CCTV SOI 6

Several years ago I was out with the boys on Soi 6.

Strictly for sociological research.

Nick was drinking vodkas. Sammie was searching for Ms. Perfect, and young Marton was wrestling with an undersized bargirl on the sofa for what seemed to be about an hour. He weighs in at 85 kilos and she couldn't have been more than 42, however he was never able to pin her without coming across with a 200 baht bar fine.

In the end Marton was out of breath.

Noticing a CCTV in the corner I asked the mama-san if she could play the last 30 minutes. She wasn't sure how to accomplish this, however Sammie is an electrician for the Aussie Post Office and within a minute we were viewing Marton's wrestling match..

We wanted to buy a copy to send his wife.

Marton outbid us with a 1000 baht tip to the mama-san.

These CCTVs are meant to survey the bars for any wrong-doings; sex, drugs, and violence.

Mostly the footage is old men drinking beer.

Not a crime anywhere but Saudi Arabia, although later that month an interesting hoax email popped up on teakdoor.com with a farang complaining about being stopped at Cobra Swamp Airport for questioning.

Here's his email:

I had a big problem going home. Via the internet, I discovered a few bars had streaming web cams. I wanted to show off a bit to my mates back home, so I arranged a time for them to view me in the bars getting pissed and frolicking with all the pretty birds. I made sure I “hammed it up” with the ladies right in front of the web cams. That was the biggest mistake I’ve made in my life, and at the time, I had no clue. Here’s what happened.

All went well during my trips to Bangkok and Pattaya, but the problems started at the new airport upon leaving for home. I arrived at the exit visa desk and I was soon escorted by three Thai police to a private and strange room. They kept me in the room for almost an hour asking me all sorts of personal questions about my holiday in Thailand.

They queried me about where I had visited; which bars I had patronized; which girls I had brought back to my hotel room; and more silly questions. I gave all very honest and forthright answers, since I knew I had done absolutely nothing wrong.

Then, the three police took me to some official who took my passport and stamped it with the wording "persona non gratis Thailand” (in Thai) Then, I was taken into some horrible holding cell for several hours. After that I was escorted to my flight and sent home.

Upon arrival back into the UK, customs did a complete search of me, my camera, laptop, everything. This searching took most of the day, and finally I was released. Then it gets much, much worse. Two days later the police arrived at my place of employment with a search warrant and seized my work computer and all my external hard drives. Trying to explain to my employer what this was all about was a major challenge and disaster, and I was soon relieved of my job.

Then, the police arrived at my flat with a search warrant and examined the entire contents of the flat. They seized my computer, and to this day it hasn’t been returned. I was then escorted to the local cop shop for further questioning about my Thailand holiday.

________________________________________________

The consensus on the teakdoor forum was this email was a fake.

But people are watching so wear clean underwear just in case it was the truth.

Pi-Sow Yai is watching.

1984 Plus 29

CCTV was used instituted by Siemens AG at Test Stand VII in Peenemünde, Germany in 1942 to observe the launch of V-2 rockets according to Wikipedia. After the defeat of Nazi Germany the technology was adopted by the West to protect military and security installations. In 1973 the NYPD installed several cameras in Times Square to combat crime. In the 90s police departments expanded CCTV surveillance, however nowhere took to the Big Brotherism like Orwell's England. # 1 was in King's Lynn, Norfolk. The present number stands at 4.2 million or one for every 14 people in the Britain. Surveillance cameras blankets the country's schools, street, hospitals, prisons, sidewalks, sports venue, bars, and highways, so that a British citizen appears on TV up to 300 times a day, which the BBC reported earned the UK the dubious dishonor of being the most surveilled nation in the West. Advocates of CCTV claim that these cameras prevent crime, but there are other factors to be considered for the drop in car thefts and robberies i.e. the rising age of the population, better lighting, and a repressive political order. Most people do nothing wrong, however their guilt or innocence is determined by police watchers. On July 22, 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead by police at Stockwell tube station, who feared he was carrying a bomb. He had nothing in his bag and according to brother Giovani Menezes, "The film showed that Jean did not have suspicious behavior". Opps. CCTV can prove innocence as well as guilt, but never to a legal system which regards its citizens as the enemy.

The All Seeing Eye Of Pattaya

In 1960 my parents moved from Maine to Boston. My mother was a devout Catholic. My father was a convert. They had six children. Public school was banned by my mother and we attended Our Lady of the Foothills for our primary school education and the salvation of our young souls. Sister Mary Goretti was my 7th Grade teacher, but nun had a strict curriculum about the mystical wonders of God. On the first day of class she told the class, "On Judgment Day everyone who ever was will be assembled before God to watch your transgressions, so be good and wear clean underwear." The last directive was for the boys. We were constructed from snails and pig tails. Later that day my best friend asked Sister Mary Goretti, "Why would God make good people watch bad things at the End of Times? Is it to see what they had been missing."

"So they can see why you're going to Hell." Sister Mary Goretti's belief in a fiery pit was unshakable, until she left the sisterhood to join a lesbian farming commune. I had shaken the fear of burning much earlier than 7th Grade, however the possibility of everyone watching your every move became a reality in the 1980s as the UK police installed CCTV throughout England to combat terrorism, football hooliganism, and the scourge of public urination.

This voyeuristic police innovation has spread to Thailand in 2007, when the Pattaya police installed CCTV systems in all the bars on Soi 6 at the expense of the owners.  The purpose of their installation is to record any wrong-doings such as drugs or illegal sex or fights.

No more blow jobs on the sofas.

Everything sexual has to happen upstairs in the shabby rooms and that covers a lot of ground.

Men thought that it was only a question of time before the 'tam-luat' televise the chambers of lust. "They want to watch."

"Why?" It was a stupid question.

"Because all men like to watch." An attractive girl at Dirty Den's replied with a smile. "You want to see me with other girl?"

"No." She and I didn't have that kind of relationship.

"Another man?"

"Definitely not."

"Good." The only reason that liked going with two women was because it cut down on the work 50%. The equation was changed when two men were in the menage a trois. No girl on Soi 6 liked to sweat that hard. Personally I've never had the slightest interest of a menage a trois with two men and one woman. especially if there's a chance of anyone else seeing a 60 year-old man naked on video.

I suppose some freak would watch it.

Not me.

Not even in the mirror.

And Sister Mary Goretti probably feels the same way too.