Monday, June 22, 2009

Document Crazy

Tanya got a bill the other day from the city gas company. Addressed to her Ex. That put her in her "Obyu Vsye" mood (Kill everyone), trust me. Today we went to the company office to put things right. Eventually. First we had to go and get a photcopy of our title to prove we owned the house. Next a photocopy of the document from the Village office testifying that two people lived in the house and that they were Tanya and I.

We had been through this previously with the electricity, water and garbage pick up. This time she is mad. She is threatening to write letters and go to the bosses. She realizes how stupid the document requirement is. All they need to know is to whom to send the bill for any given address. And if it isn't paid, then cut off the service until it is paid. Doh.

I told her that SHE can in fact change things in Ukraine. Get mad, write letters, encourage others to do the same, eventually things change. But if no one does anything, it will continue forever. Inertia is a powerful force in nature and in bureaucracy. Building civil society (or whatever the correct term is) in Ukraine is beginning and is the basis of true democracy.

Go get 'em, Tanyushka!!

2 comments:

  1. All together, sing: "We're not gonna' take it any more!"

    Go get 'em, Tanyushka!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're lucky, here you have a choice of going through a Kafka like phone system or leave an email that gets an autogenerated non-response. Go in person and you get a high school intern who insists that the computer doesn't lie.

    Give em hell Tanya!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are encouraged. But if you include a commercial link, it will be deleted. If you comment anonymously, please use a name or something to identify yourself. Trolls will be deleted