Transcript of the above video:

I have made a number of opinion videos recently, especially coming off the recent break. It was very nice to see Thailand in the latter part of December somewhat looking like her old self; seeing people going out, having a good time, going to restaurants, generally being festive, the ability to have a beer out and about. That was certainly I think rather fun and if not a novelty for the expats that have been over here since April. I don't mean to laugh but it is almost a sort of cynical "gallows humour" watching this. 

The reason for the video, it is been very hard for me to watch especially as a Thai and as a person that really loves Thailand and someone who has been here for 15 years, to watch the way that this is just evolving and the question I had and I was actually talking to another friend sort of "tip of the hat to you sir" who said, he likened it he said the way that the policy sector, the policy makers are trying to deal with this, he likened it to well "bleeding". By "bleeding" specifically I mean the act of back in the middle ages, doctors would actually "bleed" people in an effort to cure them. There was actually some scientific fact behind that apparently and I am definitely not a doctor but apparently there are conditions, "heart conditions" I believe where you actually do want people to have less blood in their system so you "bleed' them in order to put less pressure on their heart, less activity on their heart. I don't exactly know how all that works but I do know there was some fact behind the practice of “bleeding” but it was used to the point that it killed a lot of people that it didn't have to kill. That is kind of the cliché if you will, the trope associated with the notion of doctors “bleeding” people in the middle ages. He kind of brought this up and said, "At what point is the Thai business sector, the Thai economy going to stop the bloodletting? At what point is the "cure" worse than the disease?" It is a good question.

I am hoping and I do believe, I want to be clear, I can be critical in the way I view the way things may move as far as current events in Thailand, but I do believe that the folks who do try to assess the situation and make policy here in Thailand, I do believe they are operating in good faith. I don't have any doubt about that quite frankly. I just think that sometimes fear; I think sometimes bad data; I think sometimes what can become the "conventional wisdom" can prevail when it is not the right thing to do under the circumstances, all the time. In those circumstances, sometimes it is necessary for people to really take a step back, look at things for how they are and make a determination as to how to proceed.

I am really hoping that in coming days and weeks, folks really do look at the situation for what it is, look at the "threat" and assess that against the very serious consequences that we know will happen and we have seen happen to the economy over the course of the last half year as a result of lockdown measures etc. and we go ahead and we start making policy that is going to be best for all concerned.