Written By: Marwan A. Kardoosh, Economist
Read Part I
I thought twice before posting this. One because my deputy at Jordan Business Naseem Tarawnah thinks that a 31-year old economist shouldn’t be playing video games, to say nothing of making this public. Two is because I don’t want to be thought of as simply having a rant at the Jordanian Customs Department. Yet, I am so disappointed I felt I needed to air some of my frustrations, so here goes:
My two packages, comprised of a Playstation 3 basketball game and a Nintendo Wii football games ordered from Amazon.com, have not been cleared by local authorities. Remember, these are two packages that have arrived in Jordan almost two weeks ago! If this is not an outrage, then I don’t know what.
Let’s talk economics. My professional experience over the past 9 years, working in Jordan and the rest of the region, has taught me that in modern customs practices a primary objective of risk management is a concentrated effort to identify and encourage low-risk shipments. This, in turn, should enable Customs departments to direct their resources to find and intercept shipments that do present viable revenue, health, safety and/or security risks. Ironically, Amazon.com shipments are as “low-risk” as it gets. If anything, the Web site only sells original goods, which means that the risk of a pirated CD, game or a DVD is non-existent. Contrast that with the thousands of DVDs entering the country every day, and I really wonder if the relevant authorities really know what they are doing…
If the customs department is genuine about deep reform aimed at distancing itself from any trade-stifling inspections, it must prepare a list of international companies whose shipments are “low-risk” by nature and, therefore, do not need inspection. Whether or not the Customs Department, in its current setup, can aspire to implement such a measure remains to be seen. For now, the situation is diabolical
All of what you are saying is in the case of them not thinking of themselves as protectors of morality and the items involve moral turpitude
All of what you are saying is in the case of them not thinking of themselves as protectors of morality and the items involve moral turpitude
Marwan,
The civil service employees are known for being lax, nonchalant, not motivated, and have no incentive of performing their duties any better or worse than what they have always been performing and that is to constantly produce at the minimum acceptable level.
In your post you don’t talk about what steps you have taken to retrieve your packages, I understand that you shouldn’t do anything and you should wait until the products go through the appropriate channels and eventually make their way into your home or business address.
If this is the case then you should just wait and hope for the best, if not, and you know what you know that things don’t go as smoothly as they should then you should gird your loin and start working, by phone, through friends, in person, by wasta, or what have you.
I suppose if you wanted to have these items come to you in a more expeditious manner you wouldn’t have waited that long, my guess is that you elected the “let us wait and see attitude”, and the result was the obvious delay and long waiting.
I don’t want to tell you what to do but next time you order something and you know for a fact it had landed on the Jordanian soil, start working the phone, plan on going there, and don’t leave before you see the package tucked under your arm. If you continue to rely on the normal channel of delivery, we will be seeing many more posts like that, or you may even become a regular weekly contributor to 7iber.com.
Marwan,
The civil service employees are known for being lax, nonchalant, not motivated, and have no incentive of performing their duties any better or worse than what they have always been performing and that is to constantly produce at the minimum acceptable level.
In your post you don’t talk about what steps you have taken to retrieve your packages, I understand that you shouldn’t do anything and you should wait until the products go through the appropriate channels and eventually make their way into your home or business address.
If this is the case then you should just wait and hope for the best, if not, and you know what you know that things don’t go as smoothly as they should then you should gird your loin and start working, by phone, through friends, in person, by wasta, or what have you.
I suppose if you wanted to have these items come to you in a more expeditious manner you wouldn’t have waited that long, my guess is that you elected the “let us wait and see attitude”, and the result was the obvious delay and long waiting.
I don’t want to tell you what to do but next time you order something and you know for a fact it had landed on the Jordanian soil, start working the phone, plan on going there, and don’t leave before you see the package tucked under your arm. If you continue to rely on the normal channel of delivery, we will be seeing many more posts like that, or you may even become a regular weekly contributor to 7iber.com.
bambam: i wonder if they do think of themselves that way. the officials that i, and others i know, have interacted with, really don’t care less about the morality of the situation. heck, it’s well known you can get a playboy from various news-stands in the country and unless someone is bringing boxloads of them on a monthly basis through a suitcase, i’m guessing they went through customs.
to me it seems to be about authority. customs officials are at times drunk with power and you can recognize that in the tone they take when addressing your concern. their word is the law, even if their word (and indeed laws at times) are completely arbitrary. there are specific institutions within the larger security apparatus that operates in that matter and in most cases we don’t interact with those people. but every needs customs, ever now and then.
bambam: i wonder if they do think of themselves that way. the officials that i, and others i know, have interacted with, really don’t care less about the morality of the situation. heck, it’s well known you can get a playboy from various news-stands in the country and unless someone is bringing boxloads of them on a monthly basis through a suitcase, i’m guessing they went through customs.
to me it seems to be about authority. customs officials are at times drunk with power and you can recognize that in the tone they take when addressing your concern. their word is the law, even if their word (and indeed laws at times) are completely arbitrary. there are specific institutions within the larger security apparatus that operates in that matter and in most cases we don’t interact with those people. but every needs customs, ever now and then.
I agree with naseem, I think it is more about the dictator inside them.
I agree with naseem, I think it is more about the dictator inside them.