Did you read the letter?

07.14.2004

Sometimes I wonder if people pay attention. I'd requested census data from INE (National Statistics Institute) some time ago. I wanted the 2001 & 1993 census data — actually, only some very specific bits of data — but broken down to the section of province level. This latter part was very important, since it allows me to cross-reference similar level electoral data w/ census data to run models testing for relationships between things like literacy rates & voting patterns. This was all very clearly stipulated in a letter.

After a few trips over the past 2-3 months, I picked up the INE data on a complementary CD they gave me this afternoon. Excellent. Right? Nope. I get home to find it's nothing but .pdf files of national level data. Even though I specifically asked the guy handing me the CD if they'd given me data broken down to the section of province level. Oh, and it was only 2001 data, too.

Welcome to research in La Paz. It's like pulling teeth.

Posted by Miguel at 07:35 PM

Comments

Just one question: When have you pulled teeth? :-) That would be an interesting post.

Posted by: MB at July 15, 2004 12:37 PM

I've never actually pulled teeth, I guess. Just an expression I picked up somewhere. But. Seriously. Why can't people just read the letters carefully? I explain it to them when I hand them the letter (they demand a letter). Then they just sit on it for weeks w/o really even bothering to read it (or ask questions if they don't understand). So frustrating.

Posted by: Miguel at July 15, 2004 12:50 PM

Bureaucrats seem to be cut from the same cloth no matter the location. Most I've dealt with here in the US, and even in Germany, suffer from severe cases of anal-cranal disease: heads firmly planted up their asses.

Posted by: tom at July 15, 2004 01:50 PM

I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, I've dealt with the famous INS in the US. But that is NOTHING compared with what one has to deal with over here in Germany. It is a royal pain in the ass. I don't even want to get started. The attitude I've found many of the people I know here adopt is: Man muss damit Leben (One has to live with it).

Although I have had little experience in Bolivia with bureaucracy, I have heard a lot about it.

Posted by: MB at July 16, 2004 07:54 AM