I don’t know where this country is going as far as personal freedoms are concerned. They’re just about non-existant at the moment, and whatever remains, the government, Parliament, and the religious establishment are methodically chipping away. If this doesn’t result in a society filled with nothing but directed androids, I’m not sure what is.
The latest salvo in this depreciation of personal freedoms comes this time courtesy of the Ministry of Interior. No surprise there. It’s Traffic Department is introducing new number plates, unimaginatively justified to “fight crime”:
The new number plates are part of a raft of measures designed to tackle car crime, which include the introduction of hi-tech registration badges that will allow police to monitor the movement of every vehicle.
Why?
Is this really necessary in such a tiny country as ours? Aren’t we already robbed of every semblance of privacy without any recourse to a law that protects our identity and rights? What happened to the right of information and data protection laws? Must we be followed, spied on and harassed by the state in every single facet of our miserable lives to end it now with a completely unwarranted invasion of privacy?
This country is just getting from the ridiculous to the obscene.
Is it ever going to end?
No, it won’t.
Because this country doesn’t seem to have any person who cares any more. We deserve what we get… for the price of the apathy we have excelled at toward public affairs, cannot but result in being ruled by evil men.
May your soul rest in peace Plato.
Comments
I agree.This is totally absurd and it seems Bahrain is becoming the lab of such controlling the people experiments which will later spread into other GCC.Unfortunately everyone is apathetic to this and those who arent will concentrate on mindless causes.We deserve this and it will only get worse.
Is it Nineteen Eighty-Four there? Not good, very Orwellian….
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Creating a database of fingerprints and biometric data captured whilst you applied for your new ID card [done]
Bugging your private vehicle with a GPS-enabled chip so your movements can be tracked, traced, and logged 24/7 [done]
Creating a DNA database by swabbing your mouth when you apply for the new ‘enhanced’ Bahraini passport [in progress]
Did you see (or hear) that pathetic interview in Al-Wasat today? Do you call that investigative journalism (let alone just plain journalism)?
The questions were inane to say the least and allowed the traffic police guy to just spout the party line completely unchallenged.
What “the journalist” should have asked are the whys and whatfors.
Like how many vehicles were stolen last year, what is the trend, does that trend justify the huge expenditure required to track all the cars on the road and build a database which can (and will) be mined for a plethora of behavioral and personal traits?
No. None of those questions were asked.
Disgusting.
Individual rights have never been willingly granted by the State. Where they exist, they have been fought for and won.
Thanks for bringing this up. I’m really worried about this as well as the so called smart card. It seems to me that the government has found a way to keep tabs on us through technology and no one seems to care! There really should be massive protests everywhere. What they could do with the information that they have is really scary. If the US and Britain don’t use this technology then why should we?!
Let’s be honest here…the ONLY reason this is happening is to make catching people who speed WAY WAY easier. Now all you do is cross a signal or a speed tracker pole and bam, 1km/hr over the limit, they know everything about you.
In Oman, the highways have 120kph limits, the roads/inner city have reasonable limits. Here, the main Seef highway is 80kph…really? 80? Maybe the authorities should try driving at that speed and then come to these random speed limits.
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the funny thing is that everybody seems to be okay with it…
Sheep! That’s my analysis.
as far i know about this technology no chip or tracking device installed on plates they ll use system called ANPR “Automatic Number Plate Tracking System” which they are already using in bahrain installed close to traffic signals to track violations, secondly its not new to this region UAE already using it for toll tax, you can find more information about ANPR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition
wtf is going on in bahrain.The people are good but the govt policies are very racist.They are like.”We are arabs.We are the best.The rest sucks”.This is not called patriotism.This is called racism.
Sorry btw.My comments are offtopic