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Smart Meters and Wolve's Sheep Pen

By Mario Dufour and Esse Nemo

Mouton Rothschild Farms
Mouton Rothschild Farms
(Image by Mario Dufour)
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A Trojan Horse

A new smart-meter Wi-Fi technology for energy utilities is being deployed all over the world. Here in Quebec, it is "rolled out" by the publicly owned Hydro-Quebec (H.Q.) under the directives from a "consultant", Accenture, and its Focus AX partner and manufacturers like Landis+Gyr, whose meters spontaneously combust more often than intended given that they are attached to homes, this is its first qualification as a Trojan horse, and its least injurious.

This global operation involving Hydro-Quebec has little to do with better management of the common good, but everything to do with satisfying the greed of a ruling class of financial and industrial 'powers'.

It is now necessary in order to satisfy their compulsive desire to know all, to have access to all the data that we are likely to generate.

By studying our habits, building profiles about us, they believe they are able to guide our decisions towards automation to a profitable target. Welcome to the Internet of Things.

Common Good Management

Like many energy distributors and governments in any number of countries to jump on the brakeless train taking us with all speed to Smart Planet Nirvana, Gouvernement du Quebec and Hydro-Quebec tell us that the Focus AX meter has no other function than to transmit the data of our energy consumption in real time. This statement is already dishonest, when one understands what constitutes data mining and what it is able to reveal. H.Q. also says "The new Hydro-Quebec technology (as though it were theirs) will provide different functionalities in the future. For example, customers can monitor their consumption and make sound management choices". Really?! But what else can it do?

It is obvious that a digital system of energy management based on an open-source platform and administered exclusively by a public authority would be an important step forward; with the right safeguards it could offer a multitude of beneficial services to citizens. However, the project set up by the giants of finance and industry have other objectives.

Wolf to the Rescue of a Future Humanity

April 11, 2013, H.Q. issued a press release entitled Resources lent by Accenture complement the work force of Hydro-Quebec for a limited time period under specific mandates, and do not replace employees
We learned that 70 employees were embedded in the teams of H.Q. and a score of these are located outside of Quebec (e.g. Mumbai). Accenture is one of the largest consulting firms outsourcing, transferring jobs to countries where working conditions and regulations are more 'lax' in order to maximize profits.

Thus Accenture has become a global leader in the Internet of Everything Data Mining. Until recently, a strategic and chilling slogan on their website reads: "It is easier to predict the future when we create it ourself." (!?!)

The Origins of Accenture

Accenture was formerly Andersen Consulting, the consulting department of Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm behind the Enron scandal. Following that unfortunate miscalculation, they spent $ 2 billion to change their brand and rebuild their virginity by incorporating in Bermuda in 2001, at that time a primo tax haven. Then, due to changes in U.S. law, they moved their "mailbox" to Ireland, a 'friendlier' environment.

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Mario Dufour is a Canadian documentary filmmaker based in Uruguay. He worked in Canada, Honduras, Haïti, Cambodia and in Nunavik in 90's and 2000's. Occasionally, he writes articles or editorials published in alternative monthly magazine Le (more...)
 

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