Identity Cards
When I lived in Hong Kong, I carried an ID card. Everybody did. It was no problem & very useful at times. Yesterday, David Blunkett announced in the House of Commons that he proposed to introduce them in the UK within 10 years. If you are like me & have nothing to hide, it should not be a problem.
However, there is a little something at the back of my mind that makes me deeply uneasy about all of this. I am not sure if it is the general principal, the amount of information that so called “smart cards” could carry about me or who might be able to demand sight of it or the information contained on it.
I believe that a law abiding Englishman going quietly about his own business should be accountable to his own conscience, his family & his maker. I seem to recall that we fought two World Wars at a cost of 1.3m British casualties for among other things, personal freedoms. Increasingly, those hard won freedoms are being eroded and I sense that the stout yeomen of England are not happy about it.
Comments
If you are like me & have nothing to hide, it should not be a problem.
Exactly this attitude has, and will, facilitate the sacrifice of civil liberty, every single time.
You may not think you have anything to hide right now (although I bet you do - care to post your ID and bank account numbers on this blog? Thought not. But you have nothing to hide, so why are you keeping secrets?).
Can you be sure that, in 20 years, you won't? Can you be sure that you can and will trust every single government that comes to power for the rest of your life? If not, you should oppose the ID card.
Posted by: R. C. Dean | November 20, 2003 6:41 PM
I live in Hong Kong and the ID card is an egregious assault upon personal liberty.
It is not so bad for non-Chinese like myself but I have seen the HK police simply stop people at bus stops and demand to see their ID cards! Indeed it even happened to me while jogging in the park in 1991. The police were stopping everybody simply to check ID's.
The new HK ID card has your name, birthdate, ID number, THUMB PRINT and other personal information stored on a chip on the card and in a government computer somewhere. You can, if you wish, and are indeed encouraged to, place your bank account number and other personal information on the card. I believe that even your mass transit debit account on this one card.
I can see no reason or usefulness to this other than to give Elsie Leung the ability to detain me at the airport because she doesn't like that fact that called her a "Fat assed bitch" in front of a television camera. The sole true ID cards is control. Schools, businesses and other institutions issue ID cards for this purpose but I can quit IBM if I want. It is much harder to immigrate to another nation.
Posted by: Phil_HK | November 21, 2003 6:51 AM
The Tao's principle is spontaneity.
Posted by: O'Brien Megan | January 20, 2004 2:48 AM
play free slots http://antique-slot-machines.greatgamblingcasino.info/
Posted by: free strip blackjack | November 18, 2004 3:46 PM