Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, I just sort of came upon this actually initially via Twitter which then took me over to an article from Khaosod English, that is khaosodenglish.com, under the title: Mallika: 'Sell if you want to sell' - Bangkok street food goes 24/7? And let's just dive into this. Quoting directly: Independent Bangkok gubernatorial candidate Mallika Boonmeetrakul Mahasuk on 18 June pledged to transform parts of the capital into a "Street Food Paradise" operating 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, arguing that informal food vending should be expanded and better organized rather than restricted. Mallika, who is running under ballot number 14, made the remarks while campaigning in the Ban Krua Community area in Ratchatewi district, visiting Ban Krua Nuea, Ban Krua Tai, and Ban Krua Tawan Ok communities. She said her policy would focus on expanding designated food, street food trading areas while maintaining order and cleanliness through community-based agreements." 

For some background of why I am making this video, I talked first of all about the Governor, then Governor at the time of Bangkok wanting to do all kinds of digitization - I even made a video where the thumbnail was from the Bee Keeper in the movie The Beekeeper, with Jason Statham - and I brought up the fact that you are going after the lowest socioeconomic strata here in Thailand. People are just trying to live hand to mouth, make ends meet by street vending. And at the time, I have talked about this before, I remember years back there was a deputy Governor of Bangkok that was talking about - this was like a decade ago, maybe more - but talking about we are benchmarking Singapore as our example for how we want to do things here in Bangkok. And I remember thinking and saying out loud when I watched that, well maybe let's pick another bench. I don't want to live in Singapore. I didn't move to Singapore; Bangkok is Bangkok. Nothing wrong with Singapore. Singapore is Singapore, but it's not necessarily per se like a model that Bangkok needs to model itself on. On top of that, I didn't like the idea of this digital tracking and tracing of these vendors and also just moving these people around and sort of giving short shrift to the fact that this is how these people make their living, and to just sort of kind of arbitrarily and capriciously sort of say, "well you have got to be here now, instead of there." Look, that corner whatever, may have been the difference between them making X amount of a living and Y amount of a living; it makes a difference. The point I'm trying to make here is that street vendors are an integral part of the ecosystem of Bangkok, and to just kind of dismiss them out of hand I feel like it was wrong, and it looks like there is a politician here in this upcoming city election that is talking about this. This isn't necessarily an endorsement or anything. I'm simply, every once in a while, I will see folks in the political arena that will be saying something that tends to be on my same frequency and this seems to be one of those situations. That said, quoting further: "When the Governor is Mallika, we will revive the Street Food Paradise," she said. "We will increase vending spaces on pavements instead of pushing vendors into hidden corners where customers cannot reach them."

Yeah, and again that's a key thing here. We are talking about again, arbitrary and capricious government policy coming down the pike, and then somebody who once had a thriving little enterprise going on the street, they could make enough money to feed themselves. And understand, these people really are living hand to mouth. They are doing the best that they can, and rather than looking for a handout or something, they are trying to work. I mean some of the saddest stuff I saw was at the beginning of COVID where all of that lockdown and stuff which was completely unwarranted, we now know, it was largely done at the behest of Tedros, a Communist, who never took consensus on anything and just basically changed all the definitions of everything as we went along to fit whatever the agenda was. But long story short it ended up in Thailand being locked down, and I remember seeing all the Tuk Tuk drivers staying in Lumphini Park and people bringing rice and food; same with some of the vendors. These people work hard and to see government action just sort of again toss them off to the margin, it's concerning. 

That said, quoting further: "She said any problem areas would be resolved through public consultation, stressing that vendors should be able to sell in designated zones with clear community identity and order. Mallika said street food should reflect local character citing Ban Krua as an example, while maintaining uniform standards of cleanliness and organization. She added that nightlife activity should also be supported, arguing that Bangkok operates around the clock and demand for food continues late into the night. Quote: "People don't stop eating at 18.00. Some go out for late night meals at 10pm or even later. We must support those groups," she said, adding that the concept would form part of her 14-point framework for Bangkok. Mallika said vendors must maintain high standards including cleanliness and proper waste disposal, warning against practices such as dumping oil into drains. Quote: "We will remove anyone who does not comply. Go and improve first," she said." 

So I just think it's interesting that this person brought up a talking point that I had been concerned about for a while now. Going to the title of the video, and I urge those who are watching this video, go check out Khao Sod English for the full article, but I come back to, there's a scene in the series John Adams which, it's such a great, it was on HBO, it's Paul Giamatti plays John Adams - it's so well done - but there's a scene early on in the series before the colonies have broken free and they still consider themselves part of the British Empire as it were at the time, or Britain, however you want to look at it, but there is a scene where Adams is talking to somebody else and he says, “anyone who would come here and disrupt our liberties”, and I bring that up a lot oftentimes when I'm talking to people especially about American history. There was this moment where this notion of English Liberty that sort of went along with the original founders of America. even before they decided to go off on their own and declare independence, that there was his underlying notion of inherent English liberty, and something concomitant to that is the reason I became Thai. There are notions, whether or not they are even fully articulated sometimes, you just see them; they are self-evident - Thai liberty. And again street vending is in my mind one of the most pervasive examples; you can just see it, it's self-evident, it's clear, that is a liberty of Thais. And again, foreign nationals that try to come here and operate street vending, you're going to have a problem because it is a Thai privilege and immunity.

But that said, to have seen this the last couple years where they're talking about tying it all down and tracking and tracing everybody and getting to tell everybody where they can be, where they can not be, again in sort of an arbitrary and capricious way, I do understand, there are other interests in the community too that want to keep  clear thoroughfares and things, I get it, there is a mess balance going on, but when it became tied in with all this digitization was when my hackles went up, and I just think it is good to see a candidate who is at least bringing these issues forward.