Fingerprints of Venezuela

I needed a new passport, so when the DIEX official told me “nai nai, I'm sorry, we couldn't find your alphabetical file, the one that has all your data”, I felt… well, you know how. So when, after a while, that same officer told me "don't worry... we'll get it" and proceeded to take my ten fingerprints, I almost pouted... convinced that I would never get out of that Kafkaesque swamp.

Imagine then my astonishment when, in less than an hour, my potential enemy, today my friend, comes back smiling saying- “we got you… hey, in Táchira, in 1957… who would have thought?”. If he was surprised with the place and date of my ID, I was amazed that they "had gotten me" and curious I asked - "Show me how"... Harry Potter apprentice!

He took me to the Central File and Fingerprinting Directorate, a few gloomy rooms, full of dusty files… set for a wizard movie. There, between books and card holders, his boss, the Director and his assistants kindly showed me everything that happens when you get your first ID, how your fingerprints are analyzed and classified under a Galtonian magnifying glass, producing a unique morphology for each Venezuelan citizen. . With my new fingerprints (somewhat thicker/fatter...), they re-established a chain of 14 numbers, thanks to which they found in the digital archive the card with my smaller fingerprints, taken 45 years ago!, with which the DIEX was able to verify that the citizen Per Kurowski exists, that he is Venezuelan and that he deserves a passport. What an impression those impressions caused me!

In the act I remembered that five years ago I had protested a plan to modernize the identification system, because it seemed like an expensive robbery, 500 million dollars! Shutting up about such a sin, I sat down to talk with my new friends about "modernization." With modesty, they indicated to me the urgent need for new magnifying glasses, a better light to see the fingerprints better and yes, if possible, to digitize the files to speed up the identification work. They ended by saying, “we have heard that they will install a new system soon”-“What system?”- “We don't know, but they say it will cost a good money”.

AHA! I said to myself, since I also know about fingerprints, I have just identified the footprint of the public administration of Venezuela. Instead of allowing these obviously dedicated and capable officials continuous access to the few resources they would need to accomplish wonders and stay modern, for which a small portion of the annual interest would surely suffice, which would cost a $500 plan millions of dollars, there, in some ministry, there is a know-it-all politician who wants it all, generating his own solution... a real hit!

Governors of Venezuela, the day you want to modernize the DIEX, I beg you not to abuse the public servants who work there, better use them... they are true magicians!

Translated from El Universal, November 7, 2002

.