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(NaturalNews) I recently decided to bring my family dog to Ecuador. This turned out to be one of the most fateful decisions of my life, leading to an experience so bizarre and fascinating that I feel compelled to share it publicly. But to understand why, you first have to learn a little something about the culture of Ecuadorians.
The people of Ecuador are warm-hearted, friendly folks. They'll help you change a flat tire on the road or chase down your stray cow that's wandering onto the highway. They are grounded, Earthly people who have survived for countless generations with virtually no technology whatsoever: No electricity, no cars and no internet.
All this changed in the last decade or two with the increasing wealth of the country and its investment in automation technologies to increase operational efficiency. But if there's one glaring fault to be found with the Ecuadorian people, it is their strange obedience to numbers on computer screens, and if those numbers don't show up, or they aren't right, that little section of the government grinds to a complete halt and the person operating the computer declares nothing can be done until the numbers on their computer screen somehow change.
This fascinating cultural quirk became frustratingly apparent to me when I attempted to clear my dog from Ecuadorian customs in Quito. Although the paperwork was completely correct (USDA forms filled out, vaccination paperwork signed, everything was notarized at the consulate, etc.), the Ecuadorian customs computer systems weren't working properly, and there was a logic glitch besides.
What logic glitch? My dog was brought in as "personal effects" (personal effectivo), meaning she belonged to me and I wasn't required to pay any kind of import duties. But because she was too large to be transported in the cabin of the plane, she was flown in as "cargo," and according to Ecuador's laws, all cargo is subject to import taxes.
The "value" of my dog was set at zero (a number that I'm sure would have annoyed Roxy if she knew such an insult had been hurled her way). The problem with zero is that you can't calculate a 12% import tax on zero, because the result is just zero. And since it couldn't be calculated, it couldn't be paid, and that meant a certain spreadsheet cell on a computer screen in the Ecuadorian government couldn't turn from red to green. Until it turned green, I found out, Roxy wasn't going anywhere.
That's when my wife and I started camping out at the customs offices in Quito -- and this is where the story takes a fascinating twist...
Behind the bureaucracy, they're real peopleIn all, my dog was stuck in customs for something approaching forty-eight hours. For the first 30 of those hours, she was confined to her kennel. But the people working there, I soon found out, took great care of her in terms of bringing her water and feeding her the dry dog food we had taped to the top of the kennel.
After these 30 hours went by, and the customs officials working in the warehouse saw my desperation in trying to get Roxy set free, they agreed to let me talk her for a walk around the customs patio area. This was a huge improvement, and my wife and I eventually ended up walking Roxy for probably twelve hours in all, all while waiting for the right numbers to change on some computer screen in the customs offices.
Here's the important part in all this: As we were walking our dog, our interactions with our dog became an education to the customs workers. They watched us, with smiles, as we hugged our dog, and fed her chicken meat from the airport restaurant, and asked her to perform simple dog tricks (shake, lie down, sit, etc.). Very quickly, they came to understand that our dog wasn't mere cargo... she was a member of our family! And unlike many local dogs that are just mean street dogs, our dog was something very different. One of the forklift operators even managed the courage to get her to shake his hand. He smiled and immediately went back to work.
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Sunday, June 07, 2009
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