NIDS...WHY JAMAICA?

My web sister Madison Maragh, on her program Jamaica Live, delved deeply into the Jamaican government's pushing of an amendment to institute NIDS.  NIDS is a national identification system to be implemented on the island of Jamaica sometime after 2019.  Acting Chief Technical Director in the Office of the Prime Minister  Jacqueline Lynch-Stewart,  will mandate all civil service employees to pilot the program beginning January 2019. 

NIDS is not simply an ID system to secure the people of the island nation.  This ID system was created by Dermalog, a German Biometrics company, that has contracted with the Phillipines' government to issue biometric driver licenses, Singapore's government for Immigration and & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) using their BioScreen technology to capture thumbprints of persons entering and departing their country.  Singapore has made it compulsary for foreign travellers to scan their thumbprints.  Cambodia has required it's citizens to accept a Dermalog national ID card and ePassport that requires all ten finger prints to be scanned.

The Maldives is the first to have the full Dermalog national ID system in full swing and now Jamaica has begun the process to link it's people, like the Borg in Star Trek Next Generation,  to a central computer system.  The Jamaican government will require not only prints of all ten fingers (eight fingers and both thumbs) but, foot/toe prints, vein pattern of the hand, and blood type to be recorded.  That, of course, is not all but, these are the most invasive aspects of this system. 

Jamaica Live host Madison Maragh raised a most serious point concerning the housing of this most important and deeply personal information.  She questioned where the information would be stored and Jamaica's ability to protect it in today's world of information security breaches. Blood type and vein patterns collected is disconcerting as we must be aware that the body parts of Black people are highly prized around the world.  I wonder could this also be a reason for having and storing such information since Jamaica has a population of over 90 percent Black people. 

Another point Madison brought up was why the rush to get people registered.  Why the rush?  I decided to follow the money.  There is always a money trail.  Always.  The initial design is funded by a Technical Co-operation grant from the Inter American Development Bank through the Koren Povery Fund totaling  $790,000  which is headquartered in Washington D.C.  (Korean Poverty Fund???) This grant will fund several consultancies but, the one that stands out the most to me is to the Develop the Communications and Behavior Change Strategy consultants.   This is, in my opinion, is the psy war ops team to cause the majority of the people to accept this invasive and unnecessary numbering of the people. 

The cost of this project is estimated at approximately $9 billion USD.   In 2011 Jamaica's total external debt was over $14 billion USD with a Gross Domestic Product of only $9,200 per person as of 2012.  Bloomberg reported in October 2016 that Jamaica received  $1.7 billion USD to add to the outstanding $14 billion USD.  I am sure there is a lot more to this story and the phoney claim by Prime Minister Holness that this will fight corruption is truly not one of them.  One pattern to observe surely is that this NIDS program is being implemented in countries with dark skinned people and not Germany the home of Dermalog.

RISE IN PEACE DR. BEN

Seated left to right; Gil Noble, Dr. Ivan van Sertima, Dr. Ben-Jochannan, Dr. John Henrik Clarke (not pictured)

March 19th we lost another great scholar.  Dr. Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan passed on to the realm of the ancestors.  During 1980's explosion onto the scene by Black authors I consumed almost everything that came out and, Dr. Ben's work was in my library.  His work, African Origen of Major World Religions greatly influenced my thinking when it came understanding why Black people were so much in love with Christianity and Islam.  Many of us that continued to study and put into action the teachings of the great scholars such as Dr. Ben owe a debt of gratitude for brining forth information that has inspired others to study and become.  Rise In Peace Dr. Ben!

The Muslim Bushido

The Muslim Bushido has been a step ahead of everyone out here at least in my mind.  Or, should I say, for my mind.  If you are paying attention to the world around you, I would think you should notice how the world (by the way world means economy in this post) is changing never to return as it once was.  Mind you, this is a global change.  Back in '09 Muslim Bushido posted of this changing economy, quoting from the book The Sovereign Individual

To the aspiring entrepreneurs in the audience: If you haven't already done so, you need to take action regarding your business plans. Now. Nothing has changed (at least, not for the better in terms of being an employee) since I said the following back in February 2009: The "Factory Age" of Rising Income Equality is OVER
From a 1997 book, The Sovereign Individual, by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg:

"[Otto Ammon, a 19th century German economist] believed that high abilities naturally result in people rising in income and social position. . . . He also believed that the 'true form of the so-called social pyramid is that of a somewhat flat onion or turnip.' . . . Modern industrial societies are indeed all turnips, with a small wealthy and upper-professional class at the top, a larger middle class, and a minority poor at the bottom. Relative to the middle, both the extremes are small.

. . . All of this is intriguing, but the immediate interest of Ammon's work lies in the major long-term shift we are experiencing in the relations, financial and political, between the top and the middle. . . . Most people could master the skills required for operating the machines of the mid-twentieth century, but those jobs have now been replaced by smart machines which, in effect, control themselves. A whole arena of low- and middle-skill employment has already disappeared. If we are correct, this is a prelude to the disappearance of most employment and the reconfiguration of work in the spot market. " pgs. 212-213.

"Societies that have been indoctrinated to expect income equality and high levels of consumption for persons of low or modest skills will face demotivation and insecurity. As the economies of more countries more deeply assimilate information technology, they will see the emergence---so evident already in North America---of a more or less unemployable underclass. [Khadija interrupting the quote here: Guess who this is? You get one guess.] This is exactly what is happening. This will lead to a reaction with a nationalist, anti-technology bias, as we detail in the next chapter.

The Factory Age may prove to have been a unique period in which semi-stupid machines left a highly profitable niche for unskilled people. Now that the machines can look after themselves, the Information Age is pouring its gifts onto the top 5 percent of Otto Ammon's turnip." pg.214 [emphasis added].