rage against the machine

whenever i have to get something done that involves the government i say a prayer ... something along the lines of God see me through this ... please give me the strength and patience to survive this ordeal ... as you might know i got a new job three months ago ... currently i am in the process of getting my sponsorship transferred to my new employer ...
now i know government and bureaucracy go together like milk and cookies ... but arabs take it to another level ... honestly sometimes i think they make things up just for the sake of complicating matters and making you miserable ... like they might say something like ooh sorry the signature is in red it has to be in blue ... or ooh sorry your form is unacceptable the date is written as 1/8/2010 ... it needs to be written as 01/08/2010 ... they really are that ridiculous ... and don't even get me started on the stamps ... if there was a nobel prize for bureaucracy i think arab governments would win it every year ... they certainly have my vote ...


"Kafkaesque" is an eponym used to describe concepts, situations, and ideas which are reminiscent of the literary work of the Austro-Hungarian writer Franz Kafka, particularly his novels The Trial and The Castle, and the novella The Metamorphosis.

The term, which is quite fluid in definition, has also been described as "marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity: Kafkaesque bureaucracies" and "marked by surreal distortion and often a sense of impending danger: Kafkaesque fantasies of the impassive interrogation, the false trial, the confiscated passport ... haunt his innocence" — The New Yorker.

It can also describe an intentional distortion of reality by powerful but anonymous bureaucrats. "Lack of evidence is treated as a pesky inconvenience, to be circumvented by such Kafkaesque means as depositing unproven allegations into sealed files..." Another definition would be an existentialist state of ever-elusive freedom while existing under unmitigable control.

The adjective refers to anything suggestive of Kafka, especially his nightmarish style of narration, in which characters lack a clear course of action, the ability to see beyond immediate events, and the possibility of escape. The term's meaning has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

The term could also be seen as Kafka's reaction against the concept of time. Public time, to Kafka, is a nightmare; he has a broken relationship with the world; that, in essence, "the world has gone nuts." One such example is in The Trial, wherein Josef K. says of a meeting with his employer that he was summoned to go somewhere, but they forget to tell him when. He assumes to be there at nine, and arrives an hour late. The Examining Magistrate approaches him and says that Josef K. should have been there at 8:45. The next week, he shows up at 8:45, but no one is there. His heroes feel absurd when arriving early, but guilty when late.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafkaesque