Transcript of the above video: 

"Well, you better get your booties on campers, because it's cold out there today. It's cold out there every day. What is this! Miami Beach." If you are aware of the movie Groundhog Day, as the thumbnail in this video suggests, that is a film from Bill Murray from the ‘90s that I'm a huge fan of; I would argue is probably one of his most creatively as well as probably commercially successful pieces, the movie Groundhog Day. I really can't stress enough how much I like that movie, and guess what? It's February 2nd. We're sitting here in Groundhog Day over here in Thailand. Now I initially thought about making this video and putting it up in the morning, but as I kind of want to catch the Americans as well over on that side of the pond if you will, I wanted to go ahead and put this up in the afternoon so that's why we're talking about Groundhog Day in the afternoon here in Thailand because strictly speaking if you go by the way things work back in the States, old Punxsutawney Phil, in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania is not going to be waking up until probably a couple hours after this goes live over here in Thailand. So tip of the hassle Punxsutawney Phil and happy Groundhog Day to everyone. 

That said, the clip that I made the photo for in the thumbnail comes from one of the end scenes in Groundhog Day. For those who have never seen the film, it really is great. I urge anybody who hasn't seen it to watch it. It's basically this guy who is sort of a cynical, pessimistic weather man and he goes to the small town in Pennsylvania that he doesn't really like to cover Groundhog Day because he's a weatherman and the groundhog, if he sees his shadow, it's six more weeks of winter, if he doesn't it's an early spring. This weather man has to go there and it's very well played; Bill Murray is just hilarious in it. But it's also kind of a deep movie and I've heard many folks - including when watching behind the scenes stuff about the film - talked about that there are many concepts especially the Eastern religions like Buddhism, that it gets to, is the notion that you're going to be here a while, and you're going to repeat things and you might as well make the best of it, is basically the message of the film, and that's where we come to with the thumbnail. There's the great, again the line when Chekhov saw the Long Winter, he saw winter bleak and bereft of hope but standing here in Punxsutawney basking in the warmth of the hearths and hearts of the people there Phil Connors - the guy that Bill Murray plays - says he's looking forward to a long and lustrous winter. It's a great culminating scene and the whole film culminates with sort of him, it really is almost a film about self-actualization if you really want to get into it; that's how I see it. But it's also hilarious and it's just a great comedy on top of everything else. You don't have to dig in deep to the layers of it or anything, to necessarily enjoy it. 

But I was thinking of this. We're sitting here February 2nd and we are coming up, we have just gotten done with - as I made videos regarding the alcohol bans associated with both the early elections and the election which is coming up in less than a week now here in Thailand. As folks know, we are going through another election cycle here; we're all sort of looking forward to seeing what the outcome is of that. But me standing here at this particular moment if you will, basking in the warmth of the hearths and hearts of the Thais just at this particular moment, I'm actually like Phil. I'm kind of looking forward to a long and lustrous winter here in Thailand post-election, because I think no matter what the outcome is, I think Thailand is about to really get on with it. And I think all of these frankly foreign, call them Western maybe in certain senses, sort of undue influence publications out there talking about how "oh Thailand's fallen behind, or Vietnam is eating their lunch or something", yeah well, Thailand has been going through a few things. I don't know if people have noticed. And they have been doing it with about as much gravitas and dignity as any country can. I mean it has been an interesting series of events that we have watched unfold. I've been covering it here since this new Parliament came in back in August of '23; it's been a bumpy ride, and we are now coming sort of to the end of that run with this election and I have just got to say, I am very optimistic about where things are headed in Thailand. I think again, to paraphrase what Phil Connor says, he says, "even if it's going to be six more weeks of winter, I'm looking forward to a long and lustrous winter", because he finally realized that that was a good place he was; it was the place to be. Thailand, very similar. 

I think we are going to be looking at a 2026 especially in quarter two and onward, that are going to go in a, I won't say a different direction, but I just think we're about to see this country really start to make serious strides economically. I think we're going to see developments in terms of all kinds of technological developments are going to be coming online in the next couple of years. And on top of that, I think we are finally going to get some consensus popularly and nationally about where the country should be going, and in the aftermath of that, I really think when Thailand starts running on all cylinders, boy howdy, you had better watch out, because you think some of these other jurisdictions in Southeast Asia have economic heft, get ready, you're about to see a diesel engine if you will come online and start roaring ahead. 

So I'm very optimistic looking forward to a long and lustrous winter if you will, here in the Kingdom of Thailand.