Where in the world am I? (9)

I live in a country where the banks do not talk to each other.

It is not completely impossible to transfer money between one bank and another, but the mechanisms for doing so are so obscure and complicated and unreliable that, in practice, everybody treats it as impossible.

I just blew out a would-be employer because they insisted it was going to be "impossible" to arrange payment into my own bank account (or via the almost ubiquitous cash-stuffed-envelope-discreetly-slipped-into-backpocket method, which I always rather enjoy). "Now, let me see. I could set up an account with your bank, the XYY Bank, which only has a handful of branches, the nearest of which is at least 3 or 4 miles away from where I live. And then I could remember to go and visit this bank every month to withdraw all of the money you're paying me, and go and deposit that money in my bank - the ABC Bank, which has branches all over town, including one very close by my apartment. Or, you could pull your finger out of your a***, and work out a more convenient way of paying me!"

That, I suppose, is the real keynote of this crazy country in which I find myself: nobody seems to have any concept of trying to make things easier for each other. Inconvenience is a way of life; hell, it's an obsession, a fetish, it's practically the national religion.

Am I extra-grouchy just because I am another year older today?? Perhaps. But I never believe in giving in to the inefficiency and irrationality I am assailed with in this country. My motto of the week is: "I could be flexible - but then I'd be denying you that pleasure."

PS The one possible advantage (for the unscrupulous) of this ludicrous compartmentalization of the banking system is that there is no effective credit-rating system here. Writing fraudulent loan applications is a national hobby. The vaunted economic miracle is built on a teetering pinnacle of bad debt.

And one day, the whole shebang is going to come crashing down around our ears. These are interesting times to live through. Terrifying, but interesting.