let me share an experience here. i was at the passport office, with all the documents, trying to finish my work. this was my third day. i had been sent back twice for some document or another, but when i asked them for the list of documents needed for my application, they did not have that list. which means they were inventing documents on the go.
all of us there were facing the same issue. they did not have a displayed list of documents, were not accepting the list of documents given on the website. most of us were there for days on end.
on my second day there, a lady , who was being sent back yet again, asked the clerk why he wont accept annexure F on a printed letterhead. The clerk replied that they dont accept computer printouts of letter heads. The lady then asked the clerk to give her this objection in writing, and to write that her application is being sent back for this reason. The clerk refused to give anything in writing. She asked for the rulebook. She was told, to her face “we wil not write anything and we will not accept your papers. you can do whatever you want about it.” She created some noise and asked for the manager.
They refused to call the manager.
But this is the interesting part:
EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE IN THE ROOM WAS FACING THE EXACT SAME ISSUE AS THIS WOMAN, NOT ONE PERSON IN THE ROOM RAISED A VOICE TO SUPPORT HER.
ALL OF THESE PEOPLE WERE EDUCATED, REASONABLY WELL PLACED AND DEFINITELY KNEW THEIR RIGHTS ENOUGH TO SPEAK UP.
And that, imho, is why we will never be a superpower, no matter how much IT money we make. A country where the empowered refuse to take part in governance.. where they are more focused on buying their convenience than anything else.. a country like that, cannot be a superpower. or any power at all.
The reason we were able to wrest our independence from the British is that thousands of us were willing to give up property, court arrest, suffer financial hardships et al, for a principle.
Somehow, they took our spines away and left us a country of cripples.
all of us there were facing the same issue. they did not have a displayed list of documents, were not accepting the list of documents given on the website. most of us were there for days on end.
on my second day there, a lady , who was being sent back yet again, asked the clerk why he wont accept annexure F on a printed letterhead. The clerk replied that they dont accept computer printouts of letter heads. The lady then asked the clerk to give her this objection in writing, and to write that her application is being sent back for this reason. The clerk refused to give anything in writing. She asked for the rulebook. She was told, to her face “we wil not write anything and we will not accept your papers. you can do whatever you want about it.” She created some noise and asked for the manager.
They refused to call the manager.
But this is the interesting part:
EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE IN THE ROOM WAS FACING THE EXACT SAME ISSUE AS THIS WOMAN, NOT ONE PERSON IN THE ROOM RAISED A VOICE TO SUPPORT HER.
ALL OF THESE PEOPLE WERE EDUCATED, REASONABLY WELL PLACED AND DEFINITELY KNEW THEIR RIGHTS ENOUGH TO SPEAK UP.
And that, imho, is why we will never be a superpower, no matter how much IT money we make. A country where the empowered refuse to take part in governance.. where they are more focused on buying their convenience than anything else.. a country like that, cannot be a superpower. or any power at all.
The reason we were able to wrest our independence from the British is that thousands of us were willing to give up property, court arrest, suffer financial hardships et al, for a principle.
Somehow, they took our spines away and left us a country of cripples.
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