My Journey to Hell and Back
I went to the City Hall yesterday to get copies of birth certificates for me and my sister at the local "Census Serbilis Center". Oh. My. God. I knew our government system sucked, but I didn't know it sucked that much!
First of all, as an architecture student, it really insults me that some people think its ok, let alone humanly possible, to cram 200 people in a 5-meter by 5-meter poorly ventilated room. Second, I really don't get why they have the nerve to call it serBILIS center when it takes you practically the whole day (I was there at 8 AM and got out at almost 3 PM) to process your request--and you even have to go back the following day to claim your stuff!
It was the most inefficient system I've ever had the misfortune of having to go through in my life. You come there early expecting to get out faster than you can say birth certificate, because well, it is a serBILIS center--only to waste about 15-30 minutes of your life wondering what to do since they have nothing on the walls that spell out INSTRUCTIONS or PROCEDURE whatsoever. You literally have to rely on other people in line to tell you what to do. Once you figure out that you have to fill out the form first (which is kinda difficult to get since you have to get it from the guy on window 2, the same guy to whom people who have accomplished the forms give them for checking and stamping), you try to squeeze past people trying to fill out forms while standing up, or while talking to other people, or while blocking the line. Once you get a form and filled it up, you go back to the same line to have your form stamped, which would be a pretty fast task if people didn't keep on cutting in line (this middle aged hag had the nerve to raise her eyebrow at me when I pointed the back of the line to her and told her she had to fall in line!).
After the guy at window 2 makes you feel like an idiot for not knowing that it was your grandmother's maiden name you had to put instead of your mom's (sorry, no one told me!), you have to trek up (yes, up) the loooong driveway to the front of the city hall to pay 25 bucks apiece for your request (there's another loooong line again for that). Then you had to go back down to the census office again, this time to fall in line to pay for your actual forms. The line for that was longer than Pinocchio's nose had he told Shrek that he was a spitting image of Orlando Bloom. I had to stay at that line for 3 1/2 hours, not including lunch break, when they handed out number stubs to ensure that the people who were in line before lunch break get a "fair" treatment. Wow. Thanks a lot.
Then there were the people. The bunch I was in line with were pretty ok, but there will always be pasaways in every occasion. These people would cut line as if they would suddenly die if they didn't. I would have been more understanding had they been old, disabled or pregnant. But they were middle-aged and healthy, probably even better off than Arnie in his prime. And all of them just had the balls to snap and glare at people telling them to fall in line (yup, even the women).
So after "10 years" (as said by the nice middle-aged woman I was sitting with)--or so it seemed-- I finally paid 375 bucks for 3 copies and was told to return the following day at 3-5 pm to claim them.
I was early today. I was there 30 minutes early and debated wether I should just wait in front of the office or cool myself off at the nearby Chowking--I picked the latter. Big Mistake.
Although I was promptly there when they said I should be, I wasn't able to claim my forms until 4:30 pm (the woman giving out forms must have thought it funny to catch up on the latest gossip with officemates while 200+ people waited like pigs on a slaughterhouse outside). I should have known better than to trust the government's judgement.
So what's my point? Simple. If this was a sneak peek of what was really going on in the national picture, boy...WE'RE DOOMED, PEOPLE.
First of all, as an architecture student, it really insults me that some people think its ok, let alone humanly possible, to cram 200 people in a 5-meter by 5-meter poorly ventilated room. Second, I really don't get why they have the nerve to call it serBILIS center when it takes you practically the whole day (I was there at 8 AM and got out at almost 3 PM) to process your request--and you even have to go back the following day to claim your stuff!
It was the most inefficient system I've ever had the misfortune of having to go through in my life. You come there early expecting to get out faster than you can say birth certificate, because well, it is a serBILIS center--only to waste about 15-30 minutes of your life wondering what to do since they have nothing on the walls that spell out INSTRUCTIONS or PROCEDURE whatsoever. You literally have to rely on other people in line to tell you what to do. Once you figure out that you have to fill out the form first (which is kinda difficult to get since you have to get it from the guy on window 2, the same guy to whom people who have accomplished the forms give them for checking and stamping), you try to squeeze past people trying to fill out forms while standing up, or while talking to other people, or while blocking the line. Once you get a form and filled it up, you go back to the same line to have your form stamped, which would be a pretty fast task if people didn't keep on cutting in line (this middle aged hag had the nerve to raise her eyebrow at me when I pointed the back of the line to her and told her she had to fall in line!).
After the guy at window 2 makes you feel like an idiot for not knowing that it was your grandmother's maiden name you had to put instead of your mom's (sorry, no one told me!), you have to trek up (yes, up) the loooong driveway to the front of the city hall to pay 25 bucks apiece for your request (there's another loooong line again for that). Then you had to go back down to the census office again, this time to fall in line to pay for your actual forms. The line for that was longer than Pinocchio's nose had he told Shrek that he was a spitting image of Orlando Bloom. I had to stay at that line for 3 1/2 hours, not including lunch break, when they handed out number stubs to ensure that the people who were in line before lunch break get a "fair" treatment. Wow. Thanks a lot.
Then there were the people. The bunch I was in line with were pretty ok, but there will always be pasaways in every occasion. These people would cut line as if they would suddenly die if they didn't. I would have been more understanding had they been old, disabled or pregnant. But they were middle-aged and healthy, probably even better off than Arnie in his prime. And all of them just had the balls to snap and glare at people telling them to fall in line (yup, even the women).
So after "10 years" (as said by the nice middle-aged woman I was sitting with)--or so it seemed-- I finally paid 375 bucks for 3 copies and was told to return the following day at 3-5 pm to claim them.
I was early today. I was there 30 minutes early and debated wether I should just wait in front of the office or cool myself off at the nearby Chowking--I picked the latter. Big Mistake.
Although I was promptly there when they said I should be, I wasn't able to claim my forms until 4:30 pm (the woman giving out forms must have thought it funny to catch up on the latest gossip with officemates while 200+ people waited like pigs on a slaughterhouse outside). I should have known better than to trust the government's judgement.
So what's my point? Simple. If this was a sneak peek of what was really going on in the national picture, boy...WE'RE DOOMED, PEOPLE.
posted by anj at 5:53 AM
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