I got some rather interesting comments on the post I did about my Dad and his birth not being recorded. He did not feel any displeasure with bureaucrats. In fact, he thought it was pretty funny. He particularly liked the line , "Mr Kline we have never heard of you." In my post I was not upset with bureaucrats as this happened a long time ago when all records were kept by hand. Most readers and commenters could see that the best was done at that time.
Some of the comments seemed to hint at bureaucrats being the cause of such a problem and they were. However, one bad apple does not mean that all the others are bad apples. Most govt. workers work hard and do what they are supposed to.
I have had some direct experience with this issue as when I taught in the north I was a civil servant. I had to take an oath of some kind which all Govt. employees had to take. Now some employees were a waste of time but not very many. It was easy to pick out who pulled their weight and who didn't. Many went above and beyond what they had to do to get the job done. In my experience I found that information was lacking due to people filling in information incorrectly or incomplete.
I also know that many private companies have their dead wood employees too and in a way they are protected by company bureaucrats. My daughter worked for a large oil company and was amazed at how politics were played out.
So my main point is that we should not judge all bureaucrats by just one who messes up on the job. It's like racism where we label a whole group by what we see one or a few doing and so label all the others as having that fault. We have to put the responsibility where it belongs and that only belongs to the one with those negative characteristics and behavior.
I suppose I have a fault that I root for the underdog and don't like to see people unfairly treated. I would also hope that I respond in a clear fair manner when I comment on ideas presented in my blog comments. To me comments are always interesting and make me think about my post.
I agree, Red. Sometimes we want to blame somebody and figure if we have a good reason, we can justify making value judgments about people we don't even know. Very thoughtful post.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Discrimination is one of my hot button topics.
Deleteyou make a very good point about lumping folks together to place blame.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite easy to do and many b people are not aware of the error.
DeleteI agree with everything you say but I must just drop on the bad ones when I have my infrequent dealings with government administration.
ReplyDeleteOh yes , thee are some that are useless. More often it's a system that doesn't function properly.
DeleteMy dad didn't have a birth certificate and he struggled for years before he was able to get a passport.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's not funny when you need something as crucial as a passport.
DeleteIt is always easy to blame people - and as a very good friends used to always remind me, "there is no cheese down that tunnel"! We gain nothing by blaming, and usually, it just involves extra work on our part to get things straightened out. You always provide us interesting reading, so I appreciate you taking the time to respond to the comments!
ReplyDeleteI have never heard the expression ," There's no cheese down that tunnel!" cool!
DeleteI wrote a short post on this issue a while ago, but yours is clearer and more concise. I hate that they have made bureaucrats the same as welfare cheats. What about all the CEO's that drove their company into the ground?
ReplyDeleteWe are the only ones who can promote change in our lives. The power of the pen, or in this case keyboard soothes my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThe grass you were enjoying is Bluestem, and grows pretty tall in this area.
Okay we have blue stem here. It's much shorter here.
DeleteMy grandfather, the lawyer, found that his grandparents' marriage license had his grandmother married to her father-in-law. Father and son had same first name, different middle, clerk got them switched around. I am not sure how they got it corrected, since the actual bridegroom was a Surrogate Court Judge by the time it was discovered.
ReplyDeleteThat's a weird one. I'm sure that it could be corrected. How many people would ever catch something like that?
DeleteA very good summation. Well done.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Colin (Brisbane.Australia)
Thank you. It's a topic that is extremely important to me.
DeleteI worked as a State Government employee for about 17 years - in two different states of Australia. We were producing curriculum materials to help teachers deliver quality education in government schools scattered over great distances (not textbooks, but materials for isolated teachers who at that time had little access to inservice facilities). I never worked as hard in my life as I did in those two jobs. At one stage I had a staff of about 20 people and with very few exceptions they, too, worked their asses off most of the time, trying to do the impossible with insufficient resources and despite all the usual bash-the-government comments that even then were common. After that I spent ten years helping struggling education departments in developing countries to produce better textbooks in situations where families could not afford even pennies for educational materials, so no commercial publishers were interested in developing textbooks. There are some situations in which governments are the only entities who can, and should, provide services. And I've never understood why so many people - especially in the USA - seem determined to heap scorn on the people who do that work.
ReplyDeleteWe could have a very long chat. Yes , budget cuts are senseless in many cases as you mention where materials are needed for kids.
DeleteMost Americans are pretty fair about their bureaucrats. One political party is way over the edge on the subject.
Not surprisingly, Red, the equivalent political party in this country is equally scornful of public servants. One of their party just took over as Premier in our State (equivalent to Governor) and immediately began getting rid of state government workers in all departments. His goal is to chop 20,000 jobs - and this after he campaigned on the promise that government employees had nothing to worry about from his party. I no longer think we should even listen to what political candidates say. I vote based on the party's past record.
DeleteMind you, some people just are stupid!
ReplyDeleteWe have a radio host who is dumb as a brick.
She questions why the amateur golfer, who won the tournie, didn't get the money. I thought she ought to look up amateur in the dictionary. Although, not sure this journo has ever used a dictionary!
She also thought otters were 'slimy'. sigh. She disses music choices that differ from hers. I listen in because she makes me laugh with her stupidity. sigh.
Well..someone was not doing their job..which means that someone else in a supervisory position was not doing their job either. Someone should have noticed that Births were not being recorded. I have seen some of those huge old books..the information flows throughout the years.
ReplyDeleteI won't blame anyone except where blame is due..I am glad your Dad finally got his benefits:)
I, also had an experience where the Court Report destroyed many title records of land, because He had not paid his taxes for several years on several of his property. In his process of 'shredding' some legal documents that I needed for a lake my parents owned where in that mess.
ReplyDeleteHis supervisors (the County Commissioners) let him go, with a nod and a slap on the hands, oh and he needed to pay his taxes back in a five year period.
My situation has taken years to fix...I agree with Far Side blame needs to be placed where blame is due ..... I glad your Dad finally got his benefits.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
yes...just like we cannot judge Americans by the news, the Catholic Church by the priest abuse scandal, colleges athletics by the PSU scandal etc..
ReplyDeleteRed all too often people are labeled by the general consensus, I'm the same as you are. One bad apple does not spoil the entire crate. It's easy to fall into stereotyping, I still do at times until I call myself on my own stuff and then I reassess what is really going on... when I judge others it generally stems from something I don't want to look at personally.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this awareness, today I'll try not to stereotype nor judge others. As 'they' say, do not judge a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins!
I am always surprised when I get a prompt response from the govt. officials in my country. They are corrupt to the core and a very few actually work in bureaucracy. The work gets done but at some stage in the process they force you to pay them for doing their duty even when everything is proper and legal. They have genius for identifying the bribe stage.
ReplyDelete