with the whole ID card debate trundling along in the UK, i wondered if NZ has any such thing?
with the whole ID card debate trundling along in the UK, i wondered if NZ has any such thing?
They'd better not do, that's one of my prime motivations for moving!
Whats the ID debate?
Sorry from SA so just wondering
People in the UK have not had to carry ID cards since shortly after the end of World War II - they were introduced as a security measure then, and their use discontinued when it was over. Now, the government are pushing for their reintroduction, against a lot of opposition from the population.
It's not the ID cards themselves so much (though that's bad enough - "Papieren bitte!"), but the underlying database I object to. The cards used in the second world war were literally just cards with your photo and details on (and we were at war!). The modern cards are merely the front end to a massive and intrusive database schema.
Any justification so far offered up by the government that seems determined to push them through has proved to be flimsy and flawed. There IS no sensible rationale for them. They just want them because they're increasingly Stalinesque in their approach to the chimera of national security, and beclause lots of their chums in the city stand to make plenty of money off the gravy-train. And they're budgetted to cost billions.
There's been a slew of controversial data-losses recently that don't exactly inspire confidence in the government's ability to keep the data secure. Basically I'm just not prepared to hand a bunch of hapless civil servants access to that kind of power, against my will, at my expense, to do things not in my interest. They can whistle for it.
EXACTLY. The more 'they' try to know everything about me at the push of a button, the more I'm inclined to want to hide.
No doubt somebody will offer "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear", thus proving our amazing human ability to miss the point
ID cards fundemntally change the relationship between government and the citizens. Heretofore, government has served at the behest of the citizens. Post-ID cards, the citizen may exist at the behest of the government. How does it fall to a government in a modern western democracy to grant ITSELF that kind of power, against the wishes of the people?
well, im glad to hear that nz has not adopted the idea. i didnt comment on the 9/11 post as was apparent but I can say here that when governments rule by fear or the possibility that we should be fearful if we dont adopt an attitude then that is the beginning of the end.