Tuesday, June 14, 2005

NO2ID: stop ID cards and the database state! - Public trust evaporates as Government's case for ID collapses. Public trust evaporates as Government's case for ID collapses When legislation is banned in China on human rights grounds you'd expect governments the world over to take notice. The Chinese Council of Grand Justices has just stopped in its tracks the Republic of China's plans to impose compulsory fingerprinting on all Chinese citizens, declaring the move unconstitutional. Not so in the UK, where the Home Office still insist that "international obligations" tie their hands, 'forcing' them to fingerprint and iris scan every UK resident - conveniently populating the National Identity Register that lies at the heart of the government's ID card scheme at the same time. This obligation is fiction: the EU requires only a facial biometric - that's "digital photo" to you and me. And last week Ireland shelved its plans for biometric passports as the US looks like it will abandon its demands for biometric travel documents amid concerns about technical infeasibility and unreliability. An ICM poll commissioned by NO2ID last weekend shows that public support for the government's ID proposals, far from being "overwhelming", has fallen over the last six months to just 55%. Labour's "80% support" touted up to and during the election has evaporated, just as it did in Australia - where an 80:20 split in favour of ID cards shifted to 80:20 against, as citizens discovered the details of the 'Australia card' scheme. [Privacy Digest: Privacy News (Civil Rights, Encryption, Free Speech, Cryptography)] I find it ironic (and rather depressing) that the government of a notoriously authoritarian country has rejected a policy on human rights grounds so soon after the allegedly free United States has adopted that very policy. Not only that, but in California compulsory fingerprinting was already required by the DMV. People often make jokes about the "People's Republic of California," in reference to this state's blatantly socialist government, but in this particular case the People's Republic of China is actually more free than California, or the United States of America. 12:49:20 PM    comment () Still a Land of the Free (for now). I just returned from my favorite place, St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The locals there are very entrepreneurial and libertarian in attitude. After arriving by ferry from St. Thomas, I usually walk a block to pick up my rental jeep from St. John Car Rental. This time, there was a permanently-affixed sign behind the cashier that read: "Due to the Greed and Wastefulness of the U.S.Virgin Islands government we are now forced to add a $2 per day tax to our daily car rentals. We feel we are already taxed enough, so please write our government to complain about this." How refreshing to find an entrepreneur who is willing to openly challenge the suffocating state bureacracy like this. This lone entrepreneur has more guts and intelligence in this regard than all the cowardly, bureaucratic lapdog CEOs of the "Fortune 500" combined. If you're ever in St. John and need to rent a car, patronize St. John Car Rental. By Thomas DiLorenzo. [LewRockwell.com Blog] 12:23:06 PM    comment () President Mbeki's brother: only the private sector will make Africa rich. Moeletsi Mbeki, the brother of South Africa's President, says that the private sector is key to modern economic development in Africa. But, he says, African leaders and Western donors are holding it back. On the website of his organization, the South African Institute of International Affairs, he argues that: foreign donors could play a more constructive role than they are doing at present through their current efforts to sustain the political elites and African states... [Samizdata.net] Sounds like the wrong brother is President. 12:19:51 PM    comment ()

© Copyright 2006 Ken Hagler. Last update: 2/15/2006; 2:05:25 PM.