| Kippreport.com

UAE’s next mission impossible: get an ID card

December 23, 2010 2:33 by Eva Fernandes

Riding into work on the metro this morning Kipp saw a queue of people gathered in front of a typing center near the Jaffiliya Station. And, though we were stuck between the armpit of a very smelly passenger and a protruding belly of an old man, an overwhelming sense of pity came over us for those people standing desperately in line before what they fear will be the final final deadline. Sympathy, because we are very well acquainted with the bureaucratic, inefficient dealings of the EIDA and their approved typing centers.

Every year since 2008, the forces that be at EIDA rouse themselves to scare the general public by announcing an arbitrary – not to mention unrealistic – deadline before which everyone must have an ID card, or else. Or else what? Or else you get a fine, though some Kipp members have called their bluff every year, and have yet to face a fine for not possessing an ID card.

So, 31^st December 2010 is the new final final final deadline this time around; cue the usual hype and queues in front of typing centers. Same old, same old.

But there is a difference this year – and not because 2010 is the year EIDA chose to get their act together. In fact it’s quite the reverse: Kipp cannot remember a time when we have ever seen so many negative reports about the EIDA in the news.

The latest says that there are 40,000 ID card pre-registration applications per day being received by typing centers all over the country, but the centers say they do not have the resources to accommodate the large numbers. Then again, Kipp for one didn’t need a report to know that the typing centers are probably inadequately staffed and ill equipped for the massive logistical challenge that creating ID cards can be. In fact EIDA has said they have received no fewer than 80,000 erroneous applications through the certified typing centers (the people who are supposed to get it right) during the past three months.

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