This process seems rather redundant and wasteful and, therefore, has within it a prima facea opportunity for improvement. One must keep in mind that there is no way to determine whether the answers given at Passport Control are the same as at Customs Control. In the United States, the completed Customs Control Document, along with your passport, is handed to the Immigration Officer at Passport Control – at which time the Officer will scan and examine your passport, look over your Customs Control Document, and proceed to ask some questions of varying detail – depending upon a variety of variables I am sure.Īssuming you are not detained, you then proceed to Customs Control where they take the Customs Control Document and ask the same questions that were asked at Passport Control. I would suspect that one would trap more suspects with verbal interaction than by written – so I am left wondering what the value of the Customs Control Document is. So what”?ĭuring the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, all of the passengers received a Customs Control Document which basically serves to identify who you are, what countries you have visited, the purpose of your visit, whether you have had any contact with farms or farm critters, and how-much and what-kind of loot you are bringing into the country.Īlmost every country I have ever visited just asks these types of questions at Passport Control and, if you answer in a manner that is suspicious or otherwise unsatisfactory, you go to a secondary interview. But you are probably saying, “That’s interesting. I am sure you find this all very intriguing – especially if you followed some of the links I provided to give you some very fascinating history. As it was certainly over the 3oz carry-on limit for liquids, I packed it into my checked luggage. I was certain that it would look good on my Netherlands shelf right next to the Delftware plate I had also purchased. It was a nicely designed bottle with a label that incorporated one of van Gogh’s “ self-portraits ” and the liquid inside was a distinct shade of Absinthe green. So I bought a bottle of 160-Proof Absinthe called, appropriately enough, “Vincent van Gogh”. Since then, other importers, as well as some American distillers, have manufactured and distributed Absinthe in the United States. And there are also the legends associated with the alleged hallucinogenic effects attributing to the creative genius and sometimes eccentricity of imbibers such as: Edgar Degas, Jules Verne, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Edger Allen Poe and Ernest Hemingway – to name but a few.Īlthough Absinthe was banned by the United States in 1912, in March 2007 the ban was lifted after the lobbying efforts of Lucid and Kubler, with the French Lucid brand becoming the first genuine Absinthe to receive a Certificate of Label Approval ( COLA ). There is the legend of those consuming the beverage seeing the “ green fairy” – which in reality merely refers to the “ louche-ing ” when the beverage is mixed with ice and water. It is an anise-flavoured spirit made from herbs, including the grande-wormwood plant (Artemisia absinthium) which is argued to be a hallucinogen if taken in significant quantities. With the single possible exception of the rot-gut they make in Peru called “ Chicha ” (made by the local folks chewing on roots and spitting into a vat where the concoction ferments from the chemical reaction of the saliva on the sugar to be drank by the most desperate), Absinthe has the most unique story behind it of any spirit – both history and legend. So it only stands to reason that I would bring back a bottle of “ Absinthe ” from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
These bottles sit, unopened, in my office on the shelves dedicated to the country or region visited as curios and conversation pieces. For instance, I have a bottle of “ Mompoer” and some “Tot-Packs ” from South Africa a bottle of “ Grappa ” from Italy a bottle of top-shelf “ Tequila” and “ Mezcal ” from Mexico and a bottle of “ Wodka”, as well as “ Sliwowica ” from Poland. One artifact I consistently collect is a bottle of the local “ rot-gut ”.
If you have ever been to Amsterdam, you will know there are distinct cultural differences which are quite obvious if you are from New York – even from a pre- Giuliani New York.įrom each place I visit, I’ve always liked to acquire artifacts which are unique to the culture and display them in my office. XONITEK-US and XONITEK-UK recently hosted an Operational Excellence Summit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
0 kommentar(er)
