Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video and the photo suggests, we are doing an opinion piece regarding lockdown here and we are discussing "compassion for whom?"  

The reason I decided to make this video, I really thought about this a lot before making this video because I do understand that we have veered down the avenue; we have our standard videos and we tend to publish three a day but we have been discussing lockdown a lot and people have been asking me why. I have discussed it, first of all I do think it is basically the legal issue of the day. It is being put into effect pursuant to the provisions of the Emergency Decree. They are claiming legal authority to do this and it is having a tremendous impact as we have discussed on the economy, on Thai society just in general. So I am discussing it for those reasons and in a sense, I hesitate to say it is the biggest news but I would definitely say it is a major legal issue presented to anyone who is living and working in Thailand at this point. There are all kinds of ramifications for this. Again, I do understand this has gone down, I hesitate to say a tangent, but it seems to have taken up the bulk of our time on this channel. I don't think it has taking up the bulk, but it is the majority I should say but we have discussed this a lot and I think it is because it is a pressing issue. Let me say, it just breaks my heart to watch just folks I know here in Thailand, friends, Thai people that are just having a tough time dealing with this. Our clients who some of them are just, I don't have the words frankly to describe how I feel about their situation. It is just very difficult. 

Now that said, I got a comment on this channel and I am going to go ahead and read it in its entirety and then I am going to come back around, circle back and I am going to break it out point by point. So quoting directly: "If I were the Thai Authorities, I would lock you up and throw away the key. You are in another country, not the US. Your main responsibility here is to behave responsibly. That includes respecting the culture and the society in which you find yourself. That also includes exhibiting compassion and empathy for those who are suffering. Admittedly this may be difficult for a lawyer. Your lack of compassion and empathy as you just stand there robotically rattling off numbers and statistics is horrific and horrifying. It is reminiscent of heartless dictators and despots, the very same dictators you criticize. These are people, not numbers. People with mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. People with children and grandchildren that they will never see again. I am not sure if you intended to come off sounding this way but your heartless approach to death and suffering brought on by the pandemic will do nothing but attract those who are science illiterate, anti-vax and pandemic deniers. The comment section is already full of these ignoramuses. The solution? Stop your complaining, speak and act responsibly, put your big boy pants on, roll up your sleeves and help the poor and needy. If you can't figure that out by now, then you don't belong here." Okay so, where to begin? Let's go ahead and just break this out. "Benjamin if I were the Thai Authorities I would lock you up and throw away the key. You are in another country, not the US."- Not true. I am a Thai, I am in my country. I have commented back on this and I have said some of the points I am going to make here but there is more and I am going to get into this because I took this one to heart. A lot of YouTubers say "Don't read the comments". I read some of them. We have moderators, I have other folks that do help with the channel; it is not always me by the way. You may see, they are usually fairly banal comments and where people are asking specific questions and we will tell them usually to just contact us. That is not always me, sometimes it is me. If you see me it will say BWH below it. This one I just happened to read and I did comment back but I just felt like a response was in order. So going back here. “Benjamin, if I were the Thai Authorities, I would lock you up and throw away the key. You are in another country, not the US." Well, not true. I am from the US but I am a naturalized Thai. I love Thailand; it is my adoptive country; it is where I live; it is where I have lived for almost a decade and a half now. I am a Thai. "Your main responsibility here is to behave responsibly." Well I like to think I do that. I am a tax paying citizen and I have the right speak my mind. Going further, "that includes respecting the culture and the society in which you find yourself." Again, I like to think I have done that as exhibited by the fact that I was allowed to become a Thai. They don't just hand out Thai citizenship. I am not getting into that. I am proud of it and to my mind it is a major thing. Yes, I respect Thai society very much. It has one of my primary concerns that Thai society move forward positively into the future and not be bogged down in this negative feedback loop in my opinion of this cycle of endless lockdowns and economic stagnation. "That also includes exhibiting compassion and empathy for those who are suffering." Well I will try to get this link up down here. I will see if my editor can go ahead and put a photo of this video, but this is actually from another YouTube channel. You can go ahead and put this up on screen. It is called: Pattaya's Darkest Hour Has Arrived - Former Bar Worker Speaks Out. This is from Asian Wish and this is someone that has gone down there and they have interviewed folks and they just show what Pattaya looks like. I was watching it the other day and it was very trying for me to watch that. People are really hurting. It is not just people that are being affected directly by this pandemic. There are people who are quite frankly absolutely destitute as a result of some of the policies that have been promulgated in response to the pandemic. I do apologize to the point that I speak robotically about death statistics and numbers and things. I apologize for that. If that seems like that was what I was doing that is not my point. If you haven't noticed, I speak pretty robotically in these videos anyway so that should account for some of it. It is not my intention to belittle the deaths associated with someone, associated with this whole situation. That stated, that is not my lack of compassion. If anything, I would like to think I have a great deal of compassion for all of the people that are having a very difficult time getting through this, not least of which the 2-3 million folks that were working in the tourist industry back in 2020 that were just completely knocked out of a job, and the Tourism Council of Thailand, we have discussed this in another video, that is their estimate. It is 2-3 million done; out of work immediately. And then are second and third order effects to that in the economy. There are folks who made their living off of those people from economic interaction. This is hurting everyone. I am not even going to get into things like suicide rates; use of alcohol and drugs; mental health issues associated with this. I hope I don't seem uncompassionate because that is not my intention. That stated, I find it very odd that someone who says "I would lock you up and throw away the key" would do so from my perceived lack of compassion. There is a great line, I remember the film Walk the Line, with Joaquin Phoenix. He is playing Johnny Cash. I am a big fan of Johnny Cash myself and there is a part in that film where his record producers say "well nobody wants to see you playing music in a prison." and he sort of says "why?" He says "well a bunch of Christian people don't want to see you playing country music for a bunch of convicts", and I am paraphrasing but Johnny Cash's response was, he said, "well that doesn't make it very Christian now does it?” The point I am trying to make is if I seemed uncompassionate, my apologies. That was not my intention. My intention has been and remains hoping that there is some more nuanced response to this that isn't having this fundamentally and substantial economic impact, negative economic impact on basically the entire country. As I said for something that on the ground here, I have been here watching this since this began and I have yet to see demonstrable proof of any benefit resulting from these measures. If anyone can show me I would be happy, I will get on here and say "well I was completely wrong". I understand that is kind of a straw man, I am asking for something out there that may not be possible to get. But what we know is that since April when this latest round which started off as not being a lockdown, just restrictions but whatever but has progressed into this lockdown, the numbers just keep going up. On top of that, this is quoting from the Pattaya News, that is thepattayanews.com, the article is titled: Prominent Thai Doctor says Lockdown Measures aren't working, tighter ones won't work either, ease them to save the economy. "Dr. Manoon Leechawengwongs of Vichaiyut Hospital predicted the COVID-19 situation in Thailand via his online statement that the number of domestic infections and deaths from the COVID-19's Delta mutant continue to increase regardless of how intense the lockdown measures are." Quoting further: "The status read: People's homes have become the place where high infections occurred over all so some lockdown measures should be relaxed immediately before the Thai economy became (I think he meant becomes) even worse. The current measures are only hurting the economy and the people and not stopping the spread of COVID-19. Vaccines are the answer here, not tighter restrictions, curfews and lockdowns." I don't know if he is correct. What I do know is he is a medical doctor and he has a differing opinion from what can only be described as the conventional wisdom seems to be saying at this point. When I read that and I look at case numbers going up regardless of lockdown measures, I have to ask the question and I think anybody should is "Is he correct? Should we be looking at that?" Moving forward, "Admittedly this may be difficult for a lawyer," (everybody loves taking digs at lawyers okay, just going to let that go by) "your lack of compassion and empathy as you just stand there robotically rattling off numbers and statistics is horrific and horrifying." Well as I said, I came by that honestly. I am not doing that for any other reason and that is just how I talk in these videos. "It is reminiscent of heartless dictators and despots, the very same dictators you criticize." Well I don't know what dictators I am criticizing. I haven't criticized any dictators on this channel. "These are people, not numbers." Okay, fair enough and as I said if I seem terse with respect to how I vocalize those numbers, that is just how I talk. "People with mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. People with children and grandchildren that they will never see again", and that is sad and I am sorry to hear that but there are 2 - 3 million people that were put out of work and they have mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, spouses that are suffering as a result of this. Suffering is not mutually exclusive. There is no monopoly on suffering. It is not a zero sum game and I don't know the answer precisely. I have said this before and I will say it again. My general default position is "when a clear option fails to present itself, the best option is to do nothing." "I am not sure if you intended to come off sounding this way, but your heartless approach to death and suffering brought on by the pandemic will do nothing but attract those who are science illiterate, antivax and pandemic deniers." Well I don't know that that can be said. I mean my heartless approach to death and suffering, I hope it comes through, I hope I convey it in these videos that I don't have a heartless approach to death and suffering. I truly do feel for the people that have died from this. I also have concerns about everyone else that is still here. No one is going to get out of life alive. The weirdest thing that I have seen in this whole phenomenon is this notion that death doesn't occur. It happens and I am not saying we shouldn’t mitigate unnecessary hardship or unnecessary health problems or unnecessary death but this notion that we either do this or you are terrible person. The implicit argument seems to be that you are promoting someone's death and that just isn't the case here. Quoting further: “The comment section is already full of these ignoramuses. The solution: Stop your complaining, speak and act responsibly; put your big boy pants on; roll up your sleeves and help the poor and needy." Well on that point I have tried to help a large number of folks with respect to their financial situation here. Unfortunately I have tried where I could. Our firm does make donations to charitable organizations especially with respect to places where, we try to hand out food and help as best we can.  As to: "Speak and act responsibly." I feel like I am. I do. I think reasonable people can disagree on things and reasonable people can ask questions especially about something that is having such a substantial broad impact on everyone. 

The thing that really gets me thinking is these measures are unprecedented. I have never been heard of this kind of thing in history especially on a global scale. Yes, I believe during the Spanish Flu situation I think Australia essentially just went into a total quarantine for like a year. Ships had to drop things off offshore and stuff. So I am not saying there aren't limited examples of similar circumstances but even in wartime in history not just recent history, history ever, you have never seen a total shutdown of the overall economy. Now I am not saying it is not warranted, I am not saying is wasn’t warranted in 2020 but I do think people have the right to ask questions about the necessity of such things especially where the cost benefit is pretty vague. "If you can't figure that out by now then you don't belong here." Well I do belong here. I am Thai and I am not going anywhere. As I said if folks took offense to me speaking robotically regarding the numbers, I think those who watch this channel at least relatively frequently know that yeah I just speak that way, especially when I am reading. It was not my intention again to belittle the numbers associated with this. These deaths are tragic and folks that get this, it is sad but it is also sad to see 2-3 million people be put out of work. It is also sad to see my adoptive country lose 17% of its GDP year on year because of these measures, it is very sad. And the second and third order effects of that are in my opinion as sad if not sadder. It is sad to me that children aren’t going to school right now; it is sad that they missed almost an entire year of school. Again there is no monopoly on suffering and "compassion for whom?"  I mean I like to think that we should have compassion for everyone and we should try to come up with the most nuanced balanced best approach to dealing with this and hopefully we all get through this together with the least amount of negative repercussions and get to the other side and get to the light at the end of this tunnel with as many of us being here as we can. The song Amazing Grace, “and when we have been there 10,000 years, bright and shining is the sun with no less taste to sing God's praise than when we first begun". I hope we all get there and hopefully that day will come sooner rather than later.