Najma's Notebook

 

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Bureaucracy

 

I love the grinding wheels of bureaucracy

It brings low the high and mighty, the aristocracy

If you have to queue, you have to queue

Your turn will come when your time is due

 

Never mind if there are many or few

If you have to queue, you have to queue

As the wheels of bureaucracy come to grind

Those with patience aren’t left behind

 

Bureaucracy I love, its system in place

Follow the procedure and you’ll find you space

It showcases humanity in a sea of mankind

Who’s in control, it’s there to remind

 

Humbles the elevated, the poor it serves

Brings at par, we all get what we deserve

I love bureaucracy, its wheels as they grind

Crushes our ego, to our wealth is blind

 

I love bureaucracy, what a bind

It locks together a wave of mankind

Watch the one who wants to bypass

The queue, the paperwork, wants first class

 

I love bureaucracy, it brings me low

Breath in, breath out, resistance let go

Criticism, frustration and anger reign in

Bags of patience you need to bring in

 

The wheels of bureaucracy I love

Temptation to bribe, hand in glove

The desire to bypass, jump the queue

My needs come first, I belong to the few

 

In the queues of bureaucracy,

Watch the behaviour of theocracy

Self worth brought low, deflated,

Never mind to who you are related

 

When it works like this, you love it

If someone jumps ahead we have a fit

If there is justice and fairness we are okay

If there is nepotism, patience is in disarray

 

 

Cheerful acceptance – order of the day

You need to engage, by the rules play

The system is fair, procedures in place

Ethics rule, compassion in the face

 

Bureaucratic machinery gets messed up

The wheels clog, the queues get stuck

When there are those who want a short cut

Corruption and bribery, the system held up

 

Watch the alert eyes of those in queue

Who’s behind, who’s next – what’s due

Invisible masses, a deterrent force

Officers of bureaucracy kept on course

 

Bureaucracy such a wonderful thing

A microcosm – a universe in swing

A reminder of doomsday, the sea of humanity there

Waiting for accountability, accurate and fair

 

© Najma Ansari

Johannesburg 4 January 2010