The Greek shall inherit the earth

I was thinking about little people the other day. Forget your Corporation Chiefs, Prime Ministers, Presidents, Generals and so on, it's the little people that have the power and run the world.

We have this security guard at work who can make your life hell, and often does. At 9:30 every Friday he tests the fire alarm. It has to be the loudest sound I have ever heard, it scares the pigeons off the statues in Trafalgar Square 2 miles away. I'm sure he stands by the fire alarm with the key in his hand, waiting waiting waiting. And waits a bit longer, just to annoy people. Often there is a sign on the lift 'Out of service between 9am-11:30am' for no apparent reason (likewise on toilet doors). If you forget your door pass, there really is no point ringing the bell, he'll just ignore you. You have to wait outside until someone from the office turns up, and as you walk past him, he'll say 'Forget your pass?' You can't argue with him, because he will make sure you suffer in other ways. He has the power.

Take, for example, ticket collectors (sorry, Revenue Inspectors™) on trains. If you had to run for the train, next one only coming in 30 minutes, and didn't buy a ticket, you are in trouble. They have the power to charge you the full fare, as well as a penalty fare of £10 and upwards. If you beg, you might get let off, but more often than not they will make you feel like a criminal and embarrass you in front of the whole carriage.

I often see bus drivers closing the bus doors at stops even though they can see someone 3 steps away from boarding. Then they shake their heads slowly while they pull off as the would be passenger desperately tries to plead with them to open the doors.

At school we had a groundsman/caretaker type chap, a bit like Hagrid, only fatter and uglier. His name was Mr Forschenk, but he was affectionately known by the students as Mr Foreskin. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer and used to get the piss taken out of him by the more daring pupils. I'm not sure of his full job description, but he used to mow lawns, weed plant beds, paint window cills, put out the rubbish, that kind of thing. Anyway, one of his tasks was to unlock the school gates after school. The bell would go at 2:15pm, pupils would pile out of classrooms and head to the bike sheds, trousers already clipped, walk their bikes to the fence (it was against the law to ride on school grounds - that's something we only used to do on the last day of term), and stand there waiting for Foreskin to show up with the key to unlock the gate. Sometimes he'd make you wait 15 minutes before he showed up. Kids would be shouting at him, but he would slowly stroll over, ignoring everyone and no doubt making a mental note of all the insults and adding on a minute delay for every one he heard. Now that man had power.