate about it or something. 

Now I did a Twitter, I did a tweet actually on this yesterday when I first read this article, and you can follow me over on Twitter @BenjaminWHart, but over here on Twitter I posted up, "So Thailand will "not tolerate maltreatment, accusations and threats to its sovereignty" unless they come from the WEF and the OECD? Am I getting that right!" and I then tagged Paetongtarn Shinawatra's Twitter account because this is a legitimate question as far as I am concerned. And then I went ahead and put the YouTube link up to the article I did about WEF Darling Paetongtarn Shinawatra Courting Colonization of Thailand, because the World Economic Forum is a creepy, creepy organization. They are like the Comintern and neo-fascism all rolled into one. They are for public-private partnerships and yet they all want us to "own nothing and be happy" at the same. I kind of keep remembering from, if you look back here at this book Tragedy and Hope by a guy named Carroll Quigley. It is quite a tome. I urge those who are interested to read it but he talks in there basically about totalitarianism and that there is a group of people that are happy to work with anybody to just gain totalitarianism. They will work with communists, they will work with fascist dictators, they will work with anarchists if it suits their purpose. They just want totalitarianism. That is what they want. 

So circling back to what we are talking about here, first of all, I hope it's been clear in prior videos, I have wanted to be open-minded about Ms. Paetongtarn and her position and look I liked her aunt; I lived here under Yingluck, and especially after the riots and things, she was kind of a welcome reprieve, and she did bring a lot of stability at that time. Notably, her brother wasn't here. I think that is important to kind of point that out. I have wanted to be open-minded; I was happy when I saw the no confidence vote went in her favour because I felt like that was kind of turning a corner for Thailand. There really couldn't be a lot of questions about the Democratic process here and that things were kind of moving in a positive direction. But recently it is just like pushing the gambling thing where it's all going to the benefit of foreigners. I mean what is the point of that? Then meanwhile, this whole Cambodia thing - and I am not going to claim I really have a deep understanding of what's going on on the Cambodian side of this, and I am definitely concerned, I don't want to see any Thai territory ceded in any way, shape or form, that's not my point, but it seems very schizophrenic. It is like the military is up there and they are in this Joint Committee thing talking to the military on the other side, and all of the narrative, the vibe you're getting out of that is, "look we want a de-escalate; we are moving back from each other's border; we are trying to do things to de-escalate", and then sort of from the political angle - and this seems to be from both sides of the border - the politicians are like rattling sabers and doing all kinds of jingoistic things and again, I don't claim have any deep understanding of how things work on the Cambodian side. Let me be clear, I am not saying I have a super deep understanding of how things work on the Thai side, but much like the World Economic Forum, where all through the time we had the generals in charge over here - and you can say what you will about them, there's a lot to be said - but they never attended WEF meetings. I cited that from the Bangkok Post; Bangkok Post even noted that they did not do that during their time there. 

So the point I am trying to make is and then at the same time, for an entire decade during that time as well, we didn't see all of this consternation and constant sort of provocation or controversy, whatever you want to call it, conflict along the borders. Meanwhile, it looks like politicians are perhaps stoking this because they have their own concerns about their own positions. As they say, all politics is local and when politicians can find a good distraction, it's oftentimes to their benefit. I know for example Mr. Thaksin is dealing with now this inquiry into his hospital stay rather than being in prison. Again, I can't speak to every little nuance of this and I'm not saying I know the answers but again, everything associated with the border on one hand, there are folks that are saying "hey let's all calm down, we can de-escalate this", but then the politicians come out and they start ra ra and everything. I agree, Thai sovereignty needs to be protected at all costs but where is that notion of protectionism when it comes to meeting with the World Economic Forum guy that comes through, or where there are serious questions as to undermining of Thai sovereignty as it pertains to all of this OECD nonsense with regard to tax. 

So the point I am trying to make in this video is I am a little bit concerned at this point is it sovereignty that is really at issue here, or are there political considerations that may actually be at play? I don't know the answer to that, but I am going to try to kind of keep an eye on it as the days and weeks progress.