Smart Card... Dumb Issuer?‎

Okay first of all let me tell all of you what a refreshing vacation that was! After a couple ‎of years of no proper full vacation, only a day or two every couple of months and that’s ‎it. Boy this was refreshing.‎

Despite the heat in Bahrain, I didn’t travel this year and stayed here the whole time but ‎decided to take a full time off computers, relax and do absolutely nothing except for a ‎few dinners out here ‘n’ there, a couple of shopping/food trips to Saudi and that was it. I ‎just wanted to relax and think nothing of work or anything else for that matter.‎

One of my experiences during this vacation was that my CPR card has expired and that ‎they only replace it with the new “smart” ID card. So I said what the heck, whether we ‎like it or not we have to go with the flow. Thanks to the advice on Ammar’s blog... I went ‎there well prepared with all the documentation required. I booked an appointment on ‎their retarded website and finally was set for the day of reckoning!‎

The day arrived and I went to the CIO in Isa Town and was actually 20 minutes earlier ‎than my appointment. So I decided to go to the information desk anyways and told the ‎guy I had an appointment 20 mins later and he asked for my CPR, he entered the data and ‎gave me a waiting number. Once I took the number I saw it flashing at one of the many ‎counters open. I thought “well hey, they have improved a lot, many counters, huge ‎waiting areas, you know what? Maybe these government entities aren’t that retarded after ‎all and that they are changing for the better”. That was going on in my mind as I was ‎walking towards that counter. All was well and I suddenly got that fresh breeze of ‎optimism inside me as I was excited to get the card. The counter was empty but my ‎number was there so I sat down and waited for the person to attend to me. Suddenly that ‎breeze of optimism flew away like a tornado faster than the hurricanes you hear about in ‎the Caribbean. There you go, typical government entity, no one is there! I waited for a ‎couple of minutes until a lady showed up who looked like “Um Hilal*”; she was an exact ‎replica of her. So I gave her all my documents and told her that my CPR was expired and ‎that I need to have it replaced. She typed in my details and this happened:‎

Um Hilal Wannabe: “Are you still studying in the University of Bahrain?”‎
Me: “Huh? No! I work and here’s the letter from my employer”‎
UHW: “But you are listed here as a UoB student”‎
Me: “Yeah but now I work, and for the record, I completed my studies abroad and just ‎was in the registration phase at UoB, anyways, isn’t it your job to replace my details with ‎my work details?”‎
UHW: “No I can’t remove it from the system unless you bring me a letter from the UoB ‎that you are no longer studying there”‎
Me: “But I didn’t study there, I only registered and went abroad”‎
UHW: “In that case bring a copy of your degree from abroad”‎
Me: “But now I have to go back to work and get the copy and this will take even longer ‎to process instead of finishing the whole thing today”‎
UHW: “I can’t do anything else, I can’t remove the details without either a statement ‎from the UoB or your certificate”‎
Me: “But I work now and it is not relevant anyways whether I study in the UoB or not. It ‎doesn’t matter cuz I work and that should be listed as my occupation. You guys just love ‎to make our time harder don’t you? You just love to see us beg like dogs to get ‎permission to leave our job to come here and take it from you? (Which of course I was on ‎leave and it didn’t matter!)”‎
UHW: “Sorry I can’t do anything else... NEXT!”‎

I sat and waited for my friend who was there too, and I went to vent some steam out ‎when I talked about what happened to me loudly in front of the other lady who was ‎serving my friend. That proved to be good because she heard my case and asked me if I ‎had stopped studying with UoB before 2004 to which I answered that I didn’t go there at ‎all but yeah to answer her question yes it was way before 2004, much before that! So she ‎went to UHW and told her that she could change my occupation details without any ‎paperwork.‎

Everything else went smoothly afterwards and a few minutes later, I walked out with a ‎shiny new smart card but also with a few burnt brain cells because of getting angry at ‎UHW. Smart card, dumb dumb dumb employees issuing it.‎

And what the fuck is up with these stupid cards anyways? I mean they don’t have the ‎address printed on them unlike the old CPR card and the Identity (Personal) Card which ‎can also be used as a travel document to some GCC States like Qatar, UAE and Oman, ‎but not KSA which is closer to us, what dumbfucks, instead of introducing electronic ‎passport/ID card scanners on the causeway, they make it more difficult to get through.‎

They say that with card readers you can get the address and other details about the ‎cardholder, but not everyone has the reader yet. So how can I prove my address to anyone ‎requiring it? Smart card my ass, yes smart on paper but dumb in reality.‎

Overall, my view still hasn’t changed about how laid back most of the government ‎workers are, there ARE some who are hard workers but the majority isn’t. Don’t pretend ‎they are and that all life is perfect in these workplaces.‎

Fuck this shit, I’ll go sort all the pics I took during the holiday and articles I dug out the ‎newspapers to prepare them to be grilled here on LiB...

*Um Hilal: A popular fat black Bahraini actress who had popular series in the 80s during Ramadhan.
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