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.
