Nexus - 0706 - New Times Magazine-pages

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LY DD © oF VEN? GROWING DISILLUSIONMENT WITH GOVERNMENTS Since 1995 the trend has continued, with a Bulletin Morgan poll (April 1998) finding that only 7% of Australians believed that politicians were honest and ethical, and that 66% were unhappy with the major parties. A similar poll in 1976 found that 19% believed that politicians were honest and ethical. (Source: By Sue Boland, Green Left Weekly, 26 July 2000, website www.greenleft.org.au) Sues show a sharp decline in confidence in politicians in the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, Italy and Sweden, with only The Netherlands showing clear evidence of increasing confi- dence. The authors of In Disaffected Democracies: What's Troubling the Trilateral Countries ?, Susan J. Pharr and Robert D. Putnam, analysed the results of surveys con- ducted in the rich, industrially developed countries. They found that in 1964, only 29% of people in the United States agreed with the statement, "The government is pret- ty much run by a few big interests looking after themselves". By 1984, that figure had increased to 55%, and by 1998 to 63%. This loss of confidence is not limited to politicians. In 11 of 14 countries sur- veyed, the public had also lost confidence in the parliament, the armed forces, the judiciary, the police and the civil service. The surveys also noted a decline in political participation, with a fall in the membership of political parties and in the proportion of people who turn out to vote. A University of California study, reported in the Economist (17 July 1999), showed that in 18 out of 20 rich countries the pro- HARK THE HERALDED "DIGITAL ANGEL" IMPLANT working prototype of an implant known as "Digital Angel", designed to monitor the physiology and whereabouts of human "wearers", is to be unveiled in October at an invitation-only event in New York City, two months ahead of schedule. The device, developed by Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. of Palm Beach, Florida, USA, is said to be the first-ever operational combination of bio-sensor technology and Web-enabled wireless telecommunications linked to global posi- tioning satellite location-tracking systems (see Global News, 7/02). Digital Angel is intended to serve a number of functions. In addition to locat- ing missing persons and monitoring physi- ological data, the device will be marketed to the world of e-commerce as a means of verifying online consumer identity. Similar to microchip technologies cur- rently used as electronic ID tags for pets, Digital Angel is a dime-sized implant that is inserted just under the skin. When implanted within a human body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles and can be acti- vated either by the "wearer" or by a moni- toring facility. Those attending the event in New York City will see a working, multimedia demonstration of the implant. A miniature sensor device—smaller than a grain of rice and equipped with a tiny antenna—will capture and wirelessly transmit a person's vital body-function data, such as tempera- ture or pulse, to an Internet-integrated ground station. In addition, the antenna will also receive information from the GPS satellite regarding the location of the indi- vidual. Both sets of data—medical infor- mation and location—will then be wire- portion of the electorate voting was lower than it was in the early 1950s, with a medi- an decline of 10%. In the US, the trend began to show up in the 1960s and has continued ever since. Australia is not isolated from these trends. According to the World Values Survey, between 1983 and 1995 the pro- portion of Australians with a great deal of confidence in the federal government fell from 56% to just 26%. The surveys also found that Australians’ trust in key institu- tions such as the media, the public service, the churches and the legal system had decreased. xs Son & 6 - NEXUS OCTOBER —- NOVEMBER 2000