Comments on: Your Customs Is Foreign To Us

By: anandos,rei

anandos,rei — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:27:32 +0000

Every time. . . for the last 40 years (since my parents met!)

The best sample: after 2 hours' unpacking and haranguing about our two 25-pound bags of rice (apparently it can be used for drug-smuggling), a US customs officer noticed the word 'parboiled.'

Officer: "Wait. . . is that rice boiled?" Crafty Prakash-Uncle: "Uh, yes! Parboiled! Boiled!" Officer: "Well, that's OK then! Go ahead!"

...whereupon we had to repack the car, which took another hour. I hate Customs.

By: Plesch

Plesch — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 19:35:55 +0000

Isn't it odd? People here always lambaste Americans for "not being able to look beyond color," etc. Yet the first thing we do at a border crossing is look around and lament there is no person of color working there...!

Double standard, eh? Those from the Desh know all about color-consciousness with no help from abroad, naturally.

By: anandi

anandi — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:50:06 +0000

Oh, and last time we crossed into Canada at Blaine, WA, we got asked the usual questions – why we were going, how long we planned to stay, whether we had any firearms. And then the lady asked us if we had any guns at our house. We thought that was odd, and figured she was taking a poll for her own interest, to determine whether those crazy Americans all have guns in their houses.

By: anandi

anandi — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:47:32 +0000

OK, the Kinder Egg thing is so weird, because I’ve seen them for sale here in Seattle. Maybe the cool German meat store doesn’t realized they are BANNED. Hmm, I wonder if they could raise their prices and make more money on the vile things. The chocolate is awful, unfortunately, but the toy idea is cool.

By: Pravin Praveen

Pravin Praveen — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:14:55 +0000

My cousins sent some Wakkapadi(Betel nut) stuff for another cousin of mine when I was returning from India. The customs guy in NY looked at it weird, and I told him to throw it away if he felt like it as I did not like that stuff and it was merely meant to be a gift. THe guy merely shrugged and let it through. Another time, I was driving with a buddy to Montreal from Vermont and the cute customs lady asked me what I was going for. After giving her a few reasons after being asked “what else” , I replied to the next “what else” with “well, we are planning on sampling some of your delightful strippers in Montreal”. The cute french canadian border guard lady then replied with a smile “you should check out XYZ” She didn’t say XYZ but I forget the name of the place she mentioned. She then elaborated to my “what??” that it was place with cute strippers and since I was honest enough to give her that as one of my reasons she decided to help me out with a location much closer to the border. On the way back, I wasn’t so lucky. Some fat american borderguard who looked like the fat PE teacher from Porkys asked me a bunch of boring questions and took her own sweet time going to the next question with not a single pleasant expression on her face. But noo, I was never detained for weird stuff.

By: Yoga Fire

Yoga Fire — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:22:40 +0000

It's easier to hide and sneak profitable quantities of drugs than it is to sneak around sufficiently large quantities of explosives or chemical/biological agents to do any appreciable damage.

Plus, there's more money in smuggling than there is in terrorism so presumably they probably attract people who are better at it through sheer experience as well as talent. Think about it, you recruit terrorists based on commitment to the cause rather than their expertise with doing their dirty deeds. Drug runners, though, get recruited based on their ability to run drugs. It's much more entrepreneurial!

By: kabob sahib

kabob sahib — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:12:57 +0000

Driving from Montreal to Boston and crossing somewhere in Vermont, we were asked to come inside because we had a Bangladeshi in the car. The waiting room was filled with Muslims only, and after 5 minutes of uncomfortable waiting, I realized that I’d put on my last clean shirt that morning: a gift from a very panjabi friend featuring Bhindranvale in all his martial glory. I felt paralyzed for a moment, then begged to be let out to go and get a sweatshirt from the car (“its so cold in here, I’m freezing). Nothing happened, but I still worry that I was added to some list. (Its also ironic that I’ve received more questions coming back from Canada or Germany than returning from Afghanistan or Iraq.)

By: Yoga Fire

Yoga Fire — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:24:14 +0000

I can see it confusing a guy in a helicoptor or sattelite imagery, which they do sometimes use to find illicit crops, but it's hard for me to imagine someone who has been trained to find drugs being unable to tell the difference up close.

For reference: gongura and cannabis.

By: gm

gm — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:00:26 +0000

I wonder if TSA agents and other similar security workers change their gloves after going through the contents of a suitcase. During air travel, I had a suitcase checked by an agent because I saw a the little sign saying it was checked inside the luggage after reaching my destination. This happened a few years back a couple of times. I'm sure it happens even more frequently whether or not they leave their business card.

I have never seen TSA agents change their gloves and I understand they need to work fast and efficiently., Subway employees change their gloves every time they make a new sandwich in most locations.). But what if the TSA agent handles a disgusting used granny cheddi or a soaking nappy or pick their nose and then handle your packed items that were freshly laundered? It might not be a health risk, but the thought is just downright gross. It's is the price to pay for security, you can say.

By: gm

gm — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:34:45 +0000

It's a good thing you are not from Andhra Pradesh and didn't carry gonkura leaves.

The leaves resemble marijuana leaves but has no ill/druggie/strange effects when eaten. I don't know if anyone was crazy enough to smoke it or what happens if it is smoked or snorted and don't recommend that at all. I am completely against smoking anything, or burning raked leaves, flags because of horrible pollution but that is another story. It is the same family or something like that as cannabis sativa or whatever way it is spelled.) I prefer my gonkura in a toor dal or as a pachadi or pickle with rice and toasted sesame oil. I gave up eating it with ghee for health reasons but lots of people of Andhra origin would rather eat it with ghee because it tones down the tartness. So it can result in a temporary bliss while eating, but a suspicious border agent might not be inclined to believe that or want to hear about it.