industryterm:government services

En passant par les Émirats (à l’occasion des « sabotages » à Fujairah…) je découvre le tout nouveau Ministère des possibilités et ses quatre départements, dont celui du Prix comportemental, avec un système permettant de gagner des #bons_points monnayables.

Saif Bin Zayed chairs Ministry of Possibilities’ first meeting
▻https://gulfnews.com/uae/government/saif-bin-zayed-chairs-ministry-of-possibilities-first-meeting-1.63957800

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Dubai: Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, yesterday chaired the first meeting for the Department of Behavioural Award of the Ministry of Possibilities, which was launched to bring about a radical change in the current government work systems.

During the meeting, Shaikh Saif approved the department’s action plans for the next phase, which includes setting a list of behaviours affecting society, and identifying incentives to stimulate good behaviour, in addition to developing a smart application to reach out to all segments of society.

Shaikh Saif stressed that the UAE is pressing ahead with enhancing its success to improve the quality of life under the leadership of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the creative initiatives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

He stressed the ministry’s department of behavioural rewards is a pioneering initiative launched to promote positive behaviour among all members of the society, its institutions and to invest the positive potential of the UAE society within an institutional framework.
[…]
Last April, Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid launched the Ministry of Possibilities as the world’s first virtual ministry to apply design-thinking and experimentation to develop proactive and disruptive solutions to tackle critical issues, bringing together federal and local government teams and the private sector.

The first phase of the ministry’s work will include several national programmes in the form of four departments which are:
• Department of Anticipatory Services — it aims to redefine customer experience in all areas and provides anticipatory services to the public,
• Department of Behavioural Rewards — it aims to develop an approach for incentivising positive behaviour through a point-based rewards system that can be used in payments for government services,
• Department of UAE Talent — it aims to create a nurturing environment to empower Emiratis to be part of the country’s development and future design,
• Department of Government Procurement — it aims to make government procurement faster and more accessible, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Runaway Saudi sisters call on #Google and #Apple to pull ’inhuman’ woman-monitoring app

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Two runaway Saudi sisters on Wednesday urged Apple and Google to pull an “inhuman” app allowing men to monitor and control female relatives’ travel as it helped trap girls in abusive families.

Maha and Wafa al-Subaie, who are seeking asylum in Georgia after fleeing their family, said Absher – a government e-services app – was bad for women as it supported Saudi Arabia’s strict male guardian system.

“It gives men control over women,” said Wafa, 25. “They have to remove it,” she added, referring to Google and Apple.

#Absher, which is available in the Saudi version of Google and Apple online stores, allows men to update or withdraw permissions for female relatives to travel abroad and to get SMS updates if their passports are used, according to researchers.

Neither company was immediately available to comment. Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook said in February that he had not heard of Absher but pledged to “take a look at it”.

A free tool created by the interior ministry, Absher allows Saudis to access a wide range of government services, such as renewing passports, making appointments and viewing traffic violations.

Saudi women must have permission from a male relative to work, marry and travel under the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom’s guardianship system, which has faced scrutiny following recent cases of Saudi women seeking refuge overseas.

The al-Subaie sisters, who stole their father’s phone to get themselves passports and authorisation to fly to Istanbul, said they knew of dozens of other young women who were looking to escape abusive families.

Tech giants could help bring about change in Saudi Arabia if they pulled Absher or insisted that it allows women to organise travel independently – which would significantly hamper the guardianship system - they said.

“If [they] remove this application, maybe the government will do something,” Wafa said.

The sisters’ plea added to growing calls from rights groups, diplomats and US and European politicians for the app to be removed from online stores.

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday that she had asked tech companies in Silicon Valley “tough questions” this month about the “threats” posed by apps like Absher.

“Technology can, and should, be all about progress. But the hugely invasive powers that are being unleashed may do incalculable damage if there are not sufficient checks in place to respect human rights,” she said in a statement.

A Saudi teen received global attention and ultimately an offer of asylum in Canada when she refused to leave a Thai airport hotel in January to escape her family. Two other Saudi sisters who hid in Hong Kong for six months were granted visas in March to travel to a third country.

“Increasing cases of women fleeing the country are indicative of the situation of women in Saudi Arabia,” said Lynn Maalouf, Middle East research director for rights group Amnesty International.

“Despite some limited reforms, [they] are inadequately protected against domestic violence and abuse and, more generally, are discriminated against.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has introduced reforms, such as lifting the driving ban for women, and indicated last year that he favoured ending the guardianship system. But he has stopped short of backing its annulment.

Western criticism of the kingdom has sharpened with the trial of 11 women activists who said last month that they had been tortured while in detention on charges related to human rights work and contacts with foreign journalists and diplomats.

The public prosecutor has denied the torture allegations and said the women had been arrested on suspicion of harming Saudi interests and offering support to hostile elements abroad.

▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/25/runaway-saudi-sisters-call-for-inhuman-woman-monitoring-app-absher-to-b
#contrôle #hommes #surveillance #femmes
#liberté #asile #migrations #réfugiés #Arabie_Saoudite #femmes #technologie #domination_masculine #fuite #contrôles_frontaliers #frontières #passeport

ping @reka

The Four Essential Elements of the Smart City Revolution
▻https://hackernoon.com/4-elements-to-support-smart-city-revolution-82e8f9301031?source=rss----3

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Canada is moving forward with great initiatives to support the smart cities development as the #government well understood it is a technology race that will promote the country’s image and create opportunities to sell and promote our technologies abroad. What amaze me is the social and community dimension of this revolution as a citizen, way of life and environment are put together at the center of the strategy.We are in the merge of a new world population distribution and countries have to face the inevitable city growth and prepare an adequate, intelligent and scalable infrastructure. Energy, waste, pollution, methods of communication, interactivity, transportation, traffic, and government services are the big challenges to manage environmental and human impacts. This transformation (...)

#smart-buildings #smart-cities #smart-transportation

Robert Reich: The Truth About Privatization
▻https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/robert-reich-the-truth-about-privatization

Robert Reich explains why using the private sector for government services can have negative consequences.

Founder Interviews: Ryder Pearce of YoGov
▻https://hackernoon.com/founder-interviews-ryder-pearce-of-yogov-2d8e50790b4e?source=rss----3a81

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After a number of frustrating experiences at the DMV in 2016, Ryder saw an opportunity to provide better DMV information and faster appointments online. By February 2018, YoGov was doing $40K in monthly revenue without yet having written a single line of code.Davis Baer: What’s your background, and what are you working on?I’m Ryder, the founder of YoGov. I started my career in urban planning, working for the cities of New York and Vancouver, before founding my first venture-backed #startup, SherpaShare, which offers financial management tools to rideshare drivers and other gig workers.At YoGov, we’re building the consumer layer on top of government services. Our initial target is the DMV (the Department of Motor Vehicles, for those of you outside the US), where we’ve proven that even the (...)

#founders #founder-advice #founder-stories #davis-baer

“In its 2018 Public Annual Report, the #Cour_des_Comptes (the French supreme body of financial control) approved the strategy of the #DINSIC (Interdepartmental Directorate of Digital Technology, Information and Communication System), particularly its strategy on the use of #free_software, and recommends that it be amplified and extended throughout government services”
▻https://www.april.org/en/french-supreme-body-financial-control-approves-use-free-software-government-s #logiciel_libre

India’s Supreme Court says privacy is a fundamental right in blow to government - The Washington Post
►https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/indias-supreme-court-says-privacy-is-an-intrinsic-right-in-blow-to-government/2017/08/24/2c0b762c-8828-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/08/24/Foreign/Images/India_Right_to_Privacy_31057-58aaa.jpg?t=20170517

Le gouvernement fasciste indien vient de connaître un retour de bâton sur sa tentative de ficher toute la population. Mais ils essaieront autrement.

A noter : « c’est pour lutter contre la fraude aux aides sociales » est devenu un leitmotiv pour tous les gouvernements réactionnaires. Le deal « une fiche biométrique contre un crouton de pain » est une insulte à la dignité humaine.

NEW DELHI — In a blow to the Indian government’s efforts to roll out the world’s biggest biometric database on its billion citizens, India’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that privacy was a fundamental right for people.

Over the past few years, the government has aggressively pushed to compile the database, known as Aadhar, by sending officials out to remote villages to take iris scans and fingerprints. To ensure complete enrollment, the government this year put out several notices restricting access to essential government services for those not part of the system.

The unanimous ruling by the nine-judge bench will have huge implications in a number of ongoing cases involving Aadhar, which means base or foundation in Hindi.

It could put an end to the government’s efforts of making enrollment mandatory. It also guarantees privacy for Indian citizens as an intrinsic right — removing it could have had far reaching implications beyond biometric IDs for the daily lives of Indians such as the possible decriminalization of homosexuality.

In recent months, government notices said that as part of the Aadhar program, Indians would have to use a 12-digit unique identification number (known as the UID) to participate in almost every aspect of civic life — filing income tax returns, applying for railway job s or opening bank accounts.

Government rules especially targeted the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society, Ramanathan said, by restricting access to services such as free midday meals and allowances for tuberculosis patients.

Unlike social security numbers, UIDs would be accessible to various government agencies and private organizations. In recent months, government websites have mistakenly leaked thousands of UIDs.

#Vie_privée #Inde #Surveillance

India’s Supreme Court says #privacy is an intrinsic right in blow to government - The Washington Post
►https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/indias-supreme-court-says-privacy-is-an-intrinsic-right-in-blow-to-government/2017/08/24/2c0b762c-8828-11e7-96a7-d178cf3524eb_story.html

In a blow to the Indian government’s efforts to roll out the world’s biggest #biometric_database on its billion citizens, India’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that privacy was a fundamental right for people.

Over the past few years, the government has aggressively pushed to compile the database, known as #Aadhar, by sending officials out to remote villages to take iris scans and fingerprints. To ensure complete enrollment, the government this year put out several notices restricting access to essential government services for those not part of the system.

The unanimous ruling by the nine-judge bench will have huge implications in a number of ongoing cases involving Aadhar, which means base or foundation in Hindi.

It could put an end to the government’s efforts of making enrollment mandatory. It also guarantees privacy for Indian citizens as an intrinsic right — removing it could have had far reaching implications beyond biometric IDs for the daily lives of Indians.

What happens when capitalism decides humans are useless? | Dazed
▻http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/36673/1/lawrence-lek-playstation-dystopian-world-human-employment-future

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Have you ever wondered whether a robot might be doing your job in 20 years? When I read that Google had funded the Press Association to develop a robot reporter project, I certainly did. But could artificial intelligence (AI) ever do the job of an artist? “Absolutely,” says Lawrence Lek, winner of the Converse x Dazed Emerging Art Award (2015), who imagines near-future scenarios in his video-game installations. “There’s this romanticised notion that we associate with creativity, but from my point of view, what is creativity apart from following the rules and then trying to break them? Breaking rules is a rule in itself.”

Lek’s imagined what it would be like to work for a technology start-up in 2037 for his recent installation, Play Station, which showed earlier this month at Art Night. Visitors to the exhibition at the White Chapel Building watched mock-corporate recruitment trailers for a futuristic start-up named Farsight. Jingly lift music accompanied the promise of “fun employment forever”, as new recruits were introduced to their alternative workspace, Play Station ™. You can watch one of the trailers below.
Inspired by the ad agencies and government services running from the newly renovated White Chapel Building, Lek’s Play Station anticipates the next phase of recruitment in the corporate world. Described as “a video game ‘job simulator’ where all labour is disguised as leisure”, participants or “players” in Lek’s exhibition were given VR headsets and taken through video tutorials before carrying out tasks in order to gain bonuses including e-holidays and entertainment credits. Work essentially becomes a game as a sunny voice-over poses the question, “Who needs a work/life balance when it’s all so much fun?”

A Decade Behind the Wall: Jerusalem’s 100,000 Outcasts
Israeli civil rights NGO sends letter to Netanyahu saying state has violated basic rights of an entire population, and that government’s policy ’constitutes criminal negligence’ and ’abandonment’ of residents beyond separation wall.

Nir Hasson Aug 13, 2015
read more: ►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.670894 Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel News
►http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.670894

Ten years after the separation wall was built in Jerusalem, it transpires that the state and municipality have broken almost all their promises to the tens of thousands of Israelis left on the eastern side of the fence.
The decade that has passed since Ariel Sharon’s cabinet decided to minimize the disruption in the lives of the residents east of the fence “was marked by systematically breaking all the government’s commitments,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The association accuses the state of violating the basic rights of an entire population, and says the government’s policy “constitutes criminal negligence” and the “abandonment” of the residents beyond the wall.
“The government’s policy has turned the neighborhoods into a no man’s land, in which nobody is interested and for which nobody is responsible,” wrote attorneys Nasrin Alian and Ronit Sela.
In July 2005 Sharon’s cabinet issued a detailed decision, intended to satisfy the Supreme Court that the wall would not disrupt the lives of the Palestinians residents, most of them Israeli citizens, on the eastern side of it. The cabinet tasked the government ministries and Jerusalem municipality to ensure continued health, education, infrastructure, municipal and government services to the people beyond the wall, in the neighborhoods of Ras Khamis, Ras Skhada, Hashalom, Kfar Akav, Semiramis and the Shoafat refugee camp. But practically none of this was carried out.
For example, no new schools, clinics or hospital branches opened beyond the wall, no branches of the transportation, labor or interior ministries operate there, no roads or infrastructure were built, no access for emergency vehicles was provided into the neighborhoods, no hotline for municipal services was set up at the roadblocks as promised, the waiting time at the roadblocks wasn’t shortened, and on and on.
In addition, the garbage in the neighborhoods beyond the wall is only partially collected and there is no supervision on construction, which has led to rampant illegal building. These buildings were quickly inhabited by poor people who couldn’t afford to live anywhere else and the population has multiplied. As a result, the water and sewage systems have collapsed, there is a severe shortage of public buildings, schools and classrooms and the traffic is clogged.

Cambodian deal to resettle asylum seekers imminent
▻http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/cambodian-deal-to-resettle-asylum-seekers-imminent-20140810-102ht3.html

A controversial deal to allow Australia to send refugees to Cambodia is imminent and could be signed as early as this week, sources have told Fairfax Media.

The Australian and Cambodian governments have been negotiating for months over a deal to resettle up to 1000 refugees from the Australian-run detention centre on Nauru in Cambodia.

Cambodia has no infrastructure for resettling refugees, or government services to assist them. The UN says 45 per cent of the country’s population lives in poverty. As well, Cambodia is a Buddhist country and almost all the refugees on Nauru are Muslim and don’t speak Khmer.
#migration #asile #expulsion #Cambodge #Australie cc @cdb_77 @reka
“Cambodia is a poor country, a developing country, with no history of resettling refugees, or established capacity for that. This is not a long-term solution,” Dr Chia said.

There is also concern Australia is using its economic influence to coerce Cambodia into accepting its refugees.

Australia is one of Cambodia’s largest aid benefactors. In a dramatically reduced aid budget for 2014-15, the budget for ’’cross regional programs’’ was more than doubled from $309 million to $686 million. Labor accused the government of running a “slush fund” to buy off Cambodian co-operation.

#UAE to use #drones for government services
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18569

The United Arab Emirates says it plans to use unmanned aerial drones to deliver official documents and packages to its citizens as part of efforts to upgrade government services. “The UAE will try to deliver its government services through drones. This is the first project of its kind in the world,” Mohammed al-Gergawi, a minister of cabinet affairs, said on Monday as he displayed a prototype developed for the government. read more

#Top_News

▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2013/mar/27/fundamentalist-schools-accelerated-christian-education

In an English test, students face the following multiple-choice question:
(29) Responsible citizens will vote for political candidates who
a. promise to provide good paying jobs for all those who are out of work
b. promise to cut back on both government services and spending and cut taxes
c. promise to raise taxes on “big business” and use the money to help the poor
d. promise to provide child-care services for all mothers who need to work
(The “correct” answer is b.)
A church history assessment contains these questions: (1) The four foes of the faith considered in this Pace are____________.
(Answer: “rationalism, materialism, evolutionism, and communism”.)
(2) The foe of the faith that takes in all the other three foes and is organised against the church is _______.
(Answer: “communism”.)
In economics, Keynesian ideas are wrong while Adam Smith’s are right. In geography, the prosperity of nations is clearly linked to the amount of Christian influence ("God blessed the United States, and it became the strongest and most prosperous nation on Earth"). In US history, it is taught that Jesus commanded us to make a profit; giving “handouts to citizens” was contrary to the intentions of America’s hallowed founding fathers; nontaxpayers should not vote; and it is wrong for governments to provide welfare for citizens. “Liberals” receive particular criticism.