« Any fetishistic society is a society whose members follow rules which are the unconscious result of their own actions, but which present themselves as powers external and superior to men, and where the subject is only the simple executor of fetishistic laws.
Anselm Jappe, The Autophagous Society(1).
The progressive deployment in the social space of technological innovations conceived by and for industry, which have economic, social, sanitary and ecological influences, and therefore an obvious impact on society and the living, has most often never been decided democratically. Let’s remember: voting for a candidate has never indicated a transfer of sovereignty and a tacit agreement not to consult us between two elections on essential issues. When they do not embarrass themselves with the usual circumlocutions, the journalists under orders reveal the reality of the facade democracy in which we live, like Yves Calvi who, during a « debate » on the reform of the pensions in France, stated: » Why do we pretend there are choices to be made when there are not? « (2). The French Prime Minister’s decision to use the 49.3 procedure will prove him right a few weeks later(3). This is what is happening: the vote is a blank check, a pretext to do everything to satisfy the interests of industry and finance. Concerning the technological invasion of our lives, the political opposition is only on the surface, all parties agreeing more or less on the famous « transition », letting ICT invade the school, connected objects become widespread and waves amplify, without the people ever having been able to give their opinion about them(4).
However, these coups de force are necessarily disguised as benefits for the sole benefit of the individual and society(5), but those who have a financial interest in seeing it implemented are the same ones who have the channels to inform us(6). In addition to not being able to decide collectively on what we want or do not want, we do not have widely available information that would allow us to build an opposition to what is being imposed on us. This strategy, which takes the form of a decision of the oligarchy, taken upstream of any democratic life in a context of privatization of information, is peculiar to our « liberal-democracies » which, in order to give us the illusion that we choose for ourselves what we have chosen, go through several phases which can overlap:
1. The technological choices that are proposed at a given moment have, even before being made public, been previously made in corporate boards of directors, business dinners and political meetings, international forums and other non-democratic supranational institutions such as the European Commission. What disturbs the established order does not reach the stage of media debate, but is suppressed by all sorts of pressures, before (it is not talked about at all) or after (it is talked about but little and badly). Transfers from the world of industry to politics and vice versa are the norm, wherever you are you remain in the service of the same people. One example among many: Luc Windmolders, director of the legal department at the operator Base, has left his position to become director of the strategic unit Digital Agenda, Telecoms and Post in the cabinet of Minister Alexander De Croo. It is therefore not surprising that the latter replied to us, when the stop5G.be collective called on the cabinet to request a meeting: » We are not going to stop 5G. We are pursuing a policy that wants to stimulate the development of 5G as much as possible. If you want a meeting on the effects — in my opinion non-existent — of radiation, you should contact the competent authority. The federal government has no authority over radiation standards « . Luc Windmolders also worked for the Dutch telecom operator KPN and served on the Board of Directors of the European Telecom Industry Association ECTA, an international non-profit association registered with the Belgian Official Gazette. Wasn’t the former British Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, hired by Facebook to » soften relations with the European authorities « (7)? Didn’t José Manuel Barroso go directly to Goldman Sachs after his function as President of the Commission? Didn’t Jean-Claude Juncker work to make Luxembourg a tax haven before taking over from Barrosso? Everything is the same: the political function, if one knows how to talk to the lobbies, but above all how to answer them, will act as a folding seat propelling towards the same companies that one will have helped by effectively reflecting the industrial pressure on the texts of laws and facilitating the decisions favorable to their business.
2. Lorsque certains choix industriels sont économiquement trop importants pour les entreprises, c’est-à-dire qu’ils promettent des marges de profit dont ils ne peuvent se passer dans un environnement concurrentiel, ces choix ne doivent surtout pas faire l’objet d’une contestation populaire qui risquerait de les voir échouer. Le débat médiatique ne peut donc avoir lieu et les titres de presse et de télévision sont performatifs, c’est-à-dire qu’ils parlent déjà au présent de ce qui n’est pas encore là. Télévisions, radios et journaux suivent et font exister dans la réalité ce qui n’existe pas, préparant les esprits à l’acceptation. Se crée alors naturellement dans la conscience du sujet l’impression que la chose est en quelque sorte déjà « implémentée ».
Two examples. The magazine Le Vif l’Express published in February 2020 a dossier on 5G, full page cover: » 5G. A revolution and fears « . The title inside of the newspaper forgot the fears: » How 5 G will change our lives « . Cover illustration: a large 5G in red, the letter and number filled with lines that symbolizing a network; in the background the Earth seen from space, and small icons representing a computer, a game console controller, a headset virtual… The title announces what is not yet there, prophesies, and, by its mere utterance, generates an effect on the consciousness, because we have to imagine that more people will see the As those who will consult the file. Therefore, in the form of inevitable future perspective, the cover fulfills a function advertising. However, there is little fear that the one who would dive into the reading of the latter, finds some arguments that would allow him to oppose. Let’s stop more at length on the introduction of the article, a kind of fairy tale futuristic: » In the distance, the broom of the cranes of the port, entirely robotized, looks like a huge anthill remote-controlled. The sound of a notification brings you out of your thoughts, while your autonomous car takes you to the office. The agenda of the morning is displayed on the windshield, next to the weather forecast. To start, a teleconference with a Japanese partner. The simultaneous translation app will make it easy for you to exchanges. The weekend looks more fun: you promised the son to attend a Real-Barça more real than life, since the house, virtual reality helmets screwed on the head. A VR 360″ ticket, it’s more expensive, but it’s worth it. A At any time, you can switch from the gallery projection to the view player, as if you were on the pitch. A new beep puts an end to your dreams. A red and yellow drone of resuscitation goes at full speed speed over the car, which later moves away to let the ambulance pass. Still 8 minutes to go. Just the time to check that everything is fine at home: your Home Companion has finished vacuuming and has just let the cat out « .
The life after the Corona?
We could have expected the public service to have a function other than that of spokesperson for Silicon Valley, but no. » What will our cities of tomorrow look like? presenter of La Première (RTBF) this morning of January 20, 2020. » That’s the question we ask ourselves in this episode. With the technology revolution, we often talk about the smart city to meet the urban challenges of the future. We take you to this week for a walk in the city, direction 2060, it’s party « (Music, piano background, female voice that tells the story of life in 2060)
» He is already 7:22 am, her connected bowl has just shaken, if she has not not finish his breakfast in 2 minutes21 , the trip that took him to the will have to be recalculated. It has already happened three times since the beginning of the month, it’s getting to be a bit much and it could take penalties. 7:24 a.m., she throws away the remains of his cereal in a hole in the middle of the table, the food is directly sucked into the ducts of the wastewater management system. waste. A voice announces: « 56 grams ». It is well, she hasn’t used her trash quota yet. 7:26 am, she walks through the door, right on time. The bracelet she wears has just vibrated, the journey has begun. She doesn’t know exactly what vehicle will arrive, where it will pass, what route it will take, what will be the means of transport: autonomous car for 4 suspended capsule that slides on a magnetic rail to allow the 25, train for 300…, there are several possible combinations. Not need to make a special request for the trip, once her encoded schedule at work, the system knows that she will have to to be back by 8:00 am. Its path is constantly recalculated according to of the thousands of other trips that are currently taking place in the city, but once the itinerary is set, it is necessary to hold. This is the best way to make the trips fast, secure, and that there is always a place to sit. 7:26 a.m. is a two-wheeler that arrives, with driver, it is rather rare, it takes him to the train station, so it will be a train ride. 7:35 am, she is sitting in the car, the trip is fast, fluid, calm. 7h56, she passes the door of the command center, her bracelet vibrates, signal that his presence at work is recorded. The door of the office opens, the screens are there, everywhere on the walls, its place is waiting for him. A whole day looking at the images of surveillance cameras, crowds, travel, a day in the city monitor that the city’s activity glides smoothly « . A dream of a lifetime for this young girl, isn’t it?
We are on a Belgian public radio, which participates in its own way in the collective madness. » In order to understand what is about, after this little walk in the future that we prepare in the present, the journalist receives Carine Basile, director of the Smart City Institute… sponsored by Proximus, Total, Vinci Energies, the Walloon Region and Digital Wallonia. On public radio, they don’t help you think, they help you get used to the world they are preparing for us.
These two passages, strangely similar in their approach to the the future and to think the world, have nothing to envy to Orwell or Huxley. Looking into the future, these journalistic accounts allow us to better understand one of the characteristics of the media to continually pretend that they are only doing something for the benefit of the to represent reality, to reflect it afterwards in some way kind, even though they are the creators. They are nothing other than those that give reality the representation they want, and who have a monopoly on it, allowing the self-fulfilling prophecy.
Pure decision taken by journalists paradoxically lacking the necessary time to get informed? December 27, Datanews, magazine owned by Roularta, like Le Vif,publishes » Groen and Ecolo are selectively blind to scientific evidence. Francis Leboutte their send a few days later an e‑mail and asks for a right of reply, concerning in particular » the assertions of Mr. Vanhuffel about the pollution of electromagnetic waves , their health impacts and the limits of exposure « . Editor-in-chief Kristof Van der Stadt replies: » The The right of reply is reserved for the parties directly involved. That said, on the other hand, we are prepared to highlight the views of stop5g.be. What I propose is that you turn the text into an opinion at name of stop5G.be, with references to relevant studies? What do you think? « . Let us pass the fact that those who contest have opinions, the others these are facts, even if they are sponsored by the operators. After much discussion and procrastination, the editor plans to publish the article on 21 February, but on the 28th, a new turnaround: » He I must make a correction here. In the meantime we have reviewed the opinion and finally decided to not to publish it in this form, because after careful consideration reflection, it does not meet the quality standards (sic) that we advocate. But on the other hand, we certainly do not want to not to overlook the existence of organizations such as Stop5G, which refutes the standards of ICNIRP, the and the EU. What we propose to do is to do is to summarize your point of view and to add it to the interview with an outreach expert that we will publish one of these days. »
The exchanges will end on March 2 with Francis Leboutte’s response to editor Kristof Van der Stadt: » In fact, I have been informed that on the very day of your reply, you have already published what you mention below in the Flemish version of Datanews where, with regard to the opinion of the stop5G.be collective and my article, you say hardly more, i.e. that my article « does not meet the qualitative standards that we advocate ». On the other hand, I note that the expert you interviewed, Eric van Rongen, is the President of the ICNIRP, the institution whose independence from industry and the validity of its opinions are widely disputed by the scientific world. But what are these qualitative standards? I doubt that you have applied them to the article of Mr. Vanhuffel published on December 27 and to which I had reacted, finding it particularly unobjective. On the other hand, you should know that my article is the reflection of what the founding members of the stop5G.be collective think, among whom there are 2 civil engineers as well as a doctor and a graduate in physical sciences; all of them have been studying the question of electromagnetic pollution for several years and even more than 10 years for two of them. It would not be easy for you to find such a concentration of competence in this field in Belgium « .
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We wonders what their « quality standards » are. Probably those of » managers IT and end users in companies, public authorities , education and IT associations « , and the » target audience from Data News: the » professionals IT, i.e. CIOs, General managers, HR managers and Finance » 7 . What makes us say that we are wasting our time with these media, the Groupe Roularta is part of the problem, not the solution.
3. Alors que les gens entendent parler de « ce qui va arriver », les industriels créent conjointement les objets qui établiront une sorte de lien de cause à effet. On parlait de 5G, mais pas des objets qui en auront l’utilité, il faut donc créer ceux-ci. Les smartphones, drones, consoles portables, caméras, robots… « compatibles » avec la nouvelle technologie, deviennent des « causes » qui demandent des « effets », et importent dans le corps social une véritable demande active. D’une chose pour laquelle les gens n’avaient rien demandé, la nouvelle technologie se mue en innovation générant de faux besoins, qui avec le temps deviendront indispensables par l’effet d’un choix politique, entraînant « de tels bouleversements qu’essayer de s’en passer devient très difficile8 » (à l’instar par exemple de la voiture individuelle, de la carte de banque ou, pas encore, mais ils s’y attellent, du smartphone). Ainsi, ces faux besoins créés par le secteur publicitaire vont escamoter l’origine de l’offre et de façon pernicieuse, renverser son fondement profondément antidémocratique en quelque chose qui répondrait à une demande collective. Dans ce subterfuge, le mensonge est permanent.
4. Une fois le besoin créé, l’objet ne peut plus se penser de façon systémique, c’est-à-dire être pris mentalement dans un contexte. Que la 5G et tous les objets dont la nouvelle technologie accélérera l’obsolescence (pour assurer la compatibilité) et augmentera la production (infrastructure pour assurer la couverture triplée), soient issus d’un esclavage moderne et d’un extractivisme destructeur est secondaire dès lors que l’objet est peu ou prou passé dans le domaine de l’addiction. On n’a jamais vu un héroïnomane en manque philosopher sur la condition sociale des cultivateurs de pavot.
5. If there is nevertheless a consequent protest, as the media and police forces have not managed to control information and bodies, old deceptions will have to be brought out, such as national sentiment (the spectre of « China » and « Huawei »… « Europe sets strict security rules for 5G », Le Soir, 30/01/20), in order to pretend that we are protecting the common good, whereas to speak of « national security » is already to pass a stage and tacitly accept the thing. This challenge will obviously not be covered by the media. If it does appear in the information organs of power, it will be at low hours and always in a caricatured form, without leaving time for argumentation, for a spectator already drowned daily by the » technological necessity » 9 .
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6. This media-political-industrial operation does not appear suddenly, but has been in operation for a long time. The individual often no longer has the capacity to grasp it, even though he or she has been subjected to media hype since childhood, in the public space and even in the private sphere, whose pernicious dissemination in people’s minds, in the absence of a large-scale counter-discourse, generates passivity and disinterest in politics, with consumerism offering a form of outlet for each person’s disengagement from the organization of his or her life.
Table round table at the European Parliament
It is in this context that their « discussions » must be conceived. The menu is already written, the dishes in the oven, and they pretend a collective participation in their elaboration while they will serve the food they have prepared on their own initiative. The lobbies are omnipresent, seasoned and equipped with effective corruption. At this level, the European Parliament no longer has a lot to do with a body that would make decisions in the the sense of the common good, but a body which, deprived of power initiative, only examines texts proposed by the Commission, content to superficially develop technocratic decisions which they cannot say anything about foundations and the societal orientation they provoke. The industrial lobbies have their place in the European Parliament, they are there at home.
In this closed and protected world of reality that is the Parliament European Bulgarian MP Ivo Hristov organizes the December 10 2019 a roundtable, entitled « 5G deployment in the EU — opportunities and challenges ». The title does not express any doubt and illustrates what we said earlier: the thing is « it is only a question of sparing the sensitivities and to reassure the populace. The muffled atmosphere of the room where the meeting takes place accentuates this illusion of being a « chosen one »: warm, carpeted floor, sitting in comfortable armchairs, surrounded by clean people on the serious air, the calculated and affected humor of a mutual recognition, a sign of credit and certainty. We pose so questions to serious people who answer seriously; they are measured and often explicitly reassure about the equal importance they place on their fight (5G) and the nature conservation. Since the environmentalists of capitulated to capital and opened the way for the green growth, nature is a business. » In sustainable development, there are the three P’s, one of the P’s is profit, next to planet and people, so I have no problem talking about profit in a sustainable development framework , no problem with that « , said a multinational executive 10 . Nature is cited in order to better dismiss it. This is not a problem.
Mother nature is thus religiously summoned because its absence would be more noisy than the mere mention of it: not saying anything could suspicious, a possible sign of an unspoken problem, of a avoidance that might instill doubt in some. From Even so, it is good form to invite an opponent among the supporters. On December 10, Paul Lannoye, the only one to play this role refractory to 5G, supporting its argument with facts on the common good. Carrying another voice in such an assembly, it is thus involuntarily to serve them as instrument which offers the proof of their openness. The other six? Samuel Stolston, moderator, digital editor at Euractiv, expert in the 5G network; Jeremy Godfrey, director of regulatory affairs for Electronic Communications (Berec), whose function is to promote high-speed services, to support a competitive digital economy, or to enable 5G; Marc Vancoppenolle, head of « government relations at Nokia Belgium, which includes working with institutions and shareholders to create a favourable political framework and a regulatory environment favouring broadband investments and digitalization; Lazlo Toth, Director of Policy public at GSMA Europe, which represents the European arm of the global mobile communications industry; Vladimir Pulkov, head of Intelligent Communications Infrastructures R&D Laboratory, in Sofia Tech Park, Bulgaria; George Oikonomou, Engineer on the 5G team at VMware. It sounds like a joke. This is not one of them.
The work is perfect, as when Samuel Stolton asks the executive Marc Vancoppenolle, to explain how 5G will be used in the future. provide citizens with easier access to services public. Most of them are treated in private clinics which shelters them from the reality of the health sector by Belgium, France and elsewhere, they probably do not even suspect not the ongoing catastrophe in public hospitals.
Vladimir Pulkov will explain that he is a telecom engineer and » cannot comment on health-related issues because he is not an expert on the subject ‚ » but that » we have driving forces that are forcing us to implement 5G. The 5G is in fact an opportunity, a chance to realize all the things we need in the future. We are talking about smart cities, artificial intelligence… Can we have artificial intelligence without big data ? No. Can we have big data without wireless communication? No. We’re talking about augmented reality, where everyone goes now « . To help recognize that everything this is just a big show, I address a question to Valdimir Pulkov, fervent believer :
- « Mr. Pulkov, quand vous parlez que les gens veulent développer des smart cities, je crois qu’on est quand même au Parlement européen, qui représente [est censé représenter]le peuple européen… Moi je n’ai pas envie de smart cities, il y a plein de gens que je connais qui n’ont pas envie de smart cities ; Je constate quand même que vous êtes 6, qu’il y en a 5 qui représentent l’industrie. Quels sont vos intérêts Mr. Pulkov pour dire que les gens veulent des smart cities, qui vous a payé, qui a payé les autres. C’est quand même effarant de voir quelqu’un qui bosse pour Nokia [Marc Vancoppenolle]venir nous expliquer ce que la 5G va nous apporter. J’aimerais que vous vous expliquiez un peu là-dessus. Je vous vois plutôt comme un apôtre du Progrès qui dit « la 5G viendra »… Il ne manque plus qu’à mettre les mains en l’air ; mais je pense qu’on est dans une période où l’urgence climatique, sociale, demande d’autres réponses ».
The moderator will ask Vladimir Pulkov to respond to the question:
- « Non, je ne veux pas répondre sur ce point. Ok… J’ai juste dit si… Je commente à nouveau : il y a des forces motrices, si nous voulons des smart cities, nous devons le faire ; vous ne voulez pas de smart cities, ok. Je suis un ingénieur télécom, un chercheur dans le domaine des télécoms et je pense, depuis plus de 30 années d’expérience, qu’on a vu la 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G… Donc, mes attentes sont qu’il y aura la 5G, parce qu’il y a des forces motrices pour cela. Comment cela va-t-il être implémenté, dans quel sens, on doit le considérer tous ensemble ». Amen.
Parliament 5G, sky and satellites
The February 20, at the initiative of the European deputy Michèle Rivasi, a second round table « 5G, sky and satellites: radio spectrum pollution, how to share the frequencies of our Global Common Space ». Guests: Giles Robert, Director of the Centre-Ardenne Observatory, the only and unique from where one can still see the starry sky correctly in Belgium; Éric Allaix, from the meteorological organization Philippe Achilleas, professor of public law at the University of Paris (Paris-Sud, Panthéon-Sorbonne), specialist in relative law space and telecommunications law. In addition Branimir Stantachev, from the European Commission’s DG Connect.
The speech of the latter, responsible for the development and implementation of implemented at the level of European wireless broadcasting policies and broadband, is rooted, automated. A machine. Since 2008 at the European Commission, he started his career professional in 1995 at the Vodafone Chair for Information Systems University of Dresden in Germany. It has then worked for Philips, Qimonda (manufacturer of Munich) and Signalion (provider of solutions for the manufacturers and operators of wireless infrastructure, Dresden). The February 12–13, 2018, he is one of the speakers for the conference on 5G, the list of sponsors of which leaves us with no doubt as to the only to hear whose special envoy Branimir is. Logically, from the private sector to the political authorities that will allow to continue serving his former bosses. In the Parliament, after three interventions which all, more or less, underline the risks that would be involved in the deployment of 5G, I ask my question to Branimir Stantachev: — » You finish earlier by saying that business is the cornerstone the issue of 5G. I think you’ve said it all. Your speech is frightening. You have the typical double talk of industry, i.e. « we pay attention to the health », but at the same time « we don’t care completely ». It is important to remember who your boss, it’s Thierry Lebreton [Thierry Breton, current European Commissioner for the Internal Market] who comes from a big Telecom company [entreprise de services numériques Atos], which was placed by Macron. I believe that the question essential, and this video I’m making will be on, is that popular sovereignty is no longer present at all. You’ve just had three speeches here that speak to you of a universal common landscape that will be destroyed [the sky starry, intervention of Giles Robert], maybe it doesn’t interest you that our children still see the stars; of a major risk also in terms of preventions meteorological [intervention d’Eric Allaix] Thus that of a rational use of a common good which will not exist not at all [Philippe Achilleas]and you continue, with your eyes closed, to propose a model that most people don’t know about. want more. In Switzerland, there is a huge coalition of people who say no to 5G, in Belgium there are more and more of them… So I ask you: what is your interest in the common good and the people, to whom we will impose things that are totally… at a time when we are living the sixth crisis of extinction of species, that we risk that the human species disappear in maybe less than 50 years, I have children 10 years old and 6 years old and I don’t know not what they’re going to become, and you’re throwing stuff at us that ultimately we don’t need, what do you say to that? »
After this rather long question, Branimir Stantachev looks at me and says asks, in English, if I can ask him again. He had not put on his helmet. So he listened without understanding.
- « Pourquoi Monsieur Stantachev ne met pas son casque ? Pas possible ! Je vais donc recommencer la même chose ? Donc je vous dis que vous tenez le double discours habituel de l’industrie où à la fois vous nous dites que… [Branimir Stantachev ne trouve pas la fréquence pour la langue de traduction]. Y’a un système qui bloque quand on pose des questions un peu trop dérangeantes… ? Vous terminez tout à l’heure votre allocution en disant que les affaires sont la pierre angulaire de… (idem)… je crois que vous dites tout, je rappelle qui est votre patron, Thierry Breton, qui vient d’une grosse boîte de Télécom. Je crois qu’on pose la question essentielle ici de la souveraineté populaire. Il y a trois personnes qui viennent de parler et qui ont évoqué la destruction d’un paysage commun universel, le fait que la prévention météorologique qui permet de sauver des milliers de personnes risque d’être totalement mise à mal et que le bien commun qu’est l’espace risque… quand on envoie 42.000 satellites, on ne peut plus parler d’utilisation rationnelle de l’espace. De plus en plus de gens se prononcent contre la 5G. On vient de découvrir en Suisse que beaucoup de gens sont malades, ont des troubles neurologiques, des troubles du comportement, ne savent plus dormir… Il y a des reportages qui sortent là-dessus. Vous continuez à nous imposer quelque chose qu’au fait on ne veut pas. Je rappelle quand même qu’on est dans une époque où on vit la 6èmecrise d’extinction des espèces – la dernière était celle du Crétacé-Tertiaire, c’était les dinosaures qui ont disparu – on sait maintenant qu’elle est causée par l’homme. Quand va-t-on arrêter ce délire ? Je répète encore ce que j’ai dit, j’ai des enfants de 10 ans et 6 ans, j’ai peur pour leur avenir. Monsieur [une personne dans le public] disait tout à l’heure qu’il y a d’autres solutions… La grande solution c’est surtout celle de changer de paradigme. Je rajoute une chose, c’est que j’ai été au forum de la 5G à Diamant [quartier de Bruxelles], c’était introduit par une copine Commissaire de Monsieur Breton [Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, voir plus bas], qui remerciait dans la salle les lobbies, Nokia, Ericsson, etcetera, qui avaient fait pression sur elle les dernières années… C’était tout un monde qui était là, je n’ai vu aucun représentant du peuple, peut-être quelques parlementaires… Quelle est votre position par rapport à la souveraineté populaire ? On sait que ce n’est que du business. Alors dites-le : « C’est que du business, on s’en fout du peuple », mais c’est que du business. Vous ne gagnez pas comme moi une somme dérisoire, et vous n’êtes pas en train de lutter. Vous avez un salaire énorme, comme tous les autres qui travaillent là-dedans. Désolé, mais à la fin c’est tellement absurde… ».
He will eventually « answer »:
» Thank you for expressing these concerns, of course we take them seriously, on the Commission’s side, not only looking at the economic side of things, but we also monitor the social impact and of course the impact on human health. I believe that in this respect the Commission has been consistent in monitoring and assessing the impact of electromagnetic waves on public health. We have a mechanism in place at the Commission, based on working with experts from specific committees. You may have heard of theScheer [comité scientifique qui dépend de la DG santé] and this committee which inherits another one in the past with another name and has already produced, I believe five opinions, on the impact of electromagnetic fields without any negative conclusion until now. Regarding the impact of 5 G, I think that 5 G is a « next generation » technology, basically uses the frequencies that are already harmonized? For mobile communications, these are not new frequencies, they are frequencies already in use and the electromagnetic impact of this use will be comparable to what it was before. Of course we have other frequencies that could be used, millimeter waves… which have however a very different propagation and other characteristics and there, we have carried out studies that show that there will be only a marginal impact of these frequencies in the general increase of the exposure to magnetic fields. We are also aware that, for example, international organizations such as the WHO or the International Agency for Research on Cancer also have their views on the impact of OEMs: they categorize them as possibly carcinogenic, which is the same category as, for example, eating pickles, eating vegetables preserved in vinegar, and it is a less dangerous category than, for example, the effect of drinking very hot coffee or even having a night shift.
I think we should be very careful about assessments and these assessments on the impact of OEMs should be based on very deep evidence and research and that is what we have always done (…).
The exchange is impossible. We live in other worlds. Only, his principles become reality.
The 5G Forum
At 5G forum, this January 29, no need to bother with « Dissidents », no need to pretend that we are debating: here everyone agrees. We talk to act. We prepare the field. We prophesy and anticipate the pitfalls that could occur get in the way of the sacred path of 5G. More than 200 people from 5 continents, Huawei, Nokia, Facebook, Ericsson badges, Qualcomm…, and multiple telecom operators. There is no simultaneous translation here, everyone speaks English.
The moderator of the first session is Amit Nagpal, from Aetha Consulting, a consulting organization in the industry of who advises many operators worldwide (KPN, Orange, Türc Telecom…), but also has among its customers the European Commission. The session to introduce the high mass is entitled » Where are we now? The first experiences with 5G « summarized in his words in the leaflet with the day’s lectures: » The 5G is here. Around the world, commercial deployment has started. We could start to see the first examples of 5G network to be implemented, and the first applications cell phones become available (…) « . The first to to speak is Pearse O’Donohue, Director at the Commission of Futur Networks, DG Connect, a colleague from Branimir Stantachev.
Him succeeds the Miapetra Kumpula-Natri Chair, Parliamentarian representing Finland. As she takes the to preach, she introduces her speech in a way that surprising and uncomplicated, indicating who really runs the Parliament and makes decisions on 5G matters: « I see many of the major 5G players, which we have really need to strengthen in Europe. And I am happy to see many faces here, who put pressure on me (That was lobbying me) during the last legislation in Parliament « No shame. No heretics in the audience she thinks, she can shamelessly name what is.
Miapetra Kumpula-Natri is right to thank the industry in the room on January 29. Included in the list of speakers of ECTA, the European Telecom Industry Association, the parliamentarian will talk a lot about the need to create the demand for 5G, while it is still almost non-existent in Europe. Their war strategy is now at the stage we described at the beginning of this text: provoke the link between cause (the generalization of objects requiring 5G) and effect (the demand for the infrastructure necessary to support the operation of these objects).
Transvestiting the words without complex, she speaks of » sovereignty technological « , oxymoron if ever there was one, sovereignty being precisely what the technology eradicates by developing. In Parliament, Vladimir Pulkov and others spoke of a » 5G-friendly ecosystem. » It doesn’t matter that these words are deeply antinomic and arouse in the one who still has the capacity to think, a feeling of dissonance, they are like priests who go out into the lyrical flights of fancy where there is only the belief that matters. They look like politicians: like them they adopt this language that » has as its function to make lies credible and murder respectable, and to give what is only wind an appearance of consistency 11 « . We want to ask them to stop their litanies, but their words are only the witnesses of their acts in progress. We will not be able to stop them if we remain on the symbolic ground, they are winners: the media who have this monopoly of the representation of the real, belong to them, and they will make sure that these repeat tirelessly what we must love and will participate in our happiness.
Come then Frédéric Pujol, Head of Technology and Business Development Radio and spectrum at Idate DigiWorld. Who is Idate DigiWord? This is the firm that has been selected to carry out the European 5G Observatory for the European Commission. It thus prepares a quarterly report on the process of 5G deployment and announces on the front page of its website that it is under the high patronage of the President of the Republic French Emmanuel Macron. Frédéric Pujol realizes various missions for the European Commission, mobile operators Japanese and other private companies. The links are made, when we know that Macron supported the candidacy of Thierry Breton as European Commissioner for the Internal Market… Thierry Breton, zealous servant of the industry, moved from the private sector (Director Deputy General Manager then General Manager at Bull group, CEO of Thomson, CEO of France Telecom, Chairman and CEO of the Atos Group until 2019) to the public (Minister of the Economy and Finance, then European Commissioner).
The technological messianism
Enjoying for most of the fruits of their belief, power and money, these apostles are affected by a form of madness which prevents from apprehending the world and from grasping what is happening in it, defending projects that provide them with a way of life that puts them at ease. Sheltered from need and thought. They are full of this certainty proper to the followers of the Progress, assured that they do not can be wrong and that our only mistake would be the one to lag behind the Chinese, South Koreans… media, in this propagation of faith, follow and make exist in representations which could still be refused. They the world in which we live, do not forget that we have to seeing only on rare occasions some incidental defects.
This are real religious speeches, masses with preachers and the faithful. The proselytizers at the microphone come from Nokia, the Korean 5G Forum, Icnirp, the Commission and the European Parliament, and have their political and media relays. Those who speak are moved by something that transcends the determination: they believe and are sure of what they believe. Their industrial diocese also offers them living conditions that leave little room for doubt that, if it is to make them freer, would imply a change of life they don’t want to hire. However, they cannot cynically declare that nature and health are not important to them, so they have to say what they don’t do, while they do what they don’t say. There is reason to consider the malaise also in this double bind, these injunctions paradoxical, perennial and structural messages, which reassure those who want nothing to change, but are deeply concerned about destabilizing for the others, permanently immersed in an atmosphere of double discourse which they perceive the falsity, the head between two headphones emitting paradoxical messages.
But depending on the country, propaganda will not always be sufficient and more muscular methods will be preferred. HyeonWoo Lee, Vice Chairman of 5G Forum Korea, is candid in suggesting that the method is usual: » In Korea, the government is very aggressive in promoting 5G.
Here, not yet need the army or the police to impose technologies that have their source in the thirst for profit and domination 12 . The Coronavirus the Institute’s shock strategy, the Belgian Postal and Telecommunications Services (BIPT) announcing in full confinement that « regarding the introduction of the new 5G technology, BIPT proposes, in the expectation of a political agreement between the federal government and the federated entities, to grant provisional rights of use . While people are locked in their homes, BIPT is organizing this is not a joke, a public consultation until April 21 on this subject. BIPT, we had already talked about it 13, is the organization whose former president, Luc Hindryckx, went to ECTA, and many others have joins, or comes from, the telecom industry.
We hope that the doubters will have understood that the issue goes far beyond 5G. It is no less than the future of humanity that is at stake. The choices to come will be decisive, and so will the rejections, of which 5G is naturally a part. The capitalism of disaster persists and signs, continues to plunder the non-West, under the pretext of « transition », ensuring this art of change in continuity of which it is master. If there is no massive resistance to this future that is being prepared for us, our entire relationship with the other and with the world risks being toppled into a dimension whose beginnings are already emerging, at the very moment when we should be returning to some fundamental values, in particular considering ourselves as a species that is part of a great whole, where nature and the other are no longer at our service, but in coexistence. It will be good for us, but also and above all for those whose way of life has justified and justifies the massacre, secular and daily.
Find meaning, that’s it. No ?
Alexandre Penasse
- Anselm Jappe, La société autophage, p.20, Éditions La Découverte, 2017.
- Voir « Les éditorialistes sur le pied de guerre », Médiacritiques, janv.-mars 2020.
- La procédure du 49.3 consiste en une décision prise par le Premier ministre, après délibération du Conseil des ministres, d’engager la responsabilité du gouvernement devant l’Assemblée nationale sur le vote d’un projet de loi, lorsque les discussions parlementaires n’aboutissent pas. Profondément antidémocratique, elle a été utilisée de nombreuses fois en France, dont la dernière pour la loi de réforme des pensions.
- Voir le dossier dans le Kairos de février mars 2020 : « Technologie : une question politique ».
- Emploi : « La 5G va créer de nombreux emplois. Et notre travail, c’est de créer la 5G », publicité de Qualcomm affichée dans les rues de Bruxelles, entreprise américaine active dans la téléphonie mobile ; « Vote for 5G. Voter ce n’est pas seulement par rapport à des candidats, mais aussi des idées », publicité de Huawei lors des campagnes électorales en Belgique en mai 2019 ; « 22.000 emplois pourraient être créés dans le secteur technologique belge d’ici 2024 », publié à 12h53 le 05/02/20. Santé : « Une opération du cerveau à distance grâce à la 5G », RTL, 14/04/19, « Première opération chirurgicale via la 5G », https://www.sciencesetavenir.fr, 27/02/19. Quant à l’argument de la rapidité et de l’omniconnexion : de la voiture au micro-onde, du surgélateur au drone, de la poubelle au lampadaire…, inutile de vous citer des articles, émissions radio ou télévisée, tous l’ont plus que de raison utilisé.
- Voir notamment Seriez-vous Libre® ce Soir® ? Ou comment les médias-industries détruisent la pensée — https://www.kairospresse.be/article/seriez-vous-libre-ce-soirr/
- https://www.lesechos.fr/tech-medias/hightech/facebook-embauche-lex-vice-premier-ministre-britannique-pour-gerer-sa-communication-142397
- https://www.roulartamedia.be/fr/marques/magazines/data-news
- L’emprise numérique, comment internet et les nouvelles technologies ont colonisé nos vies, Cédric Biagini, L’Échappée, 2012, p. 396.
- Nous nuancerons toutefois en précisant qu’un contre-mouvement à cette tendance, extrêmement bien organisé, pourrait sans doute faire barrage au système de propagande politico-médiatique officielle, mais sous certaines conditions. Notamment celle, essentielle, que la critique porte sur la vie générale aliénée dans nos sociétés industrielles, dont la 5G n’est qu’un effet ; et pas, comme c’est encore trop souvent le cas, sous cette forme qui se concentre sur un aspect (la 5G), qu’on percevrait comme accidentel, donc sans aucune mise en cause du système global qui en est à l’origine.
- « Créer le chaos et renverser les tables ? » , réflexion sur la démobilisation organisée et en cours, https://www.kairospresse.be/article/creer-le-chaos-et-renverser-les-tables-reflexion-sur-la-demobilisation-organisee-et-en-cours
- Tels, tels étaient nos plaisirs, et autres essais (1944–1949), Encyclopédie des nuisances, 2005.
- On pourrait dire que c’est également dans un souci de contrôle des populations, mais cette volonté de contrôle est elle-même liée à celle d’empêcher que le peuple se révolte contre un ordre inique et décide enfin de ce qu’il veut.
- Voir « L’illusion technocratique à la lumière de la 5G », Kairos février-mars 2019, voir https://www.kairospresse.be/journal/kairos-38/