After the 3-day Eid closure, I am facing the state Customs authorities at the airport. A few weeks ago, I cleared something from Beirut at the airport and it was a serious learning experience. One pulls into the parking lot and a lanky Egyptian (they're all Egyptians working in the clearance/duty dept) latches onto you, following you into the Customer Service counters. You cannot do anything without one of these spontaneous fixers despite having a copy of the waybill, commercial invoice and identification as the consignee in hand and the ability to speak English with the Filippina handling all the internal paperwork in Customer Service. She tells him the clearance fee through the glass which I hear perfectly as I am standing in front of her and he repeats it to me. I hand him the cash so he can hand it to her. Then I go to another section where he is the go-between on some other fee and I am instructed to return the next day so my shipment can be collected from the cargo hold and brought to the front.
So I complied and came back the next night, calling my Egyptian fixer on his mobile to make sure he would earn his go-between fee to point me to my shipment. More papers and stamping and then he called for a lower caste of worker to follow me to my Jeep with the box. On our way there, I noticed a new Lamborghini in tangerine being unwrapped on a flatbed tow by workers wearing gloves. I wondered what Sheikh or uber wealthy local was importing a new toy and if I might see it on the road one day.
Above pls note the circa 1925 Orientalist (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism) etching by Charles William Cain, "On A Baghdad Roof," I picked up in London last month. It appealed to me for the outdoor harem it seems to depict as well as fond distant memories of my former Manhattan rooftop garden. I was taking the Eurostar to Paris and wanted to avoid the (20%) VAT so I arranged for it to be shipped to the Gulf. Assuming it would be more reliable than the building where I live, I provided my work address and have hit all kinds of bureaucracy as a result thereof. The state has assumed that the shipment is a commercial transaction because of the address and it is therefore subject to duty and cannot be released. In tracing the shipment, the exception status noted that the shipment had passed government clearance and is now subject to duty payment by recipient. "Government clearance" is likely code for the religious authorities deeming that the print can enter the country, it being borderline lewd with the topless Arab woman depicted on the roof with her attendants. Next time, I pay the VAT and drag it to Paris. Eid Mubarak.
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