Virus Induced Government Oppression
Human Rights Epidemic
Do you identify yourself as a person, an individual, a free person? I hope, you at least think you are human and deserve basic human rights.
We have globally and effectively thrown human rights out the door. Governments, Telecommunication companies, Apple and Google duopoly; own, analyze, use your data without bothering to ask you with the excuse: There is a pandemic. Data sets they have on you do not only include your photos, location, family tree alone. They track your behavior, your body temperature, your heart rate, and cross match your activities with your search data.
Your phone is not handed to you by your government, you are bound by no law suggesting you are supposed to own a smartphone or a device with a working camera and other sensors. You purchase a device for your own use and authorities all of a sudden think it is okay to repurpose it as a leash.
They also store all information on you for up to 6 years and make it available to a variety of public officials. Numerous governments are forcing people to send them selfies via a shady app every 20 minutes or around the clock. Stalking much? The ineffectiveness of this method due to many less fortunate people not having access to a mobile device alone proves this act on its own is malicious.
It worries me, watching governments rubbing their hands like a sneaky fly on the window knowing they now have all the surveillance power with a good excuse.
Since when they were so keen on implementing such new technology so quickly. Where is bureaucracy? Can I track a government official’s whereabouts as well? Can I have an app for that? Can I skip going to DMV via an app?
Stalking
This article on ABC about a woman being forced to send selfies to Polish government every 20 minutes was insane.
There are shocking statements:
”You need to take a photo, no matter how it looks like, you just need to take it,”
“Then they write, ‘Your task is done, see you next time.’”
“Even when you take a longer shower, you need to be very aware and alert all the time.”
What have we done wrong? Did we commit a crime? Why government stalks us as if we are their pets? Are we cattle? Can I please “refuse” to be on constant gunpoint about not leaving my own house?
The same story unfolds in Russia as well:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/21/russia-intrusive-tracking-app-wrongly-fines-muscovites
The app randomly sends push notifications to users instructing them to immediately take and send a selfie as proof of not having left the house without the phone. If users miss a notification, they are automatically fined 4,000 rubles (approximately US$56). Some users said that the notification would arrive in the middle of the night while they were sleeping and that they had been fined by the time they woke up.
So you are at the mercy of an application that has no regulations, developed by god knows which incompetent self-appointed software developer. What is next? Are we going to shoot people with drones because an app said so? I am not even going to discuss how the application itself is managed. What if the developer infuses an app with malicious algorithms to target a specific race, nationality, gender, etc. Worse is, what if the government has asked him/her to do so? Where is transparency? You are at the mercy of your government, your phone’s modules, app developer’s honesty. It is like Russian roulette with 3 bullets in the chamber. I have talked about the doomsday, maybe it is closer than it appears.
This is a disaster. Governments, never EVER going to give up this surveillance power. They are now officially in your pockets without a warrant and without you committing any crimes.
Things are darker in already prominently oppressive countries. China and Hong Kong forcing people to wear GPS Tracking bracelets, they are also operating an army of drones to track every single movement. They have installed cameras at the doorsteps of people. I am starting to believe cattle might have more dignity.
Information Manipulation
Political parties are using and abusing the COVID19 by shaping scientific advice to fit their agendas. People are polarized over lockdowns with the help of political parties. You are defending the lockdown, you must be leftist, democrat. You are against it; you are a republican, gun-toting, Trump lover. Does it really have anything to do with the virus itself at all? Do we care about scientists even a bit or are we just so indulged in the media that we effectively overlook scientific proof and act on our beliefs? Free flow information is at risk. Journalists, reporters in numerous countries face jail time and restrictions if they steer away from the government rhetorics.
Inhumane Treatment
India uses stamps to force quarantines on her citizens apart from beating them in the middle of a street. These indelible stamps include the termination date of your quarantine and it reads PROUD TO PROTECT, HOME QUARANTINED and a date under it. It occupies a reasonably large portion of the hand. The ink they use also causes chemical burns on some people. Basically you deserve a big scar on the back of your hand for no reason. You are welcome.
Protective measures must never result in inhuman or degrading treatment of persons deprived of their liberty.
Governments can not deny immediate relatives’ right to support their loved ones in hospitals. They are their caregivers not relatives.
Governments can not deny families a funeral.
The government can not weld your door shut.
The government can not reduce you to a tax-paying cash cow. Governments are acting without scientific evidence and warrants. These mechanisms are clearly being abused, overly broad measures are being put in place with no foundation.
Stigma
We are already deprived of our liberty and if we are somehow infected or suspected of it, it gets worse.
We are stigmatizing people with COVID19 or who work in environments with a high risk of exposure.
Health workers especially in developing countries are facing discrimination for their profession. People are being harassed, alienated even shot because they potentially carry the disease. In developed nations, the same occurs in a less physical but albeit scarring manner. People are discriminated, lynched, cast away due to their genders, ethnicity, and profession. The relatives of these people are also under fire and being forced to endure prejudice.
GENEVA (24 April 2020) — UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet :
“Given the exceptional nature of the crisis, it is clear States need additional powers to cope. However, if the rule of law is not upheld, then the public health emergency risks becoming a human rights disaster, with negative effects that will long outlast the pandemic itself,”
Habeas Corpus
“The constitutional right of habeas corpus gives those confined under color of law the right to have a court review the reasons for and conditions of confinement. If not satisfied, the court must order the confinement to end.
The Latin, habeas corpus, translates into English as, you may have the body. The phrase refers to what a judge may allow — surrendering a prisoner to custody — only after reviewing a challenged confinement. A judge’s writ compels the responsible officials to bring their captive before the court for it to examine the reasons for and conditions of imprisonment. The writ of habeas corpus thus ensures that no king, governor, president or other executive authority may unilaterally decide who shall be placed in confinement. Simply put, anyone made prisoner has the right of judicial review. “
