From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Thu Jun 14 2001 - 03:01:01 MDT
I want to share something I found interesting and amusing regarding
cultures and burearucracies: how they are similar and different- with
their differences speaking volumes about the cultures. So in this
story: U.S./California and Germany.
Several years ago, in order to live in Germany, I needed to provide
the German consulate a letter from the Department of Justice in
California that stated that I had no criminal history record. In
order to acquire this letter from California's Justice Department, I
needed to go to a police department, get fingerprinted on a specific
numbered form (not any fingerprinting form would suffice, and not
every California police department offered this particular
fingerprinting service: Palo Alto and Mountain View did not, but
Half Moon Bay did, for example.) Once I obtained my fingerprint on
the specified form, then I sent it, along with my application to the
State's (California) Justice Department in Sacramento, where it
ground through the offices there, and many many weeeks later I
received a short and simple letter from Attorney General that said:
"This letter is in response to your request for a criminal record
check, a search of your fingerprints reveals no criminal history
record. If you have any further questions please address your
correspondence to the Record Review Unit at this address." So at
the end of a long bureacucratic process, which California must
surely reign supreme at the top of the bureacratic garbage heap (!),
just a letter.
Now compare to Germany. In order for me to acquire a PhD diploma
from the University of Heidelberg Physics and Astronomy Department,
I have to complete and/or provide a list of 11 items (dissertation,
exam, proof of my educational background since I was born, etc.),
one of them being: a "Fuehrungszeugnis", which means "Certificate of
Good Conduct". In order to acquire my "Fuehrungszeugnis", I needed
to go to the Buergeramt ("Office for the Citizen"), to speak to a
person there who filled out a form, sent it to country's capital in
Bonn. Six days later, I received in the mail an elaborate document
complete with coat-of-arms and decorated a tasteful lime-green from
der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshop, which is, indeed a
"certificate": with "Fuehrungszeugnis" in large letters at the top,
and my name and address and place of birth and birthdate in the
middle of all of that glory. This culture has streamlined the
procedure, you see, and in fact owning a certificate of good conduct
appears to be treated with some amount of honor (so I gathered from
the amount of decorations).
I wonder what der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof would have
done if they knew I am an anarchist? Comparing these two examples
of bureaucracy and culture made me smile. Have a good day.
Amara
********************************************************************
Amara Graps email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: finger agraps@shell5.ba.best.com
Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/
********************************************************************
"Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the
future of the human race." -- H. G. Wells
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:08:07 MST