The tale about the boy and his new passport

It all started like a fairytale… Once upon a time there was a guy named Lurens, who needed a new passport for his trip to a beautiful little country called Estopia. There was only one problem: he did not own a picture of himself yet that meet all the requirements. Soon he found out that there was a cabin at the train station where he could get his picture taken. So full of good mood Lurens went the train station and after taking three photos, the machine urged him to select one out of these three photos. However, since his head looked weird in all three photos, Lurens wasn’t sure which one to pick. In the end, after careful consideration, he randomly selected one photo to become his official photo, and armed with his freshly made pictures he rushed to the city hall, to get in line for a new passport. Luckily for him the city hall in Tilburg had a nice and cosy waiting room, where all the people would sit that were waiting on a civil servant to serve them. He even found a newspaper that reported about a certain upcoming World Championship, so he didn’t even notice that he had to wait for half an hour. Then, all of a sudden, a big screen announced that it was his turn to go to the counter.
Full of excitement Lurens walked to the counter. It was the nearest one to the waiting room, how convenient! He showed the friendly-looking woman behind the counter his old passport and his beautiful new photos and sat down. The woman scanned the old passport and looked at her computer for a few seconds. When she opened her mouth again, she said: “The computer says that you still have an old ID-card, I’m gonna need that one.”
Lurens replied: “Yes, but that ID-card expired three years ago, why would I bring that with me when I get a new passport?”
The woman said: “Because those are the rules, I need all old passports and ID-cards before I can give you a new one.”
Lurens replied: “Isn’t there anything you can do for me right now? My old ID-card is at home, in Houten, so if I need to go get that, this would mean I would have to travel all the way back to Houten tonight and then come back to Tilburg tomorrow morning!”
The woman, who started to look a lot less friendly now, said: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you, the rules are the rules.”
And Lurens left the community center.

So the fairytale didn’t end well for our hero Lurens, because of the civil servant who wanted to stick to the rules. Now this blog is not going to be to complain about how government officials always want to stick to the rules. I consider myself to be a liberal, so if these people want to live and act in such a way, they should be allowed to do so. No, my main problem are these rules themselves. Why would it be necessary for a person to bring all of his old ID-cards and passports when applying for a new passport? As long as a person can identify himself, why would you need him to bring all of his old ID-documents? To see how that person evolved over time? Ridiculous! And would this rule imply that in 50 years from now I would have to bring a whole backpack of old ID-documents when applying for a new passport? I would love to see the face of the civil servant when I throw all those documents on his desk, wishing him good luck with all those documents. Another problem I have with this rule is that nobody told me in advance that I would have to bring all of my expired ID-cards. The least a government can do is explain properly which documents a citizen needs to bring when applying for a new passport.

So yesterday night Lurens went back to his home in Houten to get his old ID-card, and while I am writing this weblog he is on the train back to Tilburg. Lurens may be the hero in his own fairytale, but even he has to stick to the rules. Whether I like it or not.