Monday, April 04, 2011

Bureaucratics: A Portrait of the World's Red Tape

Dutch historian and documentary photographer Jan Banning's book Bureaucratics compares the culture and symbols of state civil administrations - the institutions through which citizens are generally confronted with the state.

Bolivia, bureaucracy, Potosi, 2005. Bolivia-13/2005

Rodolfo Villca Flores (b. 1958) is chief supervisor of market and sanitary services of the municipality of Betanzos, Cornelio Saavedra province. Previously he worked as a bricklayer, electrician, plumber and handyman. Monthly salary: 1,150 bolivianos ($143)



Liberia, bureaucracy, 2006. Liberia-19/2006

Warford Weadatu Sr. (b. 1963), a former farmer and mail carrier, now is county commissioner (administrator) for Nyenawliken district, River Gee County. He has no budget and is not expecting any money soon from the poverty-stricken authorities in Monrovia. Monthly salary: 1,110 Liberian dollars ($20), but he hadn't received any salary for the previous year.



USA, bureaucracy, Texas, 2007. USA-11/2007

Shane Fenton (b. 1961) is sheriff of Crockett County (about 3000 inhabitants), Texas, and based in Ozona, the county seat. Monthly salary: $3,166




Yemen, bureaucracy, 2006. Yemen-03/2006

Nadja Ali Gayt (b. 1969) is an adviser at the Ministry of Agriculture s education center for rural women in the district of Manakhah, Sana Governorate. Monthly salary: 28,500 rial ($160)



Read more at Brain Pickings

5 comments:

  1. What a tremendous amount of effort to put this book together.
    I can only imagine the subjects wondering, as the flash goes off, what the hell am I doing? Is this going to come back to bite me? Will this get me promoted, or is this the end of my career?

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  2. Sharktooth6:53 pm

    Some great pics there.

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  3. Who thought bureaucrats could be so interesting?

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  4. Don Mills6:52 pm

    Nice to see photos of my bureaucratic brothers and sisters from around the world. Thank you for sharing those. I'm looking forward to visiting the link and seeing more.

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  5. I wasn't aware that you worked as a bureaucrat, Don. What was that like before the invention of the telephone?

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