Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing public spaces, "Gatekeepers" as you can see from the thumb thread we are talking about the COVID pass or the ethereal or the notions floating out there in the ether that pertain to that overall topic. 

The reason I was thinking of this it was because I was reading a Pattaya Mail article, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya expats: what next after the second anti-COVID jab? My first question to myself is why is there a "what's next after this?" In all my history, and I have been vaccinated for I don’t know how many umpteen things, I have never had anybody ask me "what are you going to do now?" I am not picking on anybody, but I just thought it was kind of a strange notion. It is like, there used to be these commercials on American television that would show these sports stars, I'll never forget, it was Michael Jordan, it was after he won the NBA finals, one of the seasons that the Bulls won and they said "oh Mike what are you going to do now?" "I'm going to Disneyland!" and that was what he would say. And they had all these different sports stars, "I am going to Disney World!" Sort of "okay, you have done this. What are you going to do now?" It seems kind of strange to ask "well what are you going to do now with your life now that you have had a vaccination." Just go on about my business, that's what I thought I was going to do. I didn't think I needed to do anything else. When I was vaccinated for measles, my booster shot when I was 13, or whatever it was I don't think anybody asked me: "so what are your plans now that you've done this?" It just seems a little odd the way this is all couched.

Quoting directly from this article, and this article is really insightful and again I could have picked from a number of different things out there in the Press. I like to kind of quote things that are local, mostly because mostly that is where I start thinking about this stuff, that's where I read it. I have seen this couched similarly internationally. It sort of “well what is the next step?” Well why is there a next step? It doesn't make any sense to me. In any event quoting directly: "The Mor Prom app may be important ahead as government regulations on entering public places become tighter." Now let me ask this. If there are restrictions on entering a place, how is that place “public”? That is my first question. Quoting further: "Already in Bangkok, some cinemas and malls are insisting on proof of vaccination prior to entry." Well I have discussed this in another video. I mean private property is what it is. People can make their own rules about who can come and go in my opinion on private property. A lot of people have said that to me in the context of the US. I think there is a wholly different analysis there and I am not going to get into it in this video. "Potential "sandbox" areas such as Pattaya are likely to see more and more public (again public) access facilities requiring evidence of vaccination." So they are not public then. I mean let's be clear about this, if there are restrictions on certain people entering, if folks can be discriminated on how they enter based on documentation or whatever, for any reason, for any reason, then it is not by definition "public". "It may turn out to be more convenient to use the app rather than carrying around pieces of paper which if they are photocopies may not be accepted by "Gatekeepers". Well first of all "carrying around pieces of paper"? As I have said in other videos "papers please?" This is the society we really want to move to? "Papers please?" "Oh no not papers please, smartphone please". This is creepy and then on top of it “accepted by "Gatekeepers". At what point did we decide that a 20 year old who is working part-time at a mall has become the gatekeeper on whether or not you can go and buy a pair of shoes? To me that just doesn't seem like the kind of society we were moving toward coming up on March 2020. Then now magically we are in this weird nether world of "papers" or "smartphones" or "public" but "we can discriminate against you if we want to and not let you into this place!" I mean all of this, I think we really need to rethink this. I don't have any problem with vaccinations. A lot of people will comment on things in the comments, I am not in agreement with all of that. Vaccinations are fine, it is what it is. In fact they are not just fine, they are a revolution. They are a medical miracle. I mean the fact that people, vast swathes of the population aren't walking around with Polio is a great thing no doubt, in my mind but we didn't have papers that you had to walk around and prove going places that you didn't have polio, so why do we have it for this? I mean I don't understand the difference and I don't understand the notion of calling someplace a “public place” when people can be restricted from it? By definition, how is that public? I have already stated that.

In any event, none of this has come to fruition. I truly hope people especially at a policy level really seriously sit down and really think this through because this just has the makings of a place that nobody really wants to be. I love Thailand. I am always going to be here as far as I can foreseeably see and in my opinion as far as I can tell, I will probably be here until I'm gone and then I will either be in a pine box or in an urn somewhere probably in Thailand. So I am still going to be here no matter what. I love this place but I really wish people would sit down and take a breath and really rethink the kind of things that they are looking to do moving forward.