Can't Fly with custom made Flutes - destroyed by Customs

[Bob]

It's a sad day when it can't be determined by officials that a man's home-made bamboo instruments which had been flown for years, now have to be declared as "illegal agricultural products"..

"Canadian-born flute player Boujemaa Razgui was flying from Marrakech, Morocco back home to New York when Customs officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport asked to see the instruments he had on hand. Razgui was carrying 11 instruments with him at the time, each of which was built himself and corresponded to varying sets of musical pieces."

RT.com reports - http://rt.com/usa/boujemaa-razgui-jfk-instruments-038/

"“I told them I had these instruments for many years and flew with them in and out,” he said. “There were 11 instruments in all. They told me they were agricultural products and they had to be destroyed. There was nothing I could do. The ney flute can be made with bamboo. Is that agricultural?”"

"Earlier this year, meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration suffered criticism for damaging a cello player’s $20,000 instrument."

Flutist Boujemaa Razgui is a professional. The bamboo ney flute is often heard in Middle Eastern musical compositions and he uses them for accuracy.

Customs and Border Protection at JFK Airport are currently not talking about it.

[Becky]

That's terrible :-(

I know a really amazing flute maker who hand designs and makes very expensive flutes in the UK, made from silver, steel and plastic. He custom made one for a lady in the USA and I tested it for him as he doesn't play flute himself and he wanted to hear it's full range and tone. (I'm an amateur flautist). This £6,000+ flute then got lost en route to the USA, and in fact turned up damaged many months later, most likely due to customs. It's so horribly disrespectful. I'd have been devastated if I'd made natural flutes and customs destroyed them.

Becky

[Hawkwind]

Well, let's see- if things made from bamboo are agricultural, wouldn't it follow that anything made from wood is also agricultural? The same would go for cotton, I suppose- so people wearing any cotton or cotton blend clothing should probably be required to remove it. Hmmm, come to think of it since our cells are composed largely from reconstituted vegetable matter, travelers should probably be required to exit their bodies before boarding the aircraft. That should help keep us all safe from the terrorists. Right?

[Flash]

I tried to avoid flying throught US as much as possible from or to Canada, when not going in the US as such. htey are a nasty bunch of creepy individuals at the custom. It seem they are trained to be extremely rude and the least intelligent as possible. True bullies. I have seen them in Paris shouting at people "move move move faster faster faster where were you lodged, proofss now now now" it felt like I had enrolled in the miitary. Old women were all nervous and more the guards screamed, more the oldies were frightened and slowing down the process.

I have countless similar stories.

----------------

they should also get all the wooden canes, all the leather jackets, suitcases and briefcases, all the wool scarfs, name it. In fact, they should do it. People woud Wake up may be.

[sirdipswitch]

I refuse to fly. Period. If going somewhere requires a flight, I refuse to go.

My last trip through an airport, I was behind a 4 foot barrior wall, in my underwear. Me and two ladies, also in their 50s'. yep. Had to take my boots off because of the steel shanks in the soles. Had to take my shirt off because of the button snaps. Had to take my pants off do to the zipper. Me and two old ladies standin there in our underwear. ccc. I looked at them and said: "You don't really think you're going to get to leave those underwires on do you?" chuckle chuckle. When we boarded the plane, we got a standing ovation from the entire crowd, and the pilot came back to see what all the noise was about. We had that whole plane in stitches for 800 miles. ccc.

I will NOT, be subject to that again. Period.

[gripreaper]

Its quite simple actually. When all of us decide we have had enough, no one fly's at all for about a week, and guess what? They get the message.

Right now there are too many sheeple who believe that the airport checkpoints are for the good and are not obtrusive and therefore necessary.

[Mike Gorman]

This is part of the nightmare absurdity they are creating-the bureaucratic 'rules' they create giving legitimacy to their
moronic restrictions. Agricultural products would cover any natural materials that originally grew in the ground,
Bamboo is essentially 'Grass' so yeah, Trees/wood would also be agricultural. We need to re-define the seat of power
governments work For us, not despite us.It is our fault for not standing up.

[Carmody]

The point? The very point is that the entire exercise is about exploring the edge of your behavior and your breaking points. This is an exercise in propaganda, induced paranoia, control, testing of limits and gaining an understanding of the breaking points. It's psychological profiling, in both the group and the individual sense.

One way to handle it is with a t-shirt that says; 'Enough of Your ****ing Games'.

[WhiteFeather]

Perhaps flutes such as the one he was transporting and many other types of flutes with respect to The Native American Flute makes such eloquent frequency's and perhaps in the (432hz range) that can cause great disturbance to a reptillian ear and mind. I own two of them. Perhaps these are our weapons against such entities. Hey you never know! Its all about music and frequency isnt it? This made me ponder the part in the movie "When Mars Attacks".

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HAdvqQzO1PY

[WhiteFeather]

Perhaps this may be one of the reasons i started to partake in such an eloquent piece of tone wood. Im gonna get an arsenal of these babys.

Got Flute!

Enter Master Flutist Carlos Nakai

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jXoRzcC9FoU

[GreenGuy]

I also refuse to fly. The last time we did, my wife had a broken leg which was in one of those large plastic-and-velcro boots. She was 62 at the time and was using a wheelchair. The TSA agents actually removed the cast from her leg and practically undressed her! I got away with running my shoes and belt through the gate. But I have not flown since and will not. And if Americans en masse refused to fly, the TSA would reform instantly because of the outcry from the airlines losing all that money.

[raregem]

Posted by Hawkwind (here)
Well, let's see- if things made from bamboo are agricultural, wouldn't it follow that anything made from wood is also agricultural? The same would go for cotton, I suppose- so people wearing any cotton or cotton blend clothing should probably be required to remove it. Hmmm, come to think of it since our cells are composed largely from reconstituted vegetable matter, travelers should probably be required to exit their bodies before boarding the aircraft. That should help keep us all safe from the terrorists. Right?

ROFL Nice insight !

[WhiteFeather]

Posted by Flash (here)
I tried to avoid flying throught US as much as possible from or to Canada, when not going in the US as such. htey are a nasty bunch of creepy individuals at the custom. It seem they are trained to be extremely rude and the least intelligent as possible. True bullies. I have seen them in Paris shouting at people "move move move faster faster faster where were you lodged, proofss now now now" it felt like I had enrolled in the miitary. Old women were all nervous and more the guards screamed, more the oldies were frightened and slowing down the process.

I have countless similar stories.

----------------

they should also get all the wooden canes, all the leather jackets, suitcases and briefcases, all the wool scarfs, name it. In fact, they should do it. People woud Wake up may be.

You struck a chord from that statement Flash. Hence This Episode South Park TSA - Toilet Safety Administration. Ohh and Please Excuse The Language!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-G4HATiC8

[Molly]

I've never flown out of the U.S.A. but i know from my attempts at trying to send packages out of the U.S.A. they more than half the time get 'stuck' in transit in Miami and never make it to their destination. Also when flying to Miami with my 11 year old son & handicapped, in a wheel-chair cancer patient mother this past summer, we had to wait a good bit for every medication in her bag to be tested to make sure it was what it says it was on the labels. They also mentioned to me that since my son is under the age of 12, he did not have to go through the x-ray door thing to be looked at butt naked electronically, you know, gotta make sure the child isn't a drug smuggler or terrorist or whatever. They need to move that age up to 18. I do NOT feel comfortable having my son viewed in that thing, it is just awkward, rude, and wrong. Hell, I felt violated having to do it myself but I was damn due for a vacation, so, whatever. Children and teens should not have to be victims of the government and FAA's paranoia bullpoopy.

[Bob]

Posted by Carmody (here)
The point? The very point is that the entire exercise is about exploring the edge of your behavior and your breaking points. This is an exercise in propaganda, induced paranoia, control, testing of limits and gaining an understanding of the breaking points. It's psychological profiling, in both the group and the individual sense.

One way to handle it is with a t-shirt that says; 'Enough of Your ****ing Games'.

Again Carmody, I agree with you 100 %.

There was no reason that the bamboo flutes should have been confiscated and destroyed, it clearly was vindictive we could believe to harm and damage a person, create trauma, harm their ability to create joy with music. WhiteFeather has pointed out how beautiful well done vocalization performed through the instrument's song can stir the heart, open the mind, and bring the spirit to it's highest, and we see that beauty being stepped on and ground into the dirt... not fair, not right, harmful behavior..

The bamboo was not raw green wet bamboo imported from some plantation, which the Agricultural import regulations were about..

It was a finished dried professional set of instruments - It seem that interpreting such regulations to harm another shows something is wrong.. We could think it could be corrected, but gee, why did this person have to suffer?