Red tape

I got burglared some time ago. That wasn’t funny. They stole my ID. It’s a piece of plastic which you need so you can prove you exist. Without it, you don’t officially exist. You can get fined, taxed and jailed without it, but you can’t withdraw money, get a phone or drive a car without it.

So I wrote the Belgian Embassy, filled out a very very long piece of paper and asked for a new ID-card and a new passport since the latter had expired.

Today, they called me and told me I wasn’t registered at their embassy yet and that I needed to do that first before they could send me a new ID. To do so, I have to call the city hall of Leuven, last know place of residence in Belgium, and asked them for a model 8. Wooow! Hold on! My wife’s a model but I’m not sure if she’s a model 8? No, a model 8 is a piece of paper that proves you actually left the country. As if I would go through all the hassle of asking for a new ID and passport if I could just go to the city hall in Belgium and ASK for a new one without complications. Oh, and I need to proved that I’m married. They won’t take my word for it.

So I call the Leuven city hall and, of course, the woman I get on the line says I need to be put through to someone else. And then I didn’t get put through and the lady I first spoke to picks the phone up again and says she’ll try to put me through to someone else. This includes less technological actions on her part as I hear her drop the receiver and walk across the office. I hear her go “mwnjhf jejbn sdfjd” with someone who responds “wkkjiuie llieuenf lfk”. She walks back, picks up the receiver and tells me I “need to send an e-mail”. When asked what to put in the e-mail, she tells me “what you just told me”. “What? “What do I put in the e-mail” is what I put in the e-mail?” … Anyway, I got it, she got it and the result is me sending an e-mail to an office that’s already covered in red tape and to which I’m just adding by tying a nice little knot in the ribbon. I think I’m going to be without official ID for quite some time to come …

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 14:36:05 and is filed under Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.