The customs man and the box of wood

in #guitar5 years ago

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(This is not a story meant to encourage or condone tax evasion. I have nothing against taxes, in principle. I could probably say a few things about how they're collected and how they're spent.. but I wont..)

Spent all day on the road today, burning petrol in the August heatwave, burning money and wasting time. Doing my bit to heat the planet and keep the wheels of the system well oiled..

Thought I'd save some money and get some wood for guitar making delivered from Spain to England and have my son bring it back on his return from a visit there. Much more straightforward (or at least cheaper) than having it sent straight to Israel.. the postage would have been extortionate because Israel's not part of the EU and also customs seize almost everything coming into the country and hold it to ransom almost every time.

Of course, when they saw him wheeling the box through 'nothing to declare', they pulled him over and seized it then, taking it away to some holding place where they'd process the paperwork. I'd have to come back again at a later date to collect it. Quite annoying, as it's a long drive from my home, on top of the fact that I've already paid tax on it, to the Spanish government, or the European Union.. I don't know how these things work.. where the money goes, or who gets it, or how it gets spent.

Today, I had a relatively free day. I would have preferred to spend it in the quiet of my studio, carving the mandolin I'm making, but the forces of beurocracy had other plans for me today..

Nicole, my sometimes trusty satellite navigator with an impeccable BBC accent directed me down from the winding and forested country road in Galilee where I live, to the big new toll road.. under the all-seeing eyes of the camera bridges which read your number plate and send you the bill.. onto the eight lane highways and tunnels that lead to the steaming, heaving, burning heart of the country, with its sulphurous haze, high rise urban sprawl and clogged arterial trunk roads and bypasses.

At a motorway service station, I put 200 shekels of petrol in the tank. I don't know how much of that was tax and how much pure, refined fossil fuel. Over at the diesel pump, great big military vehicle.. some kind of generator on an 8 wheel truck all painted dull green was filling up too. I figured they probably don't have to pay to fill up. It just goes on the tab.

I drive past vast new developments of 10 and twenty story apartment blocks, springing up in clusters like some kind of giant human batteries. I wonder who has the money to build that kind of thing, while other people can barely afford the rent of the smallest flat in one of them.

Finally, Nicole directs me into the airport complex. The parts we don't usually get to see unless we work in that industry. Past huge aircraft hangars, industrial warehouses, office buildings, roundabouts and car parks..

I find my way eventually, through corridors, security checks and fire doors to a little room with a bored looking man, a cheap desk and a computer. The customs man.

He looks at me with glazed eyes, and maybe a hint of amusement, then looks at his computer. 'What's in it? Wood for making guitars? Why don't you just buy them ready made?'

I roll my eyes, shrug and say 'it's just what I do..' all the while wondering how he does what he does.. what do all the people in these little rooms do all day long? There are so many of them.

After going through the paperwork and creating some more, I agree to pay the 250 shekel ransom to get my parcel back. He sends me to another place where they're holding my precious box of wood.

After driving round and round in circles looking for parking, I find the place. By this time I'm dripping with sweat and my telephone is almost on fire.. Nicole's having a meltdown. Before I can see my parcel, I have to hand over an additional 120 shekel holding fee to a sarcastic woman behind a glass panel. 'You folks make it very hard for someone with a small business to prosper', I tell her angrily. She smiles and nods in agreement and then directs me to a warehouse, somewhere vaguely out the back..

The warehouse is like that scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.. boxes and boxes as far and almost as high as the eye can see.. fork lift trucks whizzing about, moving them from one place to another, bringing in more. Trucks lined up to bring in siezed contraband in or take it out after it's been duly (and often doubly) taxed.

I hand over the papers to a jovial, almost sympathetic, tired looking religious man in a flourescent jacket. He hands it to someone else who's standing about, chatting with some other workers. A few minutes later my box of wood appears, a bit knocked about but fairly unscathed.

I wish him a pleasant day, lug it across the car park in the swealtering heat, load it in the car, pay 16 shekels for the parking and gratefully make my getaway, back to the hills.

All of that could have been a very annoying experience. In fact it was, but all the while, I had the consoling thought that at least I wasn't an Irish peasant at the time of the potato famine, when English customs men siezed by force and by paperwork every last scrap of food from that occupied land, causing millions to either starve to death or abandon their home.

And at least I don't have to pass through checkpoints every day of my life, being held up at every turn, by bored, sarcastic or even apologetically friendly bureaucrats, jobniks and jobsworths, with their paperwork.. sometimes with, sometimes without guns. At least it's only one box of wood and not my house or land that's being taken, by force or by paperwork, and at least I got it back.

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Welcome back to writing.
Great to receive it with a Curie vote.
A true guitar maker or Luthiers. Woohoo!
Everything that happened to you looks like a movie, it is amazing what you do to reduce costs, although taxes make it difficult.
I just hope it does not negatively influence the quality of the product.
I loved meeting you, Gideon. I follow you on Steemit.
Thanks Curie for a good selection.

Thanks @mariita52 . It doesn't negatively effect the quality of my guitars.. it just makes it much more difficult to get the tools and materials I need when it's such a hassle to import anything. These days I'm using locally sourced and recycled materials as much as possible, so on a way they've forced me to become more environmentally responsible, which is a good thing. Saying that, I'm always careful to make sure that wood I buy comes from responsible sources and is FSC certified.. but you can never be totally sure.
Thanks for reading. I'm glad you enjoyed it. More to come, I'm sure..

Thanks for adding these details.
Greetings from Venezuela, here I am also learning to use things more responsibly due to shortages.
Stay great!

Hi stillgideon,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

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I FELT you through that piece - the heat, the customs, the extortion - we have it too herein Thailand. Loved your lilting, reflective and rhetorical questions. The potato famine and the loop into both gratitude and global contrast? Really nice.


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Thank you so much and thanks for taking the time to read it. It's great to connect. Seems like almost everyone everywhere has to deal with these energy vampires in some form or other. Looking forward to freer times for humanity.

Ive missed your writings gideon! Reseteemed and thoroughly enjoyed this dystopian read! Xxx

Thanks Al. Glad you enjoyed it

almost fiction :-)

i almost downvoted due to 'i have nothing against tax'

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The last paragraph reaches me, excellent and wonderful writing, it gives many emotional messages! I hope to read more here on Steemit

Thank you very much for taking the time to read it @iamsaray . I'm glad to connect

Hi @stillgideon. I live in a country where people evade taxes. That's why nothing works. Many people have become accustomed that things must be free and that makes living together difficult because we have people who do pay taxes. Try to have more patience with the customs man (laughs). Here in Venezuela if you do not get along with the customs man you can NEVER recover any package. Kind regards @stillgideon

mmm. i dont think the reason nothign works is because some people avoid taxes.. just sayin! its more likely that all money is syphoned off and stolen by corrupt officials!

They are the two reasons. People do not pay taxes, do not pay water, do not pay electricity and endless payments. In addition, as you say corruption is also very large.

HThanks Marcy. I'm glad you enjoyed reading it. Like I said in the beginning, I've got nothing against taxes, in principle, but could say a few things about how they're collected and spent..

I hinted at what my own opinions are in the story.. for example, how much of taxpayer's money in spent on the military. Also on massively environmentally un-friendly infrastructure projects, instead of working towards systemic change and spending money on things which would actually improve people's quality of life and the living environment.

Subsidising destructive industries, giving tax breaks to corporations and billionaires, while at the same time raising taxes for people on low incomes, cutting public services, privatising healthcare and education and taxing basic necessities. These are the problems with our societies, not with tax itself.. I'm all for sharing wealth and for people contributing their fair share.

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Far out! Thanks


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