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Tony Blair pushes digital ID as ‘essential’ to modern infrastructure but needing public ‘persuasion’

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Former UK prime minister Sir Tony Blair

From LifeSiteNews

By Tim Hinchliffe

In his Cyber Polygon 2020 talk, Blair didn’t make the case for why having a digital identity was actually necessary to prevent a cyber pandemic, but rather that digital identities would be an inevitable part of the digital ecosystem and would be crucial for managing health records, transaction data, and immigration status.

Speaking Tuesday at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) “Future of Britain Conference 2024: Governing in the Age of AI,” Blair continued his years-long push for digital ID adoption.

READ: Major anti-globalist TV station debanked in Germany and Austria

“An analysis on digital ID, which is an essential part of a modern digital infrastructure, could yield benefits not only for ease of interaction with government but for the public finances,” said Blair.

“Though, we have a little work of persuasion to do here, it has to be said,” he added.

Speaking at a session on “Why Building a Digital Backbone Is Essential for Britain,” India’s former Minister of State for Electronics, Information Technology, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that digital ID was the “bedrock” of a “digital government architecture.”

When it came to the notion of individual civil liberties and digital identity, Chandrasekhar said that it was “an interesting debate to have” and that digital ID didn’t imply a violation of personal privacy:

People who say digital ID automatically implies a violation of personal information privacy have not read the last two chapters of the book they’ve been reading.

‘A citizen’s digital ID would contain a single unique identifier, which would help link the user with public services. Each service would retain its own unique identifier such as an NHS number or Unique Taxpayer Reference.’ — Tony Blair Institute, The Economic Case for a UK Digital ID, 2024

The report “The Economic Case for a UK Digital ID” claims that digital ID can be used for everything from integrating “personal health records and personal data” to streamlining taxation and welfare payments, as well as for managing refugees and asylum seekers.

The total cost of a digital ID rollout in the U.K., according the report, would cost at most £1.4 billion [$1.8 billion], and a digital ID scheme could be developed and deployed “over the course of a single parliamentary term (five years).”

Citizens would retain control over how linked they want their data from different databases to be via a user portal/app, while controlling how their digital identity attributes are used through a digital wallet (decentralized model).

Tony Blair has been pushing the digital ID agenda for many years for a variety of different reasons, from vaccine passports to tracking refugee statuses.

A TBI spokesperson told Politico EU that the organization was not advocating for mandatory digital ID cards, saying, “Everyone loves to talk about ID cards or government ID. That’s not actually our proposal,” adding that TBI’s vision is for people to be given “the ability to connect [their] data across the public sector.”

Speaking at the WEF-backed, Russian-based Cyber Polygon 2020 cybersecurity training exercise, former UK Prime Minister Blair stated with confidence that governments were “absolutely, inevitably” moving in the direction of digital identity adoption.

In his Cyber Polygon 2020 talk, Blair didn’t make the case for why having a digital identity was actually necessary to prevent a cyber pandemic, but rather that digital identities would be an inevitable part of the digital ecosystem and would be crucial for managing health records, transaction data, and immigration status.

Digital identity is one of three major components of what is known as Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), which also includes massive data exchanges, and a fast digital payments system, which can include the use of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

India is considered to be one of the world leaders in DPI, which everyone in the space refers to as the “India stack.”

Last year, India’s Aadhaar digital ID architect Nandan Nilekani said that everybody should have a digital ID, a smartphone, and a bank account because these were the “tools of the new world” upon which everything else was built.

In November 2023, the U.N. and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partnered to launch the 50-in-5 campaign to accelerate DPI rollouts in 50 countries within five years.

Earlier this year, the European Union parliament said that its digital identity wallet would be voluntary, which is what India said about its own digital ID scheme before government agencies began mandating it for certain services.

At the WEF annual meeting in Davos this year, Queen Maxima of the Netherlands said that a digital ID was good for knowing “who actually got a vaccination or not.”

Reprinted with permission from The Sociable

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COVID-19

‘Really chilling’: Five countries to test European vaccination card

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From LifeSiteNews

By Michael Nevradakis Ph. D., The Defender

The goal is financial control. There is no legitimate public health purpose. The central bankers are hiding behind a health narrative — policies like lockdown are a way to manage inflation and resource demand when monetary policy is highly inflationary.

Five European Union (EU) countries in September will pilot the newly developed European Vaccination Card (EVC), which “aims to empower individuals by consolidating all their vaccination data in one easily accessible location.

The pilot program marks a step toward the continent-wide rollout of the card, according to Vaccines Today.

Belgium, GermanyGreece, Latvia and Portugal will test the new card in a variety of formats, including printed cards, mailed copies and digital versions for smartphones.

The program aims to “pave the way for other countries by harmonizing vaccine terminology, developing a common syntax, ensuring adaptability across different healthcare settings, and refining EVC implementation plans,” Vaccines Today reported.

The plans will be made public in 2026, “extending the EVC system beyond the pilot phases and enabling broad adoption across all EU Member States.”

According to Vaccines Today, the EVC program seeks to leverage “the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic” and foster “innovation in vaccination management,” with the goal of “taking crucial steps toward a more resilient and health-secure future.”

Vaccines Today described the GDHCN as a “citizen-centered method of storing and sharing data,” rather than a system that relies “solely on public health systems.”

Greece was the first European country to propose the implementation of a vaccination passport, which was eventually adopted as the EU’s “Green Pass.” Greece later became the first EU member state to adopt a digital “Covid passport.”

Greece’s University of Crete is coordinating the EVC project alongside 14 partners from nine countries — and with 6.75 million euros ($7.3 million) in funding from the European Commission’s (EC) EU4Health program. The EC is the EU’s executive branch.

‘Direct threat to our freedom’

Experts who spoke with The Defender said that plans for the EVC pose a direct threat to personal and health freedom and national sovereignty.

Dr. David Bell, a public health physician, biotech consultant and former director of Global Health Technologies at Intellectual Ventures Global Good Fund, said:

The proposed vaccination card reflects an increasing effort to utilize public health tools as a means to concentrate wealth and provide a means to control populations. It is very reminiscent of approaches in parts of Europe pre-World War II, and essentially serves a similar purpose: to exclude individuals who do not follow government instructions from society.

The trial in Europe is an obvious next step after the recent widening of surveillance under the IHR [International Health Regulation] amendments, which greatly increase the likelihood of recurrent lockdowns to enable mandated vaccination as a way to force mass use, and profit-making, from vaccines.

Dutch attorney Meike Terhorst also criticized the pilot program, calling a digital vaccination passport a “direct threat to our freedom and also the sovereignty of any state.”

“All our powers are handed over to the globalists, the group of bankers and investors,” Terhorst said.

Catherine Austin Fitts, founder and publisher of the Solari Report and former U.S. assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said plans for the EVC represent “another step toward asserting control of labor and travel, with a goal to controlling resources and assets.”

Fitts said:

The goal is financial control. There is no legitimate public health purpose. The central bankers are hiding behind a health narrative — policies like lockdown are a way to manage inflation and resource demand when monetary policy is highly inflationary.

Experts also tied the rollout of the EVC to warnings from government and health officials about the “next pandemic,” potentially caused by the bird flu or a still-unknown “Disease X.”

According to Fitts:

Many steps are underway to prepare for a bird flu pandemic. Chicken is the most significant source of meat protein.

So far in response to the current bird flu claims, I am told by experts who follow bird flu claims that 99 million birds have been killed in the U.S. and 500 million worldwide. Bird flu vaccines have been shipped to Europe. A vaccine card can be used to try to pressure or force people to take another unnecessary injection.

French science journalist and author Xavier Bazin told The Defender, “For the time being, a vaccination card in Europe is meant to ensure that most children get their vaccination.” However, he said he believes the next step is to try to mandate the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine across Europe.

“Even if they do not succeed with MMR, this kind of card will be perfect when the next ‘pandemic’ hits and they want to mandate an emergency vaccine, like they did with COVID,” Bazin said.

Similarly, Bell said:

WHO and other agencies are clear in their intent to link compliance with centralized health dictates with the ability of people to go about their daily life.

Whilst directly against post-WWII conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the spirit of the Nuremberg Declaration, they have the backing of major international agencies and the corporate interests that have become enmeshed with them over the past two decades.

Experts also pointed out that plans for the EVC have been in the works even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The digital vaccination passport is a technical means to override personal freedoms, such as the right to say no to a vaccination,” Terhorst said. “It is a means to turn free human beings into ‘slaves.’ This digital vaccination passport has been planned many years in advance by the globalists.”

Plans for EU vaccination card began in 2018

Development of the EVC began in 2018, according to official EU documents.

That year, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance announced at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), that it would become the first international nonprofit to partner with the WEF’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“In my opinion, [the EVC] is linked to Gavi’s project of mixing digital ID and vaccination proof,” Bazin said.

In 2019, the ID2020 Alliance, along with Gavi and the Government of Bangladesh, announced a new digital ID program, for which it was later announced that it aimed “to provide biometric-linked digital IDs to infants when they receive routine immunisations.”

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a partner of Gavi, which, in turn, closely collaborates with the ID2020 Alliance, which has promoted the development of digital ID.

According to Vaccines Today, the EVC is necessary because zoonotic diseases — those transmitted from animals to humans — “continue to pose a significant threat to global health.”

“As Europe transitions from emergency measures to long-term COVID-19 management, there is a critical opportunity to strengthen resilience and increase preparedness for future health threats,” Vaccines Today reported, citing the EVC as one such project.

Other EU-level projects in the works, according to Vaccines Today, include “a clinical decision system that provides vaccination recommendations, a screening tool to identify and invite vulnerable populations, an electronic Product Information Leaflet (e-PIL) to enable the transfer of vaccines across countries without having to repackage them, and a modeling and forecasting tool to assess the impact of public health interventions.”

But for Bazin, such efforts have little to do with protecting public health.

“For those who think vaccination is a medical procedure that should always remain a free choice, the European Vaccination Card is really chilling and should be opposed,” he said.

This article was originally published by The Defender – Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

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CBDC Central Bank Digital Currency

WEF report: Digital ID has become a standard feature for everyday life in Pakistan

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Tim Hinchliffe

A WEF report, co-authored by the U.N. and World Bank, states that digital public infrastructure ‘is transforming lives in Pakistan,’ ushering in a need for digital ID such that adults in Pakistan cannot lead normal lives without it.

Digital identity sits at the heart of Pakistan’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) transformation and is now a standard feature in every adult’s life, according to the WEF Agenda.

Published on the World Economic Forum (WEF) Agenda blog and co-written by representatives from the World Bank and the United Nations’ Better Than Cash Alliance, the story “Digital public infrastructure is transforming lives in Pakistan. Here’s how” highlights how adults in Pakistan cannot lead a normal life without having a digital identity, which is a key component of DPI.

 

“At the heart of Pakistan’s digital transformation is the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), established to overhaul the country’s identity systems,” the authors write, adding:

This was a foundational change, positioning Pakistan among a select group of nations equipped to manage comprehensive digital identities for over 240 million citizens.

The NADRA-issued Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) is now a standard feature in every adult Pakistani’s life, facilitating a range of routine tasks such as opening bank accounts, purchasing airline tickets, acquiring driver’s licenses, and qualifying for social protection, thereby ensuring seamless identity authentication for every citizen.

Digital Public Infrastructure is a civic technology stack consisting of three components:

  • Digital Identity,
  • Fast Digital Payment Systems (e.g. programmable Central Bank Digital Currencies [CBDCs]),
  • Data Exchanges Between Public and Private Entities.

Now, “Pakistan is set to launch several ambitious DPI initiatives, including expanding the RAAST payment system, implementing a nationwide digital health records system, and launching a blockchain-based land registry,” according to the WEF Agenda.

In 2020 the State Bank of Pakistan partnered with non-profit Karandaaz, which is a “prime delivery partner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

In 2021 the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted Karandaaz $4 million “to integrate the Ehsaas Program (biggest Government to Person Program in Pakistan) with RAAST-Pakistan’s Instant Payment System to enable interoperability and choice for the beneficiaries.”

Contributing to the WEF blog post are the World Bank’s technical advisor for Digital Public Infrastructure and Digital ID Tariq Malik, along with the U.N.-based Better Than Cash Alliance’s head of Asia Pacific Prerna Saxena and Pakistan lead Raza Matin.

The U.N.’s Better Than Cash Alliance advocates for “responsible digital payments” and repeatedly states it does not want to abolish physical cash.

However, the Better Than Cash Alliance does want more women to have accounts in their own name, which could also lead to more citizens being tracked, traced, and taxed in the digital system:

We do not want to abolish physical cash, but rather wish to ensure that people have choice in how they make and receive payments. It is important for people to have digital payment options that are responsible and ‘better than cash’ – for example, a woman can have a payment account in her own name, which she manages. To be clear, we do not want to prevent people from using cash, as sometimes it is the best or only payment option.

Speaking at the World Bank Group’s inaugural Global Digital Summit last March, World Bank President Ajay Banga said that digital identity should be embraced worldwide, and that governments should be the owners, so they can guarantee privacy and security for their citizens.

According to Banga, once everyone is hooked-up to a digital ID, then it can be linked to existing infrastructure run by private companies.

“Creating a digital identity platform for citizenry is kind of foundational, and I believe your government should be the owner of your digital ID; private companies should not own that,” said the World Bank president, adding, “it is the social contract of the citizens of their countries to have an identity, a currency, and safety. We should not take that away from them.”

“They should have the digital identity; that digital identity should guarantee the privacy of that citizen; it should help them with their security, but the government should give the identity,” said Banga, adding:

Once you do that, then connecting them to the infrastructure that a private company, either Ericsson or Verizon, or combinations of them – in fact mostly it’s a combination – then the question is, ‘What do you do with it that requires a digital ID?’ so you can start connecting with that citizen.

For Banga and other unelected globalists, digital identity is the key to unlocking access to goods and services through public-private partnerships – the fusion of corporation and state.

Last year, the United Nations partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch the 50-in-5 Digital Public Infrastructure campaign to accelerate digital ID, digital payments systems, and data sharing among 50 countries by 2028.

Last week, former British prime minister-turned globalist technocracy enthusiast Tony Blair said that digital ID was essential to modern infrastructure but would require “a little work of persuasion.”

Speaking on a panel about Digital Public Infrastructure at the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 2023 Spring Meetings, Infosys co-founder and ex-chair of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Nandan Nilekani, said that everybody should have a digital ID, a bank account, and a smartphone as they were the “tools of the New World” for digital public infrastructure.

India is the globalists’ shining example of what DPI should look like in practice.

Following the B20 India Summit last year, the leaders of the B20 published their annual communique, with a section dedicated to DPI rollouts.

The B20 India communique called on G20 nations to rollout DPI, with the first policy action being to “Promote the digitization of identities at the individual, enterprise, and farm levels that are both interoperable and recognized across borders.“

As a key performance indicator for digital ID rollouts, the B20 recommended that “G20 nations develop guidelines for unique single digital identification for MSME [micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises] and individuals that can be securely accessed (based on consent) by different government and private stakeholders for identity verification and information access within 3 years.”

Speaking at the WEF Global Technology Governance Summit in April 2021, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said that his government’s goal was to create a digital ID system that would make Ukraine the most convenient State in the world by operating like a digital service provider.

“We have to make a product that is so convenient that a person will be able to disrupt their stereotypes, to breakthrough from their fears, and start using a government-made application,” said Fedorov.

“Our goal is to enable all life situations with this digital ID,” he added.

While Ukraine has sought to enable all life situations with its digital ID, the WEF reports that digital identity “is now a standard feature in every adult Pakistani’s life.”

Reprinted with permission from The Sociable.

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