Love those bureaucrats!

I've talked before about struggling to understand the bureaucratic mind, and I loved this story that demonstratres it once again.

Regardless of nationality, they're the same all over the world. They inhabit some parallel universe that has nothing to do with the one the rest of us live in.

There's a great example from the UK, reported in The Times.

To summarise what sounds like a Monty Python script, garbage collectors went on strike for two days last month, so garbage accumulated. I quote: "After the stoppage, collections resumed but although the householders’ bins were emptied as normal, the accumulated extra bags were left to rot at the side of the road.

Residents of the street were promised by bureaucrats at the council that a 'rapid response' vehicle (I love that!) would be sent. True to bureaucratic form nothing happened and two weeks later the rubbish was still rotting in the street.

Garbage collectors came on their regular run, again refused to take the extra bags and even refused to let the residents load the bags onto the truck themselves.

So the residents barricaded the street, refusing to let the binmen leave.

The council sent a second truck. A bureaucrat with it told the residents that to teach them a lesson their bins would not be emptied.

The residents, including children, formed a human chain around the truck.

Tempers flared, the police were called, negotiations took place and eventually a deal was struck, the barricade was removed and so was the garbage.

Then we have the message from the parallel universe of the bureaucrats.

This is how they saw the incident.

A council spokesman said: "The collection crews always do their best to collect everyone’s waste. This minor incident was quickly resolved, in line with what we would expect of our collection crews."

Amazing.


You can read the details in The Times.