U.S. Customs Staffed By Morons
A virtuoso flautist who performs regularly with The Boston Camerata had 13 of his instruments destroyed by some idiot at Customs. From The Boston Globe:
A US Customs official at New York's JFK Airport mistook the instruments for pieces of bamboo and destroyed them. Razgui, a Canadian citizen who lives some of the time in Brockton, had flown last week from Morocco to Boston, with stops in Madrid and New York. In New York, he says, an official opened his luggage and found the 13 flutelike instruments -- 11 nays and two kawalas. Razgui says he had made all of the instruments using hard-to-find reeds. "They said this is an agriculture item," said Razgui, who was not present when his bag was opened. "I fly with them in and out all the time and this is the first time there has been a problem. This is my life." When his baggage arrived in Boston, the instruments were gone. He was instead given a number to call. "They told me they were destroyed," he says. "Nobody talked to me. They said I have to write a letter to the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C.
Will this letter set a time machine in motion, sending him back to the day before he flew here and had his bags examined and his flutes wood-chipped by a dead-eyed, culture-deaf, government-employed idiot?
via @instapundit
UPDATE: US Customs refuses to apologize. And also from ForeignPolicy:
The CBP official said Razgui's luggage was unclaimed and added that "fresh bamboo is prohibited from entering the United States to prevent the introduction of exotic plant pathogens."
Unless I'm wildly mistaken, flutes made out of bamboo aren't made of the fresh stuff but dried bamboo. Just guessing here -- as somebody who played flute, oboe, piccolo, and recorder for a number of years. And here's a photo. That look like "fresh bamboo" to you? (For those of you who, unlike me, don't have it adjacent to your yard, fresh bamboo is GREEN!)
Oh...my...god...how horrible. Post-9/11, when the bag searches were stepped up, education of those responsible for those searches was not. At that time American baggage search personnel received about 20 hours of training vs. 140 hours for Japanese airport staff. The difference was soon obvious. Japanese airport staff can completely unpack your bag and they **repack it exactly as you had it**(a bit freaky but better than the alternative) whereas the American inspectors just seemed to stir the contents of the bags around, messing and wrinkling everything. I don't know that it's any better in the US now.
I feel for this person. I felt awful when they broke one key on my sax by putting it back in the case turned slightly and then getting on top of the case because it wouldn't close (grrrrr....use your heads, people, the hole in the case matches the shape of the instrument...), I can't imagine how he felt having all those instruments disposed of!
crella at January 2, 2014 2:14 AM
It's "flautist," not "floutist."
Patrick at January 2, 2014 2:56 AM
That's "Pedantic," not "Patrick." :-)
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at January 2, 2014 5:36 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/01/02/us_customs_staf.html#comment-4170553">comment from PatrickSigh…thanks…a little tired. Fixed.
Amy Alkon at January 2, 2014 6:26 AM
"Will this letter set a time machine in motion, sending him back to the day before he flew here and had his bags examined and his flutes wood-chipped by a dead-eyed, culture-deaf, government-employed idiot?"
No, but it will allow a pencil-pusher somewhere to check off a box on a form, so they can say they followed the process. "That's the law, sir; nothing we can do."
Cousin Dave at January 2, 2014 6:41 AM
Thanks to the Obama Administration, these idiots are now unionized.
And, if the union gets its way, they may be armed in the future.
Happy travels.
Conan the Grammarian at January 2, 2014 10:36 AM
I read that one.
Unless the floutist was using his instruments to provide directions for an alien invasion of earth, there was no need for these glorified fry cooks to destroy the instruments. Even if he was deemed to be doing such a thing, the proper action would be confiscation of the instruments and a long talk with Homeland Security, not destruction of his livelihood by mistake.
mpetrie98 at January 2, 2014 12:11 PM
OK, floutist, flautist, whatever. You say potato, I say potahto. Let's just call the whole thing off.
mpetrie98 at January 2, 2014 12:13 PM
The instruments were made of plants, so that makes them agricultural products that need to be destroyed.
I hope on my next trip they don't realize that Amy's latest book is printed on paper made from trees.
Sosij at January 2, 2014 2:40 PM
We are not governed by our best and brightest.
Dave B at January 2, 2014 4:44 PM
We are governed by the best and brightest who will work for the government as a career.
An ad says "No one plans to grow up to be a drug addict". But, many people dream of working for the government.
Andrew_M_Garland at January 2, 2014 5:00 PM
Only took six comments for this to be Obama's fault. You guys are slipping.
This really is a sad thing. I hope the musician was compensated although I doubt they can make this right.
Susan at January 2, 2014 7:25 PM
"Only took six comments for this to be Obama's fault."
?
Dave B at January 2, 2014 8:37 PM
Conan the Grammarian at January 3, 2014 12:51 AM
Rereading the article, it was a US Customs official who destroyed the flutes, not a TSA official.
I stand by my warning about the unionization and arming of the TSA, but in this case, it was not the TSA's doing.
Not that Customs is always a benevolent government agency, at least Customs has not tried to insinuate itself as a "security" agency into every means by which Americans travel as the TSA is trying to do.
Conan the Grammarian at January 3, 2014 8:37 AM
Both Customs and the TSA are under the banner of the Department of Homeland Security. (The more I think about it lately, the more sinister that name sounds...) They are joined at the hip.
Cousin Dave at January 3, 2014 12:31 PM
Still trying to figure out how someone gets through customs without "claiming" their luggage. I've never been able to do it.
Isab at January 3, 2014 4:50 PM
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