Call him Lord. 3/23/2006
A good buddy of mine, recently lost the road tax for his vehicle. Being an upright concientious citizen, and not wanting to run afoul of the law, went to the Road Transport Department to make an application for a replacement.
When he was given the run-around. Fair enough, government departments being what they are, oftentimes with the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, wrong information gets given out, and the public, trying to deal with this bureaucracy that has an immense inertia all its own, tends to end up wasting time and money trying to fulfill the requirements of the department’s procedures.
So, my good buddy, again having being properly brought up, and a god fearing, tax paying, upright citizen of good standing, decided to escalate the problem, by trying to point out to the head of the department about the fact that their inefficiency cost him a day, and many busted blood vessels. And when he got to meet the head honcho, he was disappointed at the way he was treated.
You can find the details here.
He had called me on the Monday, and told me what had happened before blogging about it. I wasn’t surprised at what had happened, having had much the same happen to me before. But with the new Prime Minister, and his boast about efficiency and transparency and whatever else makes a fucking good sound bite, the behaviour of this government servant was inexcusable. In case this particular idiot has forgotten, there is the word “servant” in the title “civil servant”. Which means to serve. Ich dien.
I have never found anything demeaning or degratory in serving someone, if it is part of my job description, whether they happen to be above or below me in the hierachy. I guess much of it was drummed into my head when I was young, because my old man was a civil servant for 26 years. A very senior one at that. Much higher than this waste of space definitely. And I never saw my dad treat anyone as badly as my buddy was treated.
I happen to know this guy’s boss. I think a round of golf is in order, with a few well chosen words at the right moment in his ear during the break after the first 9.