Quite how RFID tagging MPs will miraculously make them attend the South African Parliament is baffling. I suppose it will log them in and out of buildings and rooms but so then can a swipe card or pin. Apparently “Parliament has proposed a combination of two technologies – radio frequency identification (RFID) and biometrics (fingerprint) – to monitor the attendance of Members of Parliament at sittings of the houses of parliament and committee meetings.”
Not that I would like to see any human tagged, or using biometrics to prove their whereabouts in relation to the RFID chip, but find that one comment interesting from the Chief Whip of the Democratic Alliance who is against the proposal:
“DA chief whip, “Watty” Watson said the DA caucus rejected the idea, saying that its MPs are not sheep or cattle. “We are senior citizens who have been elected to Parliament by the people of SA and for us to be treated like sheep or cattle being counted is unacceptable,” he said.”
Perhaps refusal to wear the chip would result in expulsion from the South African Parliament much like Andrea Hernandez was expelled from John Jay High School in San Antonio for refusing to wear a RFID tag? But then supposing the proposal goes ahead and South African MPs lead by example carrying RFID tags to monitor whereabouts, does this then set the standard for the rest of the population?
Strange, opposed as I am to RFID tracking humans I do find the notion of using a RFID Real Time Location System to tag MP’s and making their whereabouts in Parliament public to us all, who they associate with, meetings attended, actually quite an attractive proposal. On the other hand I’d like to think that I trust my represented Member of Parliament enough not to tag them (though for me the recent behavior of some UK politicians has eroded that trust). Personally if I did feel the need to RFID tag my MP to see where they were, then the wrong person is in parliament representing me.
If we get to the point where we RFID tag other human beings, what does that say about trust and the standards of our society?
Against RFID in schools 