Idiot bureaucrats
Nov. 13th, 2005 07:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mojosmomFrom today's Chicago Trib article about employees of Antoine's, dispersed by Katrina:
John Hoffmann Jr. doesn't know it, but back in Chalmette, La., there's a notice from a government inspector taped to the green front door of his home, which was about the only spot the inspector could have affixed it, because there is no longer an actual home standing behind the door.
"I visited your residence today to perform an inspection for the application you made with FEMA for disaster assistance," reads the form letter left by the inspector for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who, to post it, had to walk through the rubble and twisted metal strewn in front of the charred carcass of the strip mall where Hoffmann's apartment used to be.
"Since you were not there," the letter says, "I was unable to complete the inspection. Your application for housing assistance . . . cannot be processed until the inspection is completed."
The three-paragraph notice informs Hoffmann that he must call the inspector to arrange an appointment. But the part where the inspector's name and phone number are supposed to be filled in has been left blank.
Not that it really matters. Hoffmann has only a few hundred dollars in the bank and no way to get from his camper in the woods in Bentley, La., back to Chalmette to see the letter taped to his door. And even if he could make it back, Hoffmann couldn't read the Kafkaesque notice anyway. He is learning-disabled, an 8th-grade dropout and illiterate.
John Hoffmann Jr. doesn't know it, but back in Chalmette, La., there's a notice from a government inspector taped to the green front door of his home, which was about the only spot the inspector could have affixed it, because there is no longer an actual home standing behind the door.
"I visited your residence today to perform an inspection for the application you made with FEMA for disaster assistance," reads the form letter left by the inspector for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who, to post it, had to walk through the rubble and twisted metal strewn in front of the charred carcass of the strip mall where Hoffmann's apartment used to be.
"Since you were not there," the letter says, "I was unable to complete the inspection. Your application for housing assistance . . . cannot be processed until the inspection is completed."
The three-paragraph notice informs Hoffmann that he must call the inspector to arrange an appointment. But the part where the inspector's name and phone number are supposed to be filled in has been left blank.
Not that it really matters. Hoffmann has only a few hundred dollars in the bank and no way to get from his camper in the woods in Bentley, La., back to Chalmette to see the letter taped to his door. And even if he could make it back, Hoffmann couldn't read the Kafkaesque notice anyway. He is learning-disabled, an 8th-grade dropout and illiterate.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 06:05 pm (UTC)As one of those idiot bureaucrats...
Date: 2005-11-13 09:14 pm (UTC)Knowing government as I do, he's probably not given the leeway to extend himself, to bend rules, to make exceptions. I run into the same thing in my job: as much as I would like to approve some people's requests for emergency payments, advance payments, etc., I absolutely cannot if all the prerequisites aren't met. The inspector more than likely has the same sort of restrictions. If his regs require the applicant to be present at the inspection, and the applicant is not, then, sadly, the inspector is stuck. Even though it may be obvious there's no there there. Thank you, Congress.
(There. That's my pathetic defense. I'll hush up now.)
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 11:58 pm (UTC)Sure, the government says they're doing all they can to help these displaced folks, but they're making them jump through enough hoops to qualify for their own circus tutu. Sheesh.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-13 11:59 pm (UTC)I KNOW he's a government employee
Date: 2005-11-14 01:34 am (UTC)My biggest fear is that the only people who will benefit from all the 'aid' money will be big business and bureaucracies, the real people will only get peanuts!
In the meantime, officials like that one get off on 'keeping to the rules'. Where is commonsense and humanity in that?