BEST OF INTENTIONS
This New York Times article titled "The Jarring Road to a South African Driver's License" is a must-read.
You're not going to believe how overboard governments can go in the interests of their citizens. Not of mention totally off the track. It's about:
"...the Catch-22 that faces every aspiring motorist here: To drive legally, one very sensibly needs a license. Except that licenses often seem impossible to get.
All right, not impossible. They are nevertheless very difficult. In a two-year period that ended in July, the national transport ministry says, 1.5 million people applied for driver’s licenses. Fewer than 4 in 10 actually received them.
Over all, the government says, South Africa has about 8.5 million motor vehicles and 7.8 million licensed drivers. The nation’s transport minister said in July that so few motorists get licenses because they do not study hard enough for their exams, and he could be right: the K53 is hardly a no-brainer.
Based on Britain’s national driving exam, the K53 effectively requires an applicant to imagine that he is driving a live claymore mine under assault by guerrillas in bumper cars.
The hand brake must be engaged silently at all stops (ratchet-clicking is strictly forbidden), and all mirrors must be checked every seven seconds. Points are deducted for glancing at the gearshift, driving too slowly, failing to ensure that head- and taillights are securely attached, failing to check the play on the clutch pedal, failing to look beneath the car for leaks and several score other sins.
There are many ways to fail instantly, including permitting one’s automobile to roll backward, even an inch, while stopping or starting."
The story has everything. It's got tales of government greed:
"The $25 fee to schedule a driver’s exam is split between the national and local governments. Some localities, Mr. Ronald said, have become so fond of that easy money that they are notorious for flunking applicants, apparently in the expectation that they will pony up $25 more to reapply."
And government rules that make sense:
"And many might, were it easy to reapply.
It is not.
License applicants are supposed to apply by telephone, which has proven less than successful. “I have attempted to call the call center — in quick succession — 271 times. Not joking,” one miserable soul wrote in November on the Internet site drivers.com."
And expected results from the best of governmental intentions:
"...because so few drivers have obtained licenses — traffic accidents and deaths are rising fast, to 15,400 fatalities last year, up nearly 9 percent from 2005. The fatality rate per mile traveled, the best measure of road safety, is five times that in the United States, which is in turn higher than in most developed nations."
Of course, this is not about South Africa. No government has a monopoly on this kind of silliness. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least half a dozen similarly ridiculous government regulations in the U.S.
But rather the article should be read again every time you're utterly frustrated by an interaction with a government agency, be it local, state or national. To remind you how much crazier things can be.
I think I'm laminating it and keeping it in a drawer for that purpose.
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