CPTNet
January 13, 2002
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN: Red Tape, Green Tape

by Doug Pritchard

[Note: the following piece was sent on New Year's Eve, 2001, while Pritchard
and Gene Stoltzfus were preparing to leave for Kabul, Afghanistan.
Pritchard and Stoltzfus are scheduled to return to North America on January
15, 2002.]

The term "red tape" originated with the British colonial administration in
India.

In British times, the vast Indian Civil Service used to bind their documents
and files together with red strings. The maddeningly slow progress of those
files, through a myriad of offices and officials' hands before they reached
the British ex-patriate at the top of the pyramid for approval, became
synonymous with the red strings around the files themselves.

Vestiges of the system remain in most countries. Only in Pakistan, the tapes
around the files are green.

The CPT delegation currently in Pakistan / Afghanistan got a taste of the
system as they sought documents needed for travel in the region. Ushered
from office to office to office, they observed piles of green-taped files
reaching from floor to ceiling. Officials and clerks were always able to
find the file needed, and were meticulous in their attention to the
requirements for each travel document.

Despite the large numbers of officials in the hierarchy who had to approve
and stamp each document, there appeared to be some unspoken consensus
operating as to whether the document would ultimately be approved or not.
But to the newcomer, it was not at all obvious what that decision would be.
In the meantime, applicants and clerks and friends swarmed around each
official's desk. The officials carried on simultaneous conversations with
all those around them and with others on the phone. Cups of sweet tea
arrived continuously. CPT's efforts to speed up the approval process, or to
get a clear answer immediately, were met with polite but firm reminders
about the need to understand and to follow "the proper procedure."

As the bureaucracies of the world streamline and computerize more and more
procedures, what will happen to all the green tape and the red tape?