Law /
Bureaucracy in Poland [53]
I have been living in the UK for three years now. As a community interpreter, I have ongoing contact with all sorts of public institutions here, ranging from medical centres to prisons and from schools to council offices. I know it's probably also a question of what you're used to, but the British system seems to me, a foreigner, hugely inefficient, extremely slow, ponderous even, attached to thousands of petty formalities, with the added inconvenience of not being able to talk in person to an informed officer in many cases (such as claiming all kinds of benefits); instead, what awaits you is many hours of calls to customer helplines where you get to listen to assorted muzak and talk to "advisors" who have no idea what is going on in your case and tell you to send in documents you had already sent them twice.
I used to run two small businesses in Poland and never had any problems. I did my own ZUS calculations, my own taxes, VAT, you name it - and never had the slightest problem with the Revenue Office. I mostly found the municipality officers helpful and competent as well. Parallel universe or what?
I have actually come to love and respect Poland and its institutions a lot more since visiting the UK. Which is probably a good thing, because in the long run all of us belong where we were born. Travelling is great, but we all need a real home.
This probably sounds controversial, but hey - it's what I think, and I've had the experiences to back my opinion.
On the whole, I think each country is "insane" in the sense that it has its stupid quirks and illogical rules. It takes all sorts, after all. But I think comparing these "insanities" is like comparing apples and pears. And I don't like the way Poles tend to always put their country down, even when it is no worse than any other country in the world.
