Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing so-called Government-to-Government ties and Business ‘solutions’. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thai hotels hit by collapse of German firm. Quoting directly: "The collapse of the third largest tour operator in Europe has started to affect thousands of tourists and hundreds of hotels in Thailand leading to losses of 111 million Baht." Quoting further: "Germany-based FTI group filed for insolvency in Munich Regional Court earlier this month affecting a number of holiday makers in Thailand this week as they are scheduled to check out. THA, the Thai Hotels Association, would collate the information for discussion with related authorities this week seeking solutions through government-to-government ties." 

Every time I read stuff like this, and I don't know why the media has just become like an abject cheerleader for all things Government. Like anything that's a Government initiative it seems like the media just runs out and jumps on board with. But I am constantly reminded of that line from the late President Ronald Reagan in the United States where he said "Government is not the solution to our problems, Government is the problem." Again yeah, folks that got stranded here because a major German company went bankrupt I do sympathize with those folks. 

That said, something I have noticed for years is in the West especially, people are very dependent and I use that word specifically, because they don't really seemingly understand the dynamics of making reservations, making tour bookings, booking tickets on various planes and things; they use a lot of these online major big platforms and then there is sometimes disconnect between the platform and the vendor at the end of the line if you will, out here in Thailand for example. Again this company went bankrupt and presumably they are now not paying their fees to their vendors and their vendors are then saying to the person who's out here on tour saying "Hey, where's our money?" basically and they say "well I already paid the people, why do I need to pay again?" is probably the conversation that's being had.

Just something to think about especially you would-be expats out there, try to at least learn how to basically deal with things like arranging your own tickets via planes, arranging your own hotels. Again, I understand using platforms can be very beneficial; there are a lot out there; there are a lot of good platforms out there, I'm not saying that they're bad, but I think having a working knowledge of how to make your own travel arrangements is not a terrible idea. I'm not talking to tourists on this. A true tourist, that is unfortunate, but in this era we live in, I do understand people want convenience and I have noticed that a number of the expats oftentimes will be very dependent on these platforms and not think about the so-called "Murphy's Law" – “whatever can go wrong will” sort of thing, they don't seem to think in those terms especially younger would-be expats, so-called "Digital Nomads" and things. You need to be aware of this stuff and you should have it in the back of your mind that you need to go ahead and have the ability to make your own travel arrangements quite honestly, it really is as simple as that.