Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are posing the question "what is the definition of emergency?" Why are we posing this? Well for those who are unaware, we have been under an Emergency Decree in Thailand since March 2020 and that has had tremendous ramifications on the Immigration System. It is having a tremendous impact on the overall economy as we are still undergoing lockdowns.

The reason I am bringing this up is it is not to be contrarian really at all. It is almost in a way to make a record if for nothing else almost for myself, maybe this is an opinion piece in a way but the definition of "emergency". Well let's go ahead and read it; this from Miriam Webster miriam-webster.com, Definition of Emergency: 1) an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action. 2) an urgent need for assistance or relief; example - the mayor declared a state of emergency after the flood.

So let's go back. An unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action. So in March 2020 the situation went to pandemic, I think it is easy to call that an unforeseen combination of circumstances and I think it is easy to say it called for immediate action, I think that is safe to say that. 2) I think it would be safe to say an urgent need for assistance or relief. I think at that time you could you could say that. 

What about now? We are in August 2021. Is this an unforeseen combination of circumstances? No, we have a pretty good idea of what COVID looks like. Is it a resulting state that calls for immediate action? Well I am sure there would be those that say yes but when viewing it from the perspective of, there is an element of this definition to my mind that presupposes a lack of knowledge. We don't know what is going. In March of 2020, when everything shut down nobody knew what was happening. We didn't and I noted before that look this could have been MERS and MERS had like a 30% fatality rate. I am just quoting that off the cuff but it is my understanding it had a very high fatality rate. I think if this had been MERS, I think if we were still dealing with it now, I think there would, in be my opinion some strong arguments in favour of especially the continuation of lockdowns which I don't think is quite there when you look at, and we have quoted the numbers. I am not going to quote the numbers because quite frankly, well I do have the statistics but I am not going to do it. Long story short, we have an idea of what COVID is now and we have certain procedures in place. It does call into question, do I think the Emergency Decree should end this minute? No, I actually don't; I want to be clear on that. What I am saying with this video is it should end at some point. There is a certain point where the urgency and immediacy is no longer there and I am hoping we are getting to that horizon sooner rather than later.

The reason for this is as I have discussed in many other videos, it has resulted in real serious fundamental and substantial hardship in the economy for Thai folks just generally. It has had really substantial ramifications for folks that are in bi-national, basically international relationships; folks that have a Thai fiancée, a Thai spouse, Thai children that are separated that have a hard time getting into Thailand due to things like the 14-day quarantine etc. The only reason I bring this up is again it is not really to criticize but I am just hoping that as time moves forward and the situation starts to progress positively, we start to understand that look the urgency is gone and it is time to revert to standard operating procedures in the days moving forward thereafter.