From: Ralph Lewis (rlewis10us@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jun 14 2001 - 09:21:35 MDT
Amara, god I wonder how they would have handled me, While I was working on
my PhD and a research project my faculty advisor (straight) and I were going
out drinking one night and he was showing me the San Francisco bars. So I
said let me show you one of my bars and took him to the Ramrod (a gay
leather bar). I wonder if this would get me a certificate of good conduct LOL.
Best Wsihes
Ralph
At 10:01 AM 06/14/2001 +0100, you wrote:
>
>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
>
>
>
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