Transcript of the above video: 

So as the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Digital ID now being required for ride-hailing services. Let me get into the citation in a minute.  So I actually thought of making this video first, then I saw a comment on our channel; I figured I'd mentioned the comment, quoting directly: "Can you do a segment on the digital ID progress for the Land of Smiles' Grab and Bolt companies are requiring drivers to comply. This will include passengers if it's a ride service." Which I don't know how they are going to do this, but here they are trying to do it. 

Quoting directly, I'll throw this up on screen. I actually found this through my friend Nick, he sent it to me, I'll put up a link in the description below to his Substack channel - credit where credit is due there - tip of the hat to you Nick, thank you. Quoting directly: "From October, Thailand will enforce sweeping changes to its ride-haling industry, aiming to raise safety, transparency…" - transparency, that is an interesting buzz word in the weird dystopia we are moving into. They used the term that was loosely described as transparency at the end of the USSR; they called it Glasnost. I have talked about that a lot in other videos including a video, we were talking about Nirvana Glasnost because they were talking about creating Data Centres at the Ministry of Finance, and I think it was the Finance Minister at the time, his name when you moved the letters around was "Nirvana Glasnost', and glasnost has been described as transparency. I think the better translation from the Russian, if you consider all the nuances of sort of the PC what you might call Communist nuances, I would say Woke nuances, however you want to put it, but to my mind it is almost like social media. Transparency in the sense 'we are using it to track you', so that is how it's transparent. Quoting further: "…and accountability across platforms." What was unaccountable on these platforms to begin with? I mean it's just nonsense, because at the end of the day, it's my understanding that if it is based on a credit card, there's all kinds of IDs associated with that, and if you are using the app and then paying cash, the accountability occurs when you pay for the ride. And meanwhile, people can say, "well we don't know who's doing what", I don't know. I guess if they don't have Digital ID, whatever straw man argument if you want to call it that is, "oh so somebody could get hurt using one of these people and we wouldn't know who it was." Really? We're able to track them everywhere. It is GPS tracking; it turns a phone into a LoJack, literally. I mean it's pretty ridiculous. No, this is just totalitarianism, that's all it is. Companies such as Grab, Bolt and Lalamove will be required to actively oversee services, shifting away from simply operating as intermediaries. Platforms must implement digital ID verification for both drivers and passengers..." - why? I mean, this is the other thing. 

Digital was supposed to make everything easier. Oh it's a ride hailing app, you don't have to deal with cash and all of that. How is this easier? You have got to go through 'so show me your papers' process to just get into a Grab! Come on. It's clear at this point; the mask has come off. These global initiatives, which let's be clear, ride-hailing was a global initiative and in many ways, it was a disruptive industry that came in and really did a lot of damage economically. Now I argued at the time, well it will also cause a lot of benefit; this is how free market economics works. But now we see that no, the disruption was intended to get rid of as many of the alternatives as possible to ride-hailing, so that once everybody was on it, they could then demand Digital ID. That's the purpose here. Quoting further: "..while drivers will need valid public licenses and properly registered vehicles. Shared or borrowed accounts will be outlawed..." - outlawed! Why? What's the big public harm that could come about from having a shared account? - quoting further: "...and platforms will have to display fares transparently alongside live tracking features." Don't they already do that? Quoting further: "The reforms, designed to bring Thailand in line with international standards..." - maybe I don't want Thailand in line with international standards. I moved to Thailand to be in Thailand. I don't want to be in line with international standards. It is like years back, when the Deputy Mayor of Bangkok said we are benchmarking Singapore for how we are going to do industrial, or how we are going to do Urban Development and I'm sitting there going, why don't you find another bench. I don't want to live in Singapore; I want to live in Bangkok, Thailand, and I don't necessarily think Bangkok, Thailand needs to be in line with international standards. Thailand is fine. Privacy, free enterprise, laissez-faire economics: it works. I don't know if anybody has noticed, but the rest of the world is languishing, this place isn't doing too bad, although meanwhile, we have to be subject to the vicissitudes and the negative smear campaigns of the foreign, from my perspective, primarily financially backed press taking pot shots constantly at Thailand as to how undeveloped and stagnant the economy is here. Meanwhile though, we have an actual economy that runs at a profit, the GDP is actually growing because it's not hyper-financialized based on a bunch of debt and based on selling everybody's data to everybody else. Thailand doesn't need to be in line with international standards. The Thai standard is far better than international standards in my opinion. Quoting further: “... are expected to improve their trust, while reducing disputes and unlawful practices." Well, whoop-dee-doo, let's all sing kumbaya for this.

Yeah, like I said. Thailand is fine. We didn't need this. I would argue, ride-hailing creeped me out to begin with. This is another thing that is not going to change my life one iota. It's like digital banking. Yeah, I get that it's causing problems for people; not for me. Now not everybody has been here as long as I have, and they have a firm that they work in where people can help them and stuff. I get it. Digital Banking is kind of the norm. But all of this was brought in to be more convenient; none of it is turning out to be more convenient. Meanwhile, I'm sick of hearing about how Thailand needs to get in line with anything. Thailand doesn't need to get in line with anything International; Thailand is fine. I don't see what is being added by this other than totalitarian dystopia, which less of that is what Thailand needs. The more of this Thailand throws off, I think the better Thailand would do economically. I hope we don't see this actually come to fruition. That being said, we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.