Identification

As usual, my surroundings call out to me to distract me from the process of revision. i sometimes swear it is a conspiracy of the world against me to prevent me from doing what i should be doing. but i shall not moan about work. i have concluded that i am going to start avoiding talking about work/revision/study from today till the end of my exams. there's no point berating how much i haven't done when it's only obviously going to make me feel worse about not doing anything, especially when the world around me seemingly is engrossed in the captivating acts of book-mugging and library-hogging.

I was randomly surfing around today and came across a recent added web service that contributes to what many have now called the blogging phenomena. Phlogger is its name, and it's basically a service that allows you to send MMS from your phone to your blog. I know that sounds really cool... and i was about to sign up for it when i realised that Phlogger is the innovation of a Singapore-based software company. As i surveyed the details of the fields to be filled in, I noticed that one of the pre-requisites for using this service is providing a 'NRIC/FIN number'.

I stared blankly at this blank field for quite awhile. This is quite the first time since i've left home that i've had to fill in my IC(Identity card) number. Basically, (for my fellow english friends) NRIC simply means National Registration Identity Card. Every single resident has this identity card - a number assigned to you right from the moment you are born. Before, it used to be different from your passport number, but now your IC number functions as your passport number as well. FIN is an alternative identification given to foreigners in the country. So everyone in the country has a number of some sort.
It really made me think about something i heard from my coursemate only a few days back. about England thinking about introducing identity cards for the whole nation. one of my mates, who has always known to feel passionately strong about his opinions, said he thought the idea entirely wrong and that the country should stand up against it. There was mention he was even ready to go to jail for standing up against the idea of identity cards. His argument is that it is a violation of human rights/privacy for so much personal information (full name, date of birth, address, blood group, thumb print etc) of the individual to be contained on a single card.

And then there's Singapore, a whole small country consisting of 4 million people, every single one represented by a number - a number that we dont even stop to question or challenge in any way. Who came up with that idea, anyway? I've never really given this much thought, but now that i think of it, everytime i fill out an application at home, i've got to fill in that 7 digit identification number. it does kind of make one feel like a convict being called from his jail cell, like "021581!" Even when i fill in lucky draw coupons, i have to include the number. does various known and unknown agencies link up to this one big databank that contains the personal information of every single living person who exists in the world? It's a scary thought. I am reminded of Hollywood conspiracy thrillers where any person's file can be called up by the FBI/CIA, deleted on random, modified by whim, and exploited by use of personal information. I just never thought myself part of any conspiracy and that idea is starting to sow its seeds in my fervent imagination.

Maybe i'm just losing it. America, after all, has social security numbers, that work on this principle. But that's America. Who gives the right to governments to label their citizens by numbers? But for purposes of logistics and track records, what other alternative is viable to society?

I am strangely perturbed that I have an identification number. There is not a chance that 7 or 8 digits are embodiments of who you are and what your identity is defined by. When I frivolously write my number away, on the countless forms you fill up in the process of your life, who knows what kind of information am i giving away about myself?
I look at the blank fields on the Phlogger page again, and suddenly i get repulsed by the fact that I am on the other end of the earth, on a whole different continent and country, but am still required to fill in a number to define myself, as provision of personal information, before i can use a service, that has no relation to my identity.

In a republic country masquerading on the principles of democracy, where the need to control is so strong, it is hardly surprising the concept of identity cards exist. It is even more hardly surprising that it does not occur in a single instance in the singular mind of the average obedient citizen to question why there's a need for identity numbers in the first place. Is its existence justified? should strangers be allowed to know significant personal details of any other person just by glancing at a single 3 by 2 inch laminated card that has our name on it? Or are we over-reacting?

Whatever it is, I didn't proceed with the registration. Somehow, having to provide that detail to use a web service just made it seem like i was revealing something about myself to the intangible gaping galaxy that is the internet; and that made me feel vulnerable. Is there no other way?