Road Blocks: The Big Issues That Thailand Needs to Solve [S8.E20]

Greg Jorgensen 00:00:05 On this episode, we take some inspiration from an online article to discuss some of the major modern challenges Thailand is facing.

Ed Knuth 00:00:12 So if you're curious about what obstacles Thailand must conquer to move to the next level, you'll love this episode of the Bangkok Podcast.

Greg Jorgensen 00:00:36 So what the crap? This is the Bangkok podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who made a quick pitstop in Thailand on my way away to Japan in 2001, but ended up staying. And I do wonder what the life of Gregson would have been like had I stuck with my plan.

Ed Knuth 00:00:51 Not as good as your life now.

Greg Jorgensen 00:00:55 Maybe not, but it is an alternate reality I do wonder about sometimes.

Ed Knuth 00:00:58 You might be a samurai warrior today.

Greg Jorgensen 00:01:01 I still am just buying my computer. That's right.

Ed Knuth 00:01:04 And I'm Ed Knuth, an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract over 25 years ago, fell in love with trying to guess what the excuse will be for flooding in Bangkok this year. So I never left.

Greg Jorgensen 00:01:17 And 246 years in a row it flooded again.

Greg Jorgensen 00:01:20 Again. Who could have seen this coming?

Ed Knuth 00:01:22 Well, this year the excuse is like these typhoons or whatever. Like there's some tropical storms going on. That's the excuse this year.

Greg Jorgensen 00:01:29 I think the excuse is that it's just the city is almost below the ocean, and they need to call it a bunch of Dutch engineers over here to sort something out.

Ed Knuth 00:01:36 Dude, I've been saying that for years. I talked to my students about that. I'm like, what? I'm like, what is the Thai government doing, you know? You know, we gotta we haven't mentioned this before, but we have to find a genuine expert from the Thai government to come in and talk about it, because they have to be doing something.

Greg Jorgensen 00:01:52 I would love to. It's so hard to find someone. I would love to hear all about Bangkok's water management, So it'd be fascinating. But I mean, maybe listeners, if you, if you know someone. Right. Let me know, because I'd love to talk to someone about that.

Ed Knuth 00:02:05 Sure. For sure. All right. We want to give a big thanks to all of our patrons who support the show. Patrons get every episode a day early, behind the scenes photos of our interviews, a heads up to send questions to upcoming guests, and access to our discord server to chat with me, Greg, and other listeners around the world. But best of all, patrons also get an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week where we riff on current events and Bangkok topics on this week's bonus show. We chatted about the difficulties of arguing in a second language, in this case me arguing with my movers and Greg arguing with his wife, and how he should give extra credit for anyone trying to make a complex point in their second language. More arguing about the eternal PC versus Mac debate, and Greg's trepidation about fixing his vision with laser eye surgery, and whether or not he should take the doctor up on our offer to keep the piece of his cornea that they remove. Yes.

Greg Jorgensen 00:03:04 It was a bizarre offer.

Ed Knuth 00:03:06 To learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 800 bonus and regular back episodes. Click the support button at the top of our website.

Greg Jorgensen 00:03:17 Yep. And remember, if you have a question about me and the show life, the universe or everything. Send us a message for our upcoming Q&A show Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. And also, don't forget if you are out and about in Bangkok and see a Bangkok podcast sticker, take a picture, send us three pictures of three different stickers and we'll send you a gift. Simple as that.

Ed Knuth 00:03:37 Heck yeah.

Greg Jorgensen 00:03:38 Yeah. All right. On this episode, we are going to take some inspiration from an article that was pointed out by our pal VK Vuk. Love saying that name on discord. It is an article on Agincourt on a website, which I am very surprised to hear is still going strong.

Ed Knuth 00:03:53 That is an old school website. Com I got on that website in 2000.

Greg Jorgensen 00:03:59 Yeah, it was here before we were here.

Greg Jorgensen 00:04:01 Yeah. So, congrats to that's still going. But anyway, the article appeared on CNN.com by Doctor Jesse Sessions who runs, Madrona Holistic Coaching. And this article goes into detail about 13 challenges that Thailand is facing as it heads further into the 21st century. I should say that we don't know. Doctor sessions never met him, but he seems like a smart guy. And for the most part, we agree with many of the points he raises, or at least worth discussing. So let's do just that. Let's take a look at the issues he's talking about, about what Thailand is facing, what issues it's facing as we move into the 21st century and see what we think about them, and maybe we can arrive at some perfect solutions that, of course, everyone will adopt immediately and immediately improve everything. So what do you think about these articles when you read them? They're they're they're interesting because they're they're not quite listicles, but right.

Ed Knuth 00:04:51 I mean, I don't I don't want to I don't want to assume anything, but this.

Ed Knuth 00:04:54 This seems like it could be AI generated. That doesn't mean it's bad. you know, I, I've actually read it already, and, there's actually it's really too much to talk about on one show, but that's what this show is going to be about. So the show is going to be kind of a, a superficial look at like 12 or 13 major problems Thailand is facing. So we're going to superficially look at many major issues.

Greg Jorgensen 00:05:18 Yeah. Well, I think a lot of the points it raises are pretty valid. And maybe we can have Doctor Sessions on this on a future show to go into more detail about. Yeah, maybe. You know, I think I think they are they are issues that Thailand and I think anyone who lives here is dealing with. So this is totally valid that we discuss them and talk about them.

Ed Knuth 00:05:34 You know, my reaction, just as a broad thing, before we get into the details, my reaction was, this this whole idea of how you and I have kind of gotten our lives fairly fixed and, you know, we can be kind of in the middle of a hurricane, and it doesn't matter.

Ed Knuth 00:05:53 You know so so so Thailand has all these issues that basically don't affect us. But it's good. It's good to kind of pop your head out of your safe bubble and be like oh oh, oh, wow. Like, this huge issue is happening to the country that I live in. You know.

Greg Jorgensen 00:06:10 Even though it's going to affect me, even if it's going to affect everyone. This is this is this this is so much bigger than, like, my bank changing a rule. This is countrywide issues.

Ed Knuth 00:06:23 Some of these issues, if they're not solved, will directly impact us.

Greg Jorgensen 00:06:27 Yeah. No doubt. So you just want to run through them and then discuss as we go along? Yeah, sure. Okay. I'll, I'll read them off. And then you take the first stab and see what you think. Sure. And before we get into going through each one, I just want to say that we're just going to present a, a quick summary of each point. And I urge everyone to go to the actual site.

Greg Jorgensen 00:06:44 We'll put the link on our on our show, on our show notes and read the full article, because there's a lot of context there. There's a lot of footnotes that provide extra information. So, this is just sort of a quick summary and our, our take on it, but if you can head to the, to the real article and read that after you listen to this. So the first one is security and defense, fragile borders, lingering conflicts, tensions with Cambodia, the insurgency in the Deep South that's easy to forget, and Myanmar's civil war. These are sort of like a three front problem, presenting issues for Thailand to deal with and manage.

Ed Knuth 00:07:18 Yeah, this is a classic example of something that, it's very easy just to forget about if you, if you don't live on the border. So obviously, Thai people who live on the Cambodian border, it's directly affecting their lives. I feel that the conflict in the South is calmer than it used to be back in the day, but it's not like they've actually solved the problem.

Ed Knuth 00:07:41 And there's and there's still occasionally gunfire or like small bombs and stuff. So it's not it's not over.

Greg Jorgensen 00:07:48 Yeah. Every few weeks you'll hear about some ranger who got blown up by a bomb or something.

Ed Knuth 00:07:53 And then, of course, we have a major civil war in a border country. So essentially, you know, even, even the border, you know, basically the border with Malaysia is part of the problems in the Deep South. You know, because because one of the issues is that insurgents like insurgents from Malaysia can sneak across the border, like, set a bomb and then run back into Malaysia. So actually, if you think about it, all of Thailand borders are fraught with like pretty serious political problems, right?

Greg Jorgensen 00:08:27 It must be it must be very difficult. And I know we've raised this issue on the show before, but being the one of the richest countries in Southeast Asia and being bordered on at least three sides by countries that are far below you in terms of GDP and political, quote unquote, stability.

Greg Jorgensen 00:08:44 you know, so you've got you've got Myanmar with their problems, you've got Laos, which is oh, I get.

Ed Knuth 00:08:48 I guess Laos is peaceful. I was thinking that all the borders are troubled, but actually the the the border with Laos is pretty peaceful. There's actually drug smuggling across the Laos border, but it I feel like the other borders are more, more problematic these days.

Greg Jorgensen 00:09:04 Yeah, I agree, I agree, but still Laos is historically famously the most bombed country in the world and the economy is relatively weak compared to Thailand. And that that even if there's even if there's a stable border or political situation that presents its own problems to deal with.

Ed Knuth 00:09:18 Of course. Yeah. No doubt.

Greg Jorgensen 00:09:20 Yeah. So it must be. It must be tough being the big kid on the block and then having all having all the surrounding people just sort of kicking off.

Ed Knuth 00:09:27 Like for sure. For sure.

Greg Jorgensen 00:09:28 Yeah. the second one he goes through is, he calls transnational crime and cyber risk. Thailand is a hub of fraud networks, which undermines public trust and damages Thailand's reputation as an investment environment.

Ed Knuth 00:09:42 Dude, this, this cyber scam thing is gigantic. You know, we, we we didn't. Another interview recently where we talked about a little bit, and that's going to come up on a later show. but man, every time I read about the cyber scams, it's just bigger and darker than I thought. So listeners, listeners, I'm sure you've heard about these scam centers, but usually what what they seem to involve is almost entire cities in Myanmar or Cambodia that have been taken over by Mafia, which typically seem to be Chinese mafia, and they essentially capture people or kind of enslaved them with like fake job offers and keep them in these factories where they go online to commit scams.

Greg Jorgensen 00:10:29 Yeah. And not just a couple, I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands and thousands of between both countries.

Ed Knuth 00:10:37 Oh, yeah. No, like the number of people involved is is crazy. And it's really a major law and order problem. You know, I just. I think it was yesterday I was reading about, this, China finally sentenced one of these big mafia families, and it it was something like they had 30 or 40 members of the family, and like, half of them got the death penalty.

Ed Knuth 00:11:04 Yeah.

Greg Jorgensen 00:11:05 That's right.

Ed Knuth 00:11:06 and they basically take over cities. It's like, really almost hard to get your head around, like, so there's some sleepy, you know, village in Burma. And they go in there and they take over the whole place and they build buildings and they, they set up casinos and hotels and like, red light districts and scam centers. It's like the whole city is is a crime town.

Greg Jorgensen 00:11:30 Yeah. I think these places are kind of indicative of a of a trend in Southeast Asia, a lot of places to I guess. But, you know, I think the authorities are willing to turn a blind eye to illegal operations underneath a certain level. But once they start getting so big that they start drawing international attention. Then they've got to make a couple of examples. And a few weeks ago we saw in Myanmar some of these, these factories and these small towns were just completely wiped out by bombs and destroyed. And everyone was running across the border into Thailand to escape this stuff.

Greg Jorgensen 00:12:01 And then you have China cracking down and sentencing people to the death penalty. So I think they're at the size now that, oh, yeah, the authorities are like, all right, all right, we gotta make an example.

Ed Knuth 00:12:12 So many, so many Europeans, Americans, Australians have gotten scammed that Trump has even talked about it. Like, you know, Trump was just in Southeast Asia. He talked about it. yeah. Yeah. They definitely, you know, like these guys were not small players. Like they they clearly just went too far. I mean, you really can't get your head around like, what a major thing this is. And the effect on Thailand is significant because they often have to cross the border for different reasons. Or sometimes they're there's weird like electric grid issues where some of these, like scam cities, are actually getting electric power from Thailand.

Greg Jorgensen 00:12:49 Yes. Right.

Ed Knuth 00:12:50 Yeah. You know, so so there's just these. There are. So so that definitely affects Thailand because often, they have to fly people into Bangkok, you know, so they're using it's kind of the same thing with like the drug smuggling where, where the, the, the, you know, the drug labs are in Myanmar.

Ed Knuth 00:13:08 But then to get the drugs out, they have to go through like Swarna or Lam Prabang to get it on a distribution point. Yeah. So Thailand is just stuck in the middle.

Greg Jorgensen 00:13:18 Right. Exactly. Yeah. All right. Tourism's uneven recovery. Tourism remains below pre-pandemic levels, with slower Chinese return and shifting travel spending patterns hitting smaller operations hardest and leaving recovery uneven across the sector.

Ed Knuth 00:13:33 Dude, this is, something that I was totally wrong about, and it kind of fits with what I said earlier. Right after Covid, there was a spike in tourism, and I predicted, I think, in 2023. Yeah, I said we're going to hit pre-COVID levels and then, you know, and then next year, which would have been last year, we're going to exceed it. It just we were just on the road to like this incredible recovery. And then it stalled. And you know, we've talked about a little bit this whole issue with, China getting spooked by like kidnappings and maybe even related to this scam setter thing.

Ed Knuth 00:14:12 Right.

Greg Jorgensen 00:14:12 And it's funny that ties into it.

Ed Knuth 00:14:14 That's right. And it seems it's been one thing or another. And I wonder, you know, this is so I would be very troubled by this. Like, you know, if I was, you know, if I work for the Thai government and I, I looked at this, I think it's a it's a really bad sign that now, three years after Covid, we're still not back to pre Covid levels, which was like 39.5 million people. I, think. I think it's it's worrisome. And maybe it could be just because there's more, you know? Vietnam is a perfect example of a place that it just keeps developing and developing. And I don't want to say it's the new Thailand, but it's just you used to it used to be so far behind in infrastructure and like resorts and five star hotels. But now but now it's everyone who goes to Vietnam that I know loves it.

Greg Jorgensen 00:15:10 I love Vietnam and I've I've squawked about it many times before.

Greg Jorgensen 00:15:14 Like Thailand, no longer has the market locked up on nice beaches, good food, friendly people. A lot of countries in Asia have all those things. And as the other problems sort of rise to the surface and get more publicity and people, more people know about them. There's people are making are making, making the choice like, oh, well, Thailand would be nice, but we can also go to Vietnam and have a very nice vacation as well.

Ed Knuth 00:15:37 Agreed. Agreed.

Greg Jorgensen 00:15:38 Yeah. All right. Human capital and skills gaps. Thailand's push into high value S-curve industries is held back by a shortage of skilled workers and without stronger technical education and industry university cooperation. The country risks falling behind in the sectors it most wants to lead.

Ed Knuth 00:15:55 Okay. I mean, as a as a liberal arts humanities guy, this is not really my thing. I think people think they think that, Thailand has good math and engineering, but it actually really only has that in Bangkok at a few universities. You know, it's like the like the overall like Stem if you if you look at the the Thai population and then like the average stem output is bad, you know, so this is not you know, Thailand is not like India or China that's just cranking out like highly skilled engineers or highly skilled programmers.

Ed Knuth 00:16:32 I mean, there's definitely some, you know, it's like so but, but but it's not, it's, it's it's not the Stem factory that India and China are like. We like. They like my guess if there's 5 or 6. Really like genuinely solid, like, you know, science, technology, engineering and math universities in Thailand. Yeah. Like like. Like there's some solid second tier ones. Many. Probably 15, but there's probably only five, like really good ones. Whereas I'm guessing India has 15 or 20 in China. China has 15 or 20 as well.

Greg Jorgensen 00:17:11 Yeah. And just for the record, because obviously I know what it means. But just if you don't know what an S-curve industry is. Things like automation and robotics, aerospace, aviation, logistics, biofuels, biochemicals, digital AI, cyber cloud and medical tourism and medical hubs like that. So yeah, it's it's if if they want to be leaders in those industries, they're going to need Thais who can work in those industries.

Greg Jorgensen 00:17:34 And if you don't, then you've got to import people to work in those industries, which is sort of kind of not not one is. It's, it's not what you want to do.

Ed Knuth 00:17:43 So this time, you know, this ties into the, the Bangkok versus the rest of the country problem, right? Where Bangkok has universities that can create the people you're talking about. And there might be a couple other universities around the country that can do that, but not many, you know. So there's just not there's just not the broad high standard of education. You know, the when you look at the, test scores and stuff like that for Thais outside of Bangkok, it's bad. Yeah, like it's bad.

Greg Jorgensen 00:18:18 I did read an article recently, like within the past few days, and I can't remember exactly what it went into. But basically the gist of it was a bunch of people in in top positions got together, and I think they were kind of fed up with there being no momentum, no change and no improvement in Thailand's education system.

Greg Jorgensen 00:18:39 And I've said this before. Again, I think a lot of people have a very good idea of what needs to change for Thailand's education system to catch up and lead. But there's just such a measure of inertia, because the way it is now is working so well for so many people that there's there's no point, there's no there's no there's no reason for them to change.

Ed Knuth 00:19:01 You know, being in the education business, since the day I got here, I'm just constantly hearing reform plans and this conference of educators and these consultants, and, man, it's just, I mean, it's up there with flooding, you know, as, like this. We finally got a handle on this. You know, we're going to do this. We're going to innovate. We got this. We, you know, and then it's like the next year it's the same damn thing and the same low test scores. So I don't I actually just I don't know what the problem is but but there's no shortage of, you know, smart people who have the.

Ed Knuth 00:19:41 Who have all the answers to the Thai education problem. There's no shortage of that. Yeah. You know, it's like, you know, this is the weird thing about the Thai government is that, a bunch of people working for the Thai government are top notch. I mean, some of my students go and work for the Foreign ministry. Sure. You know, so great English, like international education, super smart. Like, they talk the talk of, like, the UN and like, they're just locked in to, like, a global standard, you know, so.

Greg Jorgensen 00:20:10 They take the national mindset and they really understand how things work.

Ed Knuth 00:20:13 They just say the thing you're supposed to say, you know, for for Thailand to just be a totally first world and then it never happens. Right. You know, it's just like a bunch of meetings and PowerPoints and this innovation and this we're going to, you know, teach Thai kids to think for themselves. And we're going to do this and, you know, and then it's just.

Ed Knuth 00:20:34 And then ten years later, it's exactly it's exactly like it was before. So there's some implementation or follow through or I don't know. So I don't know what the problem is.

Greg Jorgensen 00:20:44 A lot of good ideas. None of them actually put into action. That's it. The next one is debt burdens. Rising government and household debt is eroding fiscal flexibility, suppressing consumer spending and trapping many families, especially in rural areas, in cycles of costly credit that slow growth and deepen inequality.

Ed Knuth 00:21:02 Do the numbers on household debt in Thailand are scary?

Greg Jorgensen 00:21:05 It's crazy, and I don't understand it. I'm not a finance guy, but it's like it wasn't it. It passed like 100% of like debt to GDP ratio or something like that.

Ed Knuth 00:21:14 I don't know, I mean, but it's it's bad and I don't know, you know, a lot of the, a lot of these things come down, I think to almost like psychology and culture. And I don't know what it is about Thai culture that encourages borrowing. you know, the, the, the classic explanation is that Thais care about image.

Ed Knuth 00:21:35 Thais care about face, so they borrow money to buy a fancy car, you know, so they can be driving a BMW or whatever it is. I mean, maybe that's part of it, but, I don't know if that seems like a little bit too simple to to explain everything.

Greg Jorgensen 00:21:52 It's definitely holding people back. And men. There's one lesson I want my kid to learn. It is how to deal with and manage debt because it will mess you up.

Ed Knuth 00:22:03 It's funny. This is a bit of a tangent, but, my, my university added, a class that anyone can take in the whole university. And it's something, it's something called like financial intelligence, you know. You know, and, I'm not good at this at all. And so I, I told my boss, I asked my boss, you know, if I sit in on this class, can I teach it next year?

Greg Jorgensen 00:22:28 Oh, interesting.

Ed Knuth 00:22:29 You know, I think like personal financial management. That's one of those things, even though I'm like a liberal arts humanities guy and like, we pride ourselves on not being practical for real.

Ed Knuth 00:22:41 We it's funny, but man. Personal financial management. That's something that every college kid should have to take.

Greg Jorgensen 00:22:47 Do you know there's a there was a tweet that spoke so deeply to me and reminded me exactly of my high school experience, and the tweet was something like me to the teacher, hey, can you teach us how to balance a checkbook? And the teacher said, shut the fuck up and square dance.

Ed Knuth 00:23:03 That's funny.

Greg Jorgensen 00:23:04 That's funny. That's exactly it. this is another something that we can talk to Doctor Jessica about on another show. demographics and health systems. Thailand's rapid aging is straining hospitals, finances and families. And without stronger planning, the country faces a future where fewer working age adults must support more retirees within an overstretched healthcare and social system.

Ed Knuth 00:23:24 Yep, this is a big issue. This is something that I this is something that I did talk to my students about in my social science class and I found a video. It's actually it's about a 45 minute documentary film about aging Thailand. In Thai, I usually don't assign stuff.

Ed Knuth 00:23:39 I usually don't assign stuff in Thai. But this time I did. And, it's a huge problem. You know, there are people, I follow a bunch of, on YouTube. I follow a bunch of, like, futurist people, kind of like, you know, they're trying to figure out, like, like, what's life going to be like in 30, 40, 50 years? And some of these people really think demographics is is more dangerous than climate change, more, you know, you know, there's a faction, there's a faction of, I don't know what to call them. Like, they're kind of like demographic alarmists, I guess I would call them. Okay. And they're smart people. Like, see, these are science minded people, but they're looking at the numbers of of, you know, it's almost so, you know, because I show this film to my students and I translated it. Basically, it boils down to this. Everywhere in the world there's not enough kids except a few places.

Ed Knuth 00:24:39 So generally in the Muslim world, the birth rate is still pretty good. And then Christian Africa is still pretty good. But, basically the rest of the world, the birthrate is too low. And this creates like massive demographic problems, like, because essentially you need to have more young people than old people, because young people need to take care of old people, but also they also need to work and be productive. So and, and Thailand is up there, I can't remember if it's, it's I think Japan and China are close to the worst.

Greg Jorgensen 00:25:15 Taiwan as well.

Ed Knuth 00:25:17 Yeah, they're really bad. But Thailand is up there, man. Yeah.

Greg Jorgensen 00:25:20 I've heard a lot of, read a lot of headlines about this problem in Thailand. And the phrase demographic time bomb is used a lot. It's a very good way to put it.

Ed Knuth 00:25:30 And again, I've never heard anyone from the Thai government say a single thing about it.

Greg Jorgensen 00:25:34 Interesting. Get out and have babies.

Ed Knuth 00:25:36 That's right. I mean, they could they could promote that instead of being worried about Valentine's Day.

Ed Knuth 00:25:42 Like hook ups. They should be promoting that stuff. They should be like free. Free love hotels on Valentine's Day.

Greg Jorgensen 00:25:48 Yeah, right.

Ed Knuth 00:25:49 That's what they should. That's what they should. They should have, like, coupons.

Greg Jorgensen 00:25:53 Oh, we solve this problem over here. But there's 40 more problems now behind me. Great. All right. Innovation and AI readiness. Thailand's slipping innovation ranking highlights weak readiness for AI and fast moving technologies. And without timely investment in the next wave of transformation risks widening inequality between those who can adapt and those who cannot.

Ed Knuth 00:26:13 Interesting. Does your wife. Does your wife use an AI chatbot in Thai?

Greg Jorgensen 00:26:20 I don't know in Thai, but she certainly uses to help her, polish her, eat her her English writing.

Ed Knuth 00:26:25 Oh. She does.

Greg Jorgensen 00:26:26 Yeah.

Ed Knuth 00:26:27 Yeah.

Greg Jorgensen 00:26:27 And she's she's pretty good. I use it all the time for all kinds of stuff. Just mostly just for just formatting and reorganizing information very quickly.

Ed Knuth 00:26:35 For sure. No, I use it all the time, but I was curious.

Ed Knuth 00:26:39 I think my students are using it, you know, to help with schoolwork and things like that. But I think this point has more to do with, you know, like Thai industry, Thai business, Thai government. Are they AI ready or are they AI competitive? I wonder if there's any AI startups in Thailand. Are there any are there any tech companies based in Thailand that's doing some cool new AI thing?

Greg Jorgensen 00:27:06 Yeah, I don't know. But I, I was talking about this with our with our IT support geek at work and he mentioned something a new ISO standard that was coming in. And I just googled this right now. and this says this doesn't really answer my question, but Thailand's Electronic Transactions Development Agency held an explanatory session on the draft principles and regulatory approaches of the country's planned Artificial Intelligence law. This was just a few months ago. This came after a full two years of following the initial release of draft legislation on AI. So things people are thinking about it. People are talking about it, and they're moving as slow as they do in government.

Greg Jorgensen 00:27:43 But I don't know if it's going to be enough.

Ed Knuth 00:27:46 Yeah, I would love to just see at least one cool AI thing come from Thailand. But I don't know, I don't know, I've, I've never heard of any like, cool Thai AI company.

Greg Jorgensen 00:27:57 All right. Last two here. Governance and leadership. Thailand's two decades of political turbulence have weakened policy consistency, eroded confidence and repeatedly stalled long term national strategies.

Ed Knuth 00:28:08 Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is my world, and I think I think we're Thailand is in a weird situation where it's quote unquote stable in that we don't have protests in the street. We don't have some super major constitutional thing going on. but things also are not moving forward. So we do have elections coming up. I think there's scheduled for March or April. but I think this point is well taken. What we need is a consistent stretch of like one party without controversy. So the problem with, poor tie is that they were just mired in controversy due to, due to, like, past issues that were haunting them.

Ed Knuth 00:28:51 And then this new issue with Cambodia. So just like poor Thai cannot escape the drama, you know what I mean? So we just need we just need, I mean, hopefully the, you know, the Progressive Party will will win the next election and be scandal free. Like, what Thailand really needs is four years without scandals. So yeah. So, so so whoever wins can actually govern. That's what Thailand needs.

Greg Jorgensen 00:29:19 That'd be nice. And the last one Thailand's image at risk when scams, corruption scandals and security incidents dominate headlines. Thailand's reputation is damaged and that erosion directly undermines tourist sentiment, investor confidence and international trust.

Ed Knuth 00:29:35 Yeah, yeah, this is interesting. On the one hand, I think Thailand's image is is good because of things like The White Lotus. There's there's more movie production here and there's more presence in Thailand. in pop culture. Like, dare I use the word soft power?

Greg Jorgensen 00:29:53 Soft power. So so so.

Ed Knuth 00:29:55 So I think that Thailand's soft power is I don't know if it's at its peak, but I feel like, like it, you know, things like The White Lotus have put Thailand in the forefront.

Ed Knuth 00:30:08 But on the other hand, you know, if you turn the page of the newspaper and it's all about scam centers or a murder here, you know what I mean? You know, a tourist who disappears. So I, I yeah, I, I think there is an image issue going on.

Greg Jorgensen 00:30:26 Yeah. I wonder how far the Teflon Thailand thing can go. Like it seemed to have always applied and Thailand has always bounced back no matter how bad things got. But there's I think, you know, those those are only so elastic. And at a certain point, like we said with the other point, other countries are rising up to meet Thailand as well. So that's right. You know, if a reputational damage hits too hard then people are just going to go elsewhere. So yeah. Agreed. And once again, I urge you go check out the full list on the website will include the link in our show notes. We didn't cover all of the items. There's a 13 of them, but it's a good read.

Greg Jorgensen 00:31:01 Interesting list by Doctor Jesse Sessions and Jesse, if you're hearing this, reach out. We'd love to have you on the show. Maybe we can get into more detail on some of these things. hear what you have to say. So, yeah. Good thought, food for thought.

Ed Knuth 00:31:12 And maybe we should have. Maybe we should do a show on positive things happening in Thailand, because all of these things are kind of like, okay, this is a little bit depressing. Like, this is like it's like 13 obstacles. So maybe, maybe okay, maybe, maybe I'll hit the AI. 13 things going Thailand's way.

Greg Jorgensen 00:31:31 Yeah, I think that'd be a good idea. Maybe. Still, Doctor Jesse can come on too, because he seems to be sort of like a a life coach kind of guy that helps people look at things in the right way and.

Ed Knuth 00:31:39 Reason reasons to be optimistic about Thailand's future.

Greg Jorgensen 00:31:43 Number one, the Bangkok Podcast exists for your listening pleasure.

Ed Knuth 00:31:46 For sure.

Greg Jorgensen 00:31:48 All right, let's get into some love with or live with where one of us picks a particular aspect of living in Bangkok, which we discussed to decide if it's something we love about living here, loathe about living here, or have come to accept as something that we just have to learn to live with no matter how we feel about it.

Greg Jorgensen 00:32:00 And this weekend, it's your turn.

Ed 00:32:03 Dude, I got a very specific one for you. What do you think about Thai coins? Smaller than one bot?

Greg Jorgensen 00:32:11 Oh no.


Ed Knuth 00:32:16 You're loathe. I'm a loathe. That's a very quick thing I detest. Like any anything under one bot. So I don't even understand it because I think there's like 50 Saturn ones and 25 one like 25. So I don't even understand them. Like there's tiny little things. I don't know what's going on.

Greg Jorgensen 00:32:34 I don't know, I, I hate them. I think their point that they're so small is to be they're even smaller than a penny. It'd be like having a, a quarter of a penny as a coin.

Ed Knuth 00:32:43 They're way smaller than a penny. You know, when I have to get them out of my back. So my, the boat I take across the river is 4.5 baht.

Greg Jorgensen 00:32:52 You bastard. It's five bot up where I am.

Multiple Speakers 00:32:56 Dude.

Ed Knuth 00:32:57 I'm getting I'm getting the 50 bonus point where I'm at. No, but I'll take. But I'd rather pay five. That's what I'm saying. I just make. Just keep the change.

Greg Jorgensen 00:33:07 Right, right, right.

Ed Knuth 00:33:08 Well, it's funny, with my students, my students know that I'm not I'm not a Trump fan listener. So you probably have figured this out as well, but, as an exercise with my students, I talk about things that I agree with Trump on. You know.

Greg Jorgensen 00:33:26 Interesting.

Ed Knuth 00:33:26 Okay. And there are there are actually a few major things, but one of my jokes is like, I pick like a small thing. Okay. I agree with him on this. And Trump wants to get rid of the penny. And I agree with that. I hate I hate the the penny. Just like I hate this tongue. I hate small coins.

Greg Jorgensen 00:33:43 Yeah, we got rid of the penny in Canada years and years ago. And it was I think it was a bit of turbulence right off the bat, but eventually everyone got used to it.

Greg Jorgensen 00:33:49 Now there's no looking back.

Ed Knuth 00:33:50 I remember when I was in law school, this is basically 30 years ago. and, I was I had an argument with someone in law school about. I was saying back then, we should get rid of the penny. And they were like, no, no, no. And so but so this is a long standing thing of mine. I don't know why, but like small, like small coins that I consider them nearly valueless. But they they take up space. They take up some time. Right. You know, the. I'm sick of the like the woman at the, the toll thing. You know, where I'm paying. It's like she, you know, she's like, counting and pushing out these, like, 50 ton pieces. You know, like tiny things. lothe.

Greg Jorgensen 00:34:32 Yeah. I'm I'm. I don't like them, but I'm. I'm a live with only because if you.

Ed Knuth 00:34:36 Dude, you gotta be a lothe. Come on.

Greg Jorgensen 00:34:37 No.

Greg Jorgensen 00:34:37 If you look off to the side there, I've got an old Jack Daniels bottle that's half full of them, and I want to do one day is like, bury it in my yard. Some kid will dig it up and think it's treasure or something like that.

Ed Knuth 00:34:47 Well, that shows you it's archaic. Okay. It has no like like like like. Like that bottle is probably worth, like, 87. Not like the bottle of, like thousands of. It's worth 87 bar dude.

Greg Jorgensen 00:35:00 That's funny. Yeah, I I'm a, I'm a, I'm a live with bordering on loathe. They're useless, pointless take up space, but I.

Ed Knuth 00:35:07 Okay, I'm gonna consider this alone. I'm pushing you over the line in a low, into a low.

Greg Jorgensen 00:35:10 I do like my bottle of treasure.

Ed Knuth 00:35:13 All right. A final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that they're helping in our never ending quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website and connect with us online.

Ed Knuth 00:35:27 We're Bangkok podcast on social media Bangkok podcast. Com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from our listeners and always reply to our messages.

Greg Jorgensen 00:35:40 That's right. You can listen to each episode on YouTube. Send us a voicemail through our website. We'll feature that on our show. Hit me up on blue Sky where I am back. Greg, thank you for listening, everyone. We'll see you back here next week for sure.