It seems Kuwait has begun demanding DNA profiles from everyone wanting official documentation of their existence.
The Ministry of Interior’s Assistant Undersecretary for Citizenship and Passports Major General Mazen Al-Jarrah ... said that DNA tests will be a condition to issue [passports] with the aim of building a database with citizens’ DNA information.
. . .
“DNA will be a condition to register babies older than six months, be born in or outside Kuwait in order to prevent unlawfully adding anybody to citizenship files,” he explained, noting that he followed up this measure with a ruling family member.
There's more at the link.
OK, that's birth certificates and passports. What else? I guess drivers licenses will be next. And if all this is going down in Kuwait, how long before Uncle Sam decides he wants the same information from US residents?
Seems like Big Brother is getting bigger and less brotherly every day . . .
Peter
7 comments:
We should have done that with prisoners and KIA in Afghanistan from the start.
But not to vote in federal elections!
Gah.
Get ready for the Antichrist!
I'm doubting it, Kuwait is an odd case. Only about 30% of the people who live in Kuwait are actually citizens the rest are Third Country Nationals (TCNs) who seem to do the actual labor in the country. Citizenship seems to be mostly bloodline based beginning in the 1920s. An expatriate or TCN gaining citizenship in Kuwait is nearly impossible.
But the benefits of being a Kuwaiti citizen... free education through college, interest free loans on housing, free medical including treatment outside the country, discounts on food and services. It's like the dividend in Alaska but on mega steroids.
It only makes sense. Using modern technology to clearly identify your citizens. This is especially important in a country like Kuwait where half the population is Not Kuwaiti.
Imagine if all those "Syrian" refugees could be positively identified by their DNA.
No one has a right to be anonymous or to pretend to be someone they are not. There is no God-Given right to escape your own reputation or the value of your good name.
Biometrics isn't such a bad idea.
True, EVERYTHING on your file comes up---including embarrassing and humiliating police/arrest/conviction records, and your medical information will no longer be private (enabling medical facilities out-of-state/out-of-country to learn about preexisting medical conditions you may have in the event of injury/illness ...is this a "bad" thing?). Of course police/arrest/conviction records are never private anyway.
That aside, it's a perfect flawless way to identify individuals, and has the potential to replace the current practice of requiring I.D. cards and other vulnerable externalacies. And could also eliminate common social curses such as "identity theft" and the like.
But its implementation is highly improbable anyway, due to all the income generated for both state and federal governments as well as for the banks and credit card companies by drivers licenses, state I.D.S and other such forms and documents.
And what happens if someone alters, falsifies, corrupts or co-opts your biometric information or the data it's linked to?
How do you replace your iris'? Or a facial bone profile? If the data it's linked to can't be trusted, and it can't, then what is the point? (Other than to identify your remains?)
It's a massive privacy invasion, with very limited utility.
nick
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