Someone I know recently wanted to get their birth certificate made. I find the whole idea of these certificates rather weird- birth certificate, death certificate, marriage certificate. I don't really understand why they're there in the first place.
So I was just glancing at the affidavit for the birth certificate, and the last point point on the affidavit declares that "I undertake that I will not make any further changes in my name" or something to that effect.
But people change their names all the time! You must have seen announcements in the newspaper- "I, so and so, have legally changed my name to so and so, and blah blah etc etc.". What happens to the undertaking they took when they got their birth certificates then? Does the person get punished for doing something that he or she said, legally and in writing, they wouldn't do? Or does the person just sign another paper that nullifies the first one? But if the second paper nullifies the first one so easily, what was the point of making the earlier declaration? Why make a greater mockery of the birth certificate- the fact that it exists as proof of anything is a joke in itself, considering you can even get a fake passport these days- by asking someone to make a declaration that you're not going to compel them to uphold?
Tomorrow, if I go to whatever authority one goes to to change one's name, they should rightly wave my birth certificate in front of me and say "Sorry. We're going to hold you to your word"
