ID Adventures Continued

 

As some readers might remember (at least now that  I remind you), last week I found out that in order to renew my "Mobile Bank ID", I first needed to get a physical National ID card (a kind of ID card that I've never needed before). 

So for that purpose, I had booked an appointment today at our local police station - from my point of view situated in a street "across the city centre", and with no really helpful bus connections from where I live. I contemplated taking a taxi, but as the snow is gone and it wasn't really raining (just foggy on the verge of a light drizzle), I decided to walk. It took me about 40 min. My knee felt fairly ok, but I'm still far from "speedwalking"... 

The mural above is on a wall along a sidestreet near the police station. It's been there for a number of years by now, but it's not a place I usually walk by. 

I arrived about 20 min before my 12 o'clock appointment, and checked in digitally on a machine. Just then there were only a few more visitors in the waiting room, but all 'cubicles' seemed to be closed. After a while I came to the conclusion that the staff must be on their lunch break. In the meantime, more people kept arriving, so at 12, when they opened again, all seats in the waiting room were taken, plus a lot of people standing as well. As I had a booked appointment I did not have to wait long after they opened, though. (Most people were probably there to collect previously ordered IDs, which does not require pre-booking.) 

It's been almost a decade since I last visited the police station for a similar errand (then a passport), and my memories of the procedures then are vague. But what somewhat surprised me now was the absence of a couple of items that I would have found helpful: A hook to hang my coat on, and a mirror to at least be able to check my hair before having my photo taken by staring into a blank (but not reflective) screen. Fingerprinting no longer involves ink, and they only wanted my index fingers - but (interestingly) I needed to do one of them thrice before the police office was satisfied. (Do fingerprints wear out with age? Answer at the bottom of the post...) *

 And then of course I had to write my name with a digital pen, which felt oddly clumsy, and made my signature look that too. The officer then briefly showed me what the document was going to look like (too small for me to really see properly) and asked if I was satisfied. I said I was definitely not satisfied with my hair... But probably everyone says that, because he seemed to take that as an acceptance anyway, and told me I'll get a message when I can pick it up (in a week or so)... 

Walking away, I made a mental decision that when my driving license is up for renewal next year, I will make sure to do that. (I don't really drive any more, but it's accepted as ID in most everyday situations, even if not for the digital bank ID. And for the driving license one is still allowed to go to a professional photographer to have one's photo taken... 

The way back home seemed very long. I looked in at the pharmacy for a short errand (some non-prescription stuff), but then decided to see if I could catch a bus part of the way. There is no bus that takes me "all the way" these days, but I managed to catch one that shortened the way a little bit (two stops). With a little detour to a neighbourhood corner shop for some fruit and vegs, I was home again at 1 pm, amost exactly two hours after I left. 

The whole adventure had me so tired that after a quick lunch (microwaved leftovers, and salad from yesterday), I fell asleep for a couple of hours in the afternoon... 

And now it's just about bedtime for real! 

*) AI tells me:  "Yes, fingerprints can wear out or become less distinct with age, largely due to reduced skin elasticity, thinning skin, and the flattening of ridges. While the underlying pattern remains fixed, these changes often make it harder to capture clear prints in older individuals " (And I suppose I have to accept that at age 70, that's what I now am...)

Identity Crisis

 

noun: identity crisis; plural noun: identity crises

"a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person's sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society"

 

I logged into my bank to pay some bills. I do this from my computer, which allows me three alternative ways to log in. Normally I use a special bank card that I put into a card-reading thingy that I connect to my laptop by a cord. I also have a smaller cordless bank thingy that I'm not sure how it works, but somehow codes get sent back and forth by pushing the right buttons, and if I do it right, that works too. (I haven't been using the little fiddly thingy much lately though, as I find the card-thingy easier to handle.)The third alternative is Mobile Bank ID, which involves an app on my smartphone, and scanning of QR codes. The Mobile Bank ID is nowadays also used to access an increasing amount of other apps and websites where one needs to prove that one is who one claims to be. (I'm still a bit sceptical of the general idea of using my phone for Absolutely Everything, though, so have so far avoided using bank apps on the phone.)

 

Anyway. A week or so ago I received a message from my bank "reminding" me (I had no idea!!) that my current Mobile Bank ID will expire in a few weeks. However, the message also said I could renew it by logging into my bank. They made that sound easy, so I thought I'd just do that today in connection with paying my bills... 

 

Of course I should know by now that there's no "just" about these kinds of things - but sometimes I still let optimism take over...

 

It did seem simple enough to start with - until I was suddenly asked to now prove my identity by taking a photo (via an app) of a valid physical ID. And then learned that in this particular context, my driving licence, which in the Real World has served me as allround ID for around 50 years by now (renewed without much ado every 10 years), no longer counts as valid ID in this particular context. To prove my identity to the new Mobile Bank ID, I now need either a physical Passport or a physical National ID card (valid within the EU). And as I haven't travelled abroad for a very long time, and for all other purposes so far have got along fine with my driving license, I don't have either of those... 

 

So I had no alternative but to interrupt my application for the new Bank ID by clicking on the alternative "I don't have the right ID" ... 

 

For a while I feared that this might leave me without any identity at all within in digital world... But luckily it seems that the system reverted to letting the old bank ID tick on until the automatic expiration date. (Phew.)

 

So I hurried on in search of What To Do and Where To Go; and managed to book an appointment at our police station next week - to be photographed and fingerprinted and whatever else it takes to get the required National ID... 

 

To my relief, it seems that the physical police will still accept my driving license to prove that I Am Who I Am. (Because if not, it seems the only alternative would be to ask my brother to drive down here to confirm it in person. And I'm not actually sure if he has any ID besides his driving license to prove his identity either...)

 

The whole circus now makes me think I should probably also make sure to both renew my driving license next year (in spite of doubting that I'll ever actually take up driving again), and get a passport as well (even if I have no travel plans). On second thought, probably better to wait a year or two with the passport, though - or else the ID card and the passport will keep expiring at the same time...

 

I'm not going to ask everyone to describe your own country's ID systems in detail - but I do feel curious to know if you too are feeling the increased pressure/requirement to use your phone for Everything... As much as I love my smartphone, for the most part I still mostly use it as a combination of camera, audio book player, handy encyclopedia, and to receive text message notifications. For other online things, I usually prefer either my laptop or my tablet... But these days, it seems the goal is a separate App for "every purpose under heaven" * (but one Bank ID to join them all)...

 

* "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..." 
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

 

Some Thoughts about Faith, Tradition and Identity

 

Yesterday, fellow blogger Yorkshire Pudding published a blog post entitled "Jews" - related to a recent tragic attack outside a synagogue in Manchester, in which two Jewish people were killed and three left in a serious condition after a car ramming and stabbing attack. 

YP asks some questions, like:  "How can it be that someone who is a native born citizen of Great Britain [or some other country] may self-define more eagerly through their religious heritage than through their nationality?" and "If you were born into a Jewish family in another land - what is your relationship with the state of Israel and [---] why should it be more intense than a Christian's relationship with The Holy Land?" and  "[One Jewish woman declared] that she would now have to emigrate from this country where she was born and raised and I thought - why?" (For the full context, I recommend that you read the whole post.)

Very complex issues, not easily answered, and I certainly can't claim to be an expert on any of it. But it did trigger some thoughts for me, and also a memory from my childhood. Because of the complexity, I chose to write my thoughts down in a separate text document first, before sending a comment to YP's blog. And on second thought, I decided to share it here on my own blog as well. (If nothing else, that will make it easier for myself to re-find it later, if I should want to.)

*******

I'd say it's all deeply rooted in history and inherited traditions even more than in “faith” – and that the bigger question is why some people still persecute others because of their origin (which is really something that none of us have chosen ourselves). 

I'd also say that a Christian's relationship with the “Holy Land” is totally different because the Christian tradition from start was to spread their faith to the whole world. (Jesus told his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations” Matthew 28:19) Jewish history on the other hand goes back to nomad times long before they had a country of their own to begin with. I think a bigger question is why others are still persecuting Jews living elsewhere than in Israel. Considering the history of how the Jews were persecuted under the Nazi regime in Germany back in the 1930s/40s, I'm not surprised at all if a single terrorist attack anywhere in modern times still causes panic among people of Jewish heritage, whether they're very religious or not. 

I think my own first awareness of "different" religious beliefs/traditions was when I was about 10 or 11 years old (i.e. in the mid 1960s). We got a new boy in my class in school, who was Jewish (born somewhere in Eastern Europe). Back in those days we were all still going to school half days on Saturdays here in Sweden. We were also still taught “Christianity” rather than “Religion”, and each morning started with singing a psalm, and prayers were said before going to lunch. But unlike the rest of us, this new Jewish boy was excused from attending school on Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath). And our teacher took some time to explain the difference in traditions to us. I suppose it probably made us a bit jealous that this boy got more “time off” from school than the rest of us – but as far as I can remember, we came to just accept it as a fact. (Or at least I did.) 

In 1968, the same year I started  “secondary school” (at age 13), no school on Saturdays was introduced nation wide, so then that wasn't an issue any more. And Christianity was replaced by Religion on the curriculum - aiming to give us all a bit more insight into different traditions. (I'm not trying to make out that this solved all problems, though!!) 

For my own part, I do identify myself as Christian. (I had a brief period of regarding myself as atheist in my early teens, but then gave that up!) 

*******

PS. "On third thought" it strikes me that there are actually quite a few other people(s) around the world too being (or having been) persecuted for either religious or political reasons, and forced to live with "split identities" - as in not always finding it easy to know whether to identify oneself primarily according to one's religious faith - or lack of it - or one's country of "origin" vs where one happens to have ended up (by choice or by chance!) later in life...