When Sorry Is Just Too Easy A Word

When I recently visited England I was surprised
at how the place had more in common with India*
than I expected, though the locals were unaware of this.
The English often dislike what they are dependent on,
and their attitude to telesales call centres is typical of this.
They expect to have phone numbers to ring
to contact the companies about consumer durables
and phone lines they are sold, and they like the telesales
employees to speak clear english with no flannel or excuses,
but want it on the cheap without thinking through the consequences.

The companies selling the product square the circle
by exporting the unwanted job/task to India,
where the staff know little, and they are told even less
as they are dissembled to. To save face they apologize
for what they don't know more than for any other reason.
They have been set up and can't say so.
This apology and its reasoning annoys english callers
who'd kept face by exporting the jobs in the first place.

When I was catching a train in England
every fourth train is late and some are cancelled
and went un-replaced. So the station master announces
his many apologies, when really he is not sorry
and there is nothing he could do if he tried.
He is just another cog in a machine set to gridlock.

In airport customs the signs say 'we do not tolerate abuse'
and the customer passing through finds only too late
that this means abuse of the staff, not themselves.  

England and India are alike in that in both
the greatest opportunities come from laws
which benefit the middle men/fixers in the system
more than anyone else.
E.g. the lawyers who take public actions
where the gain for the plaintiff is swallowed up
by the courtly process. Civil servants do similar things
with rules at their disposal-which they adapt to suit themselves.

The middle men keep on fixing to stay rich
and the poor (the biggest number) who have no face
get left to the systems which keep stripping the intended gain
away from them. Guess who makes the most apologies there then......



*my perception of India never having been there.