Vip against its will
When big brother rings twice
Intelligence agencies, police, hackers, trojan horses, backdoors, eavesdropping, eavesdropping … Complicated encryption and decision-making systems, and lots of people working to either get foreign information or protect their own systems. In the meantime big brother comes to the house almost every day anyway.
Early in the morning the doorbell rings. "Are you mr. Marek trenkler?", asks me a man in a gray work suit. I confirm, nevertheless, the visitor does not believe it immediately. No wonder: I just got up, still unshaven, I don’t look noble at all, and certainly not as noble as he might have expected me to be. "I have just installed a separate mailbox for you, here is the key", he finally grins.
I make very rough eyes: why? But I am even more amazed when the reason is explained to me. The post office has about. 200 city burghers selected as "vips" should get separate, coarser and more solid mailboxes?. Because in poland a resident of a block of apartments does not have a separate mailbox: it is simply a rough tin box with several separate and individually locked compartments, one for each apartment. It hangs on the wall on the first floor and is opened by the letter carrier with a special key – about like a tur. The letters are then thrown from behind into the appropriate single compartments.
Almost by force I take the list from the hand of the arriving person: that’s right! Above it says "vips" and then, in the middle of a table, there is my name, address and even my name "TV editor" in a corresponding column. The post office has also spied on my profession, even if it is not correct. "I am sorry, I received the order and I followed it, but if you do not want to do it…", says the man and wants to disappear immediately. I only ask for the telephone number of his client.
Shortly afterwards, I speak on the phone with a responsible manager, but he too immediately mentions some instructions "from above" and claims that he is not responsible for it and only carries out what he was ordered to do. Finally I get from him the number of an official in the post office directorate. The latter, in turn, tells me that it is not or. Not especially about "very important persons", but about customers who receive large-format letters: the standard boxes are too small for them and some customers have already complained. Your mail had to be folded to be able to be put into the small compartment at all. But even this does not apply in my case. So where did it all come from?
In the course of the conversation, however, it becomes clearer and clearer: the postal management ordered a "observation" to which the letter carriers then went through. And I had to stand out: as a journalist, and a self-employed one at that, which is rather rare in poland, I receive mail from several editorial offices, mostly from abroad. Also my alleged profession ("TV editor") has its explanation: at that time I was translating a german documentary series for polish television and received correspondence in printed envelopes. The good letter carrier reported this to his superiors and so I became a VIP against my will. "You understand, the job market is what it is, and some letter carriers are getting a little overzealous these days", the senior postal official explains. He apologizes several times and promises that he will forward my remarks to the appropriate decision makers.
So my correspondence still ends up in the usual mailbox. My VIP box was removed as quickly as it was installed, and I can sleep peacefully again: no neighbor thinks I’m a celebrity, no burglar smells fat prey in my apartment, no punk scratches the paint on my car, etc. Unless, by chance. Perhaps from now on others will be "vips" asked beforehand if they would like to receive such a distinction from the post office. But they and I are still being watched: the big brother from the post office is always running around …
