If I were to use one word to characterize what this year was like for me legally, I'd say "nightmare". It was a nightmare and it's still not over yet.
Early this year, in February I had to renew my ID and that's when the whole madness started. Someone has warned me previously, that I'm going to run into some trouble, but me, the naive, I thought I can still be the exception to this and get away with it. Well, I was wrong.
Long story short, I was told there's a problem with my address and I need to go to the urbanism office to get a certificate which clarifies the problem. Sounds easy, after all, it's just a document, right?
Well, it took them 4 (FOUR) weeks to issue me a certificate, that clarifies my address. Four weeks for a simple paper and three people were needed to sign it, like it was a state secret or something.
After getting the certificate, I managed to renew my ID and said let's get the correction in the land registry, to be on the safe side and avoid this circus in case I need another official document next time, that needs my address. I paid 15 euro for this update, even though it wasn't my mistake or fault and was happy it's taken care of, thinking I'm out of the woods, I'm never going to go through this bureaucratic torture again.
Then this week I had to renew my ID again and was telling myself, thank God, my papers are in order, there will be no problems. When I handed in my papers, everything seemed to go smoothly, but when I was about to leave, the lady came out of her office to let me know there might be a problem with the address and told me she's going to call me if they reject my application.
This was the moment when I started rolling my eyes, but I have the habit of taking a deep breath before saying anything and after that deep breath I decided to not say anything and left. The next 2 days were stressful. I was expecting a call any minute to be told the madness is not over after all and I have to go through that charade again, but in fact I got a text letting me know I can pick my ID up the next day.
You can imagine how happy I was that I don't have to go through another nightmare, like in February, but in the same time I was thinking, how on earth can these institutions work like they do? Wherever you go, you need official documents to solve anything and all they have to do is copy the details from those official documents. Then how on earth can they mess up things like that?
So while I was checking the schedule as to when I can pick my ID up, I saw the reviews people left for the office issuing IDs. The rating of 3.2 stars already suggested it's not going to be good, but what I was about to read, blew my mind.
For those of you who are not familiar with how things are working in my country, most of the government offices and not only, are requiring online appointments, to avoid crowds and confusion and to also facilitate smooth administration and problem solving. Banks for example have a ticket system you can use at the door, to get a number, but here, at the ID office, your only option is to make an appointment online.
This measure has been implemented to make life easier, yet people were complaining of not knowing and about not having a possibility to get an appointment at the office. If I say this is crazy, that's an understatement. Imagine everyone has a smartphone these days, everyone has internet and all it takes is to google the website and get an appointment. With the details required, it takes 2 minutes in total, if you're slow. If you are a bit more knowledgeable, you can do it in one minute, but some people only use their phones to chat on different video platforms and for facebook as that is a must these days in some circles I don't want to characterize now, and nothing more.
So how much does incompetence and ignorance cost? They say a lot of people has to die for something to change, which sounds brutal, but it is true, unfortunately.
State run offices are full of incompetent and lazy people (no offense), who got the job because they are the relative of someone influential, they have been shown what to do and doing that without thinking. They get paid regardless if they do the job or not, so why they should bother, right?
The majority of the population on the other hand is expecting others to do the work as thinking and trying to find a solution is not something they are used to. Blaming others for their incompetence and ignorance is easier than actually trying to learn something new that can help them. The generation that was brought up and taught to not think, just do what they are told, without questioning anything, will never be able to individually think and learn. I don't even whant to know how many people are in this category.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
