Re: [gardeners] FW: about your plants.
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 17 Jul 2001 08:56:42 -0500
I worked with Saudi customs for Aramco for awhile. It is all completely
arbitrary. If the customs guy thinks you're trying to put something over on him
or wants to "strut his stuff" he will confiscate about anything. They did start
a rule in 1984 about not bringing food in so they would confiscate that. We
brought in flower and veggie seeds all the time and never got them confiscated.
"I Love Lucy" had kissing scenes in it, always got confiscated. And yes,
sometimes things got confiscated for the personal use of the confiscator. They
got all 400 of my record albums for about two months and then they were
returned. A few days later tapes of every album showed up in the "cassette
souk". Same went with videos, a few days after they were taken they would show
up at the video stores.
Some of the guys used to bring their videos in wound on 8 inch computer tape
reels, sealed and listed as Aramco property. Never got bothered. We had extra
empty video cassettes and our kids would record a movie, take it out of the
cassette and mail it in a padded envelope, never lost a one to customs. Another
way to smuggle videos was to put them in the middle of a box of sanitary
napkins, customs wouldn't touch those things on a bet. LOL
Actually most Saudi's love flowers and birds, rather unusual for fierce desert
warriors (tongue firmly in cheek).
George
Janni wrote:
>
> Oh, okay. That's great!! I know when my sister was in Saudi, they
> confiscated some flower seeds I sent. But then once when she returned there
> from here they confiscated I Love Lucy vids and let her through with some
> that were war movies. I think they do that for their own personal use!!! LOL
>
> Janni
>
> At 07:31 AM 7/17/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >Janni: I've sent vegetable and flower seeds all over the world with no
> >problem.
> >Most nations forbid import of plants but allow seeds to go through. One such
> >nation is the US of A, incoming plants must have phytosanitary certificates
> >issued by the nation from whence they come and even then you might not get
> >them.
> >
> >I generally mark the customs ticket on the outside of the package as to what
> >they are, ie iris seeds, chile seeds, etc.
> >
> >George
> >
> >Janni wrote:
> > >
> > > When sending seeds to this country, be very careful not to write on the
> > > outside what is inside. Laws very, but seeds are usually banned going from
> > > country. I will be sending seeds. I will let you all know if they arrive.
> > >
> > > Janni
> > >
> > > -----------------------------------------------------------snipping for
> > > badwidth------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > >Thank you for your letter! I'll use the mailing list.
> > > >I'll do my best
> > > >to
> > > >grow not surviving, but living plant.
> > > >My adress is
> > > >Alina Proskurina
> > > >Osinovskaya 75
> > > >Chuguev
> > > >Kharkov region
> > > >the Ukraine
> > > >63503
> > > >Thank you!
> > > >Alina.
> > > >*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@*@