I have just completed the 34-page, 2011 Italian Census online and it wasn't an onerous task. However, much has been made of the fact that this is the first "digital census" for the country and many people were angry and frustrated on census day [last Sunday] when the site became overloaded and they could not access it. Even some of those who did had difficulty in sending their completed form online and resorted to pen and paper in the end.
All seems to be functioning splendidly now, I must say, although residents who do not read Italian are not able to find the promised help in some of their own languages online. As I was pressing the button to generate a receipt for my form, I did notice that this, at least, seems to be available in German and Slovenian so perhaps the foreign language guidelines will appear in a few days.
The only slight difficulty I found was that academic qualifications cannot be matched exactly between one country and another but I have been luckier than the Bishop of Piazza Armerina who, being unable to find his type of work listed, called Istat [the Italian Statistics Office] for help and was told to just pick the job description which most nearly corresponded to his own from the list. The good Bishop finally chose to describe himself as "involved in activities such as hairdressing or launderette services".
I am at a loss to understand why the census compilers need to know how many loos, baths and showers I have but I answered dutifully and refrained from writing, "I've got a bidet, too but I don't use it because I'm British".
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| Image: Wikimedia Commons |
8 comments:
How strange, wanting to know how many baths you have. I hate filling in all forms, the census is no exception!
RE: Bidet...Je ris de tout mon coeur! Je l'aurais probablement mis sur le recensement pour éberluer les fonctionnaires. :)
Delightful post! I enjoyed reading it. I didn't know there was a bishop of Piazza Armerina but considering the Villa Romana del Casale maybe he should have chosen tile layer or art preserver! I would love to see all the questions that make up 34 pages. To be digital is quite a feat! Our 10 year census in the US is still paper, followed up by canvasers who follow up for those who did not respond and it is about 10 questions at most. Maybe you could have said that you wash your socks in the bidet...
Some of the questions on this year's British census seemed odd too. Mercifully bidets did not figure!
I love the nosy questions on census forms, but so far I've been good! I find it hard to believe there was no category for the Bishop - what about Priests, Monks, and Nuns?
I hate them too, Jenny. I do find it better online as my handwriting is awful these days. Bonsoir, Claude. J'aurais du le faire! [Je ne réussis pas à écrire l'accent circonflexe ici.] Thanks, Patricia.I wish I'd thought of that! That's something, then, jams! Hi, Dragonstar. No, nothing for them, either!
oh this was a fun read. Glad to know it's not that impegnativo to do online because I am yet to do it myself. What joy. And the bishop's choice was hilarious.
Hi, Nerys. Glad I wasn't alone in that. Hi, Bev. It was almost fun to do it online and it really didn't take long.
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