Previous | Next :: Petty rules and Pen pushing : New York : USA | June 14, 2010, 11:57 pm

New York DMV........ (Department Motor Vehicles) ......... Its like the USSR......

I remember presenting a voucher to show I'd paid for a hotel in Moscow it was a computer print out from a travel agent....... but they wouldn't accept it because it didn't have a stamp on it.......... I found this weirdly old fashioned even 20 years back......... I'd seen no real reliance on rubber stamps to prove authenticity in Britain ....... The vile woman behind the counter yelled at the top her with a heavy Russian accent voice 'no stamp! Get Out!' as if presenting a feeble computer print out was a total insult to decency ............ I took it that the old Soviet style of 'you must have 3 triplicate applications all written out in longhand then stamped by the relevant officials\' to be a sign of bureaucracy inefficient antiquated authoritarianism........... the kind of thing you could never see in a Western country....... er....... well not unless you go to the New York DMV

Huge lines of depressed people as if waiting for bread in the USSR ...... but in fact lining up only to eventually deal with the vile arbitrary authority behind the counters demanding stamps on your entry papers..... a recognizable stamp on your birth certificate..... signed photographs, duly stamped, notarized and authorized...... with counter signatures and stamps on the photographs of both grand parents....... notarized documentation of all the people who were in your kindergarten class with counter signed photographs of their parents ..... an authorized notarized copy of the title documents....... proof that you have not now or ever have in the past lived in DC.

I wasted all day in there a month back as the Beast car is still registered in DC ...... they didn't register it as I had not complied properly with the petty stamps and pretend problems with my documents ........ I went away and did exactly what I was instructed to do to comply ...... came back today to waste another whole day......... but now the requirements have arbitrarily changed........ the instructions given before and painstakingly carried out by me are just regarded as the ranting of a lunatic......... Last time I had to get the insurance documents changed......... get the insurance company to issue them again with slightly different wording on the policy holders name....... I did that ....... now thats no longer what is required....... in fact something different is now required for the wording on the insurance ..... but not what was required before........ and of course equally difficult to organize the new requirements are now different to what was required before regarding the title documents etc etc....... blah blah blah............

Funny ....... How can this clunking vile bureaucracy can be part of the infrastructure of New York City......... this place is funny....... it's a weird mixture of thrusting futuristic glass towers and commerce........ and a weirdly third world paper pushing state government....... full of authoritarian slothful jobs worth types with their stamps and their legendary pride in their unhelpfulness........ thanks Commissar Lent I absolutely see why you were awarded the Order of Lenin (third class) for services to petty authoritarian government and paper clip organizing.

I guess you have to try and look on the bright side............. at least I don't work there.......... how depressing would that be.

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX