Better to lose an enemy than a good response
Premise: despite the doctors, I am in excellent health and firmly intending to bury you all. You already know, moreover, that I prefer funerals to weddings, because they are shorter and because they are a solution, while weddings are longer and often become a problem, and that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about: wasting time.
Today I had to go, to get an illustrious opinion, in a primary Roman hospital (the best, they tell me …). I had asked the haruspex what I had to do (go to the tenth floor of the X wing at 13:30), and I had done it, with some difficulty. Just think, that when I arrived at wing X (I won't tell you which one, so as not to violate my privacy!), I take the elevator in the company of a lady. "Where you go"? "At the tenth". "Me in the ninth". "You are welcome". Everyone pushes his button, you get to the ninth: "Goodbye!". Do the doors close and the elevator goes up? No, of course, it goes down! Luckily it stops at the eighth. I go down, I take the stairs on foot. You will say: ten minus eight equals two, so you've done two ramps. No, one, because the stairs ended on the ninth floor! So I call another lift, I also notice the presence of 10 on the push button panel there, and this time … I arrive on the tenth floor!
Things that happen.
I go to the admission, take the number, and I get to work: there is the doctor Tizio who has had my number from the regional councilor Caio and he MUST tell me some things (which I already know, but obviously I will make them repeat: but tonight!), there is the goofy rapporteur who just can't that day, but the next day yes, there is the deadline for the amendments to the simplifications, etc. An hour and a half later (how does the time go by when you're having fun!) The nurse reappears and seraphic asks me: "Ah, but you have to go to the professor?" (eh, no, at home the air conditioning broke and so I climbed from the gutter pipe to the tenth floor of a tower lost in the steppe to enjoy a bit of coolness …) "I call him!" (and call it). Then she re-emerges and tells me to follow her. I follow it, disciplinedly (respect for work is inscribed in our Constitution, since Article 1, the one that inspires the party of Speranza when it leaves doctors without salary or allows the little kapos to disband them …) . The sister bride, with great spontaneity, says to me: "Do you see him where the helicopter rescue is landing? You have to get off and the professor is waiting for you there. Now I'll explain how to get there."
And a long explanation begins.
At a certain point, reminding myself that I had other things to do, I say: "Thank you very much for the explanation but the subject does not interest me because unfortunately I have to go back to the Senate. Goodbye!" I turn on my heels and leave. "So you're not going to the professor?" …
I take the elevator (going downhill is easier than going up, I thought …). The phone rings. Taken by surprise, I don't have time to debut, and therefore:
"Good morning professor! Look, I understand that doctors are divided into two: those who ask you why you didn't think about it before, and those who don't receive you when you think about it first. Now I know where to put it. There will be other occasions." "Excuse me, they didn't warn me." "Don't worry: we are all useful, no one indispensable".
(… I omit the fact that lately I had attended the primary Roman hospital because of a relative who unfortunately I think it will be my turn to bury sooner or later, but it is in the logic of things and in any case it is not even said that it will end like this, and I had already had the opportunity to appreciate the competence, education and humanity of non-medical personnel, especially with the most fragile patients: they have fully internalized my motto, which, as you know, is: arrogant with the humble, servile with the powerful …)
Obviously now I will look for another provider of good advice, exactly as I looked for another provider of telephone services after the previous one ordered me to pay him 400 euros of unpaid bills! At my request to have some details, since they were all domiciled on the same card, and therefore, if only for my role as a parliamentarian who in the Commission must be interested in how the wonderful digital payment services work, I was interested in understanding, not c was replied. At this point I made the transfer (without actually knowing if I should do it or not), and I sent it with a courteous letter to the peasant who had not answered me and to the head of institutional relations of the SpA, with these words: "Dear, I did not understand why I have to give you these 400 euros, but reading the newspapers I realize that you need them more than me so I will gladly give them to you "(pija sti spicci) …
(… then when they jump I'll tell you who they are, and the same goes for the primary hospital …).
Please grasp a detail, the following: in both cases I have never asked, nor do I ever ask, because it has never been my style, a special treatment. There would be no reason, also because if it were ever offered to me, I would not be able to evaluate the level of services offered to the ordinary citizen or consumer. The reflection is exactly the opposite: unless I am not systematically treated worse than the common citizen (see the amendment to the Constitution we were talking about a few posts ago), if this is the standard, we have to stay cool!
And now, flash forward …
It is hot now, but December will arrive, this year as in the infinite future years (until in 5 billion years, and indeed a little earlier, the Sun, becoming a red giant, will bring a climate crisis that will be impossible to attribute to CO2. and will take away meaning from the concept of December …). In December it will be cool, and not this year (maybe), not next year (maybe), but between two? Three? In short, in n years in the Bifanze or Filancio Commission (because the Budget and Finance will be merged), in the excited and confused phases of drafting the budget law, the "Save primary Roman hospital" amendment will arrive, but also the amendment "Save important telephone operator".
You continue, who are waiting for me below: I have a political secretariat in L'Aquila …
(… obviously I will return to ask you how to behave: we must not give in to feelings! I imagine the arguments of colleagues: "But if the amendment does not pass they will have to cut the staff!" We will have to reflect dispassionately on the issue. You understand how difficult it is to build a team , understand how much those who work for you or in any case alongside you can harm you, understand how much the judgment that one makes of circumstances and structures depends on a plurality of events that it is impossible to control, understand how difficult it is to correctly attribute responsibilities, understand Why do you always see me very, very, very cautious? Anyway, I said it to you like this: to the doctor of the Senate I said it in another way: "I will gladly take care of that structure if I were to become Minister of Defense … "… )
(… post subtitle: How I became a libberist …)
(… ps: I don't have time to reread: if there are typos you can indicate them in the comments …)
This is a machine translation of a post (in Italian) written by Alberto Bagnai and published on Goofynomics at the URL https://goofynomics.blogspot.com/2022/07/meglio-perdere-un-nemico-che-una-buona.html on Mon, 04 Jul 2022 14:09:00 +0000. Some rights reserved under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license.