Serendipity

A convoluted tale and Kudos to Linked In Social Networking.

A convoluted tale.

Our daughter’s old [6 years] laptop computer was dying and she called in great distress, since she used it for communication, to take her online courses and for many other purposes.  I said I’d get another and ship it off to her, thinking nothing of it [well, knowing the expense, but Christmas is coming up].  I got the new one [an Apple] that day and researched how to get it to her and, via US Mail, selected the “Global Express International Guaranteed” service.  I packaged it in an international priority mail box to send to her in Chile and went off to the US mail.  I had already printed out the $184 in postage fees on the label for Global Express mailing [6 pages in all including a customs copy].  That was all I knew to do.  I’ve sent other International Priority packages to Chile and though they take about 2 weeks to get to her [packages come once a week] they do get there;  I figured sending it expedited might make it quicker.

I went to the main post office, thinking they’d best know what to do, and the postal officer wouldn’t take the box because it was a Priority Mail box and even though marked for international use it wasn’t a Global Express box.  So, the next day I repackaged it and took it to the E. Des Moines office, which the USPS web site said was one of the few to understand how to do this.  The person there had never done this before and I asked for someone who had, but he was the only person in the office.  So we both carefully read the instructions and followed them to the letter.   And I thought it was off to her.  This was on Friday the 23rd.

In the mail on Saturday afternoon was the box, returned, with a FedEx label on it saying “commercial invoice required”.  Of course, I had marked it as a gift and declared fully what it was, but evidently I needed that document, the other 6 pages wouldn’t do, despite one being marked as a Customs copy.  And the USPS offices were all closed.

So, thinking that FedEx had be involved in the shipment [it is evidently contracted with by the USPS for some overseas deliveries - remember the movie “Cast Away”?], I went to  the main FedEx office.  There I found out that there is a whole separate “Commercial Invoice” form to fill out and that I couldn’t just resend from there but had to go through the USPS office, which would be closed until Monday.  So, I paid another bunch of money [$284] for expedited service to Chile, thinking that would work.  No one told me of any further things needed and I filled out the additional document with full declaration of value.

Off the box went and it did, finally, make it to Chile.  Then, up on the tracking screen popped up “clearance delay” and we then learned that the package was hung up there, in Santiago [Kate is 12 hours south in a tiny town].  It had to be released to a non-FedEx customs broker to walk it through customs, a point which was not made plain to me by anyone, whether the USPS or Fed Ex.  

Fairly irate, I contracted Fed Ex’s international desk and after being transferred up the ladder to someone a bit more versed in the issue, she did all she could to help.  I can’t really complain of Fed Ex’s treatment, other than not warning me of this need and to make arrangements.  Evidently, once you send something out of the country it might need a customs agent to work with the country’s customs department to get a package through customs and on its way.  No one told me, nor did I know this nor did I read the warning anywhere on the websites.  So, now the package is in Santiago, Chile, hopefully in safe storage at FedEx and we are hunting all over for a customs broker who can facilitate the last steps so it can get to our daughter.  Today is Thursday the 26th and it’ll be a week from when we tried to send it “expedited” to her.

I posted the Q of how to find a customs broker and who would be reliabel on LinkedIn [in the Discussions area], Facebook and Twitter.  No responses so far from the latter two, but within one hour someone on Linked In answered my Query, explained it a bit, gave me someone to contact and wished me luck.  Subsequent to that four or five other persons have also sent information, and I’ve spent the better part of two days tracking down someone in Santiago to do this.  And, just a few minutes ago I received a kind email from someone [at www.panalpina.com] who will see if they can try to help.  

I sent to him the waybill and tracking number and he has asked someone in his office to see if he could help.  So, Kudos to LinkedIn!!  And, I hope, to that kind customs person in Chile.

Options on Health Care/Coverage Reform

Options on Health Care

1.  Do nothing;  44,000+ people die each year from preventable deaths and the cost of policies for individuals and businesses will continue to increase, especially for small business.

2.  Do nothing;  people who need coverage are denied it [pre-existing conditions, etc.], complicating their future health or bankrupting them if they pay for it themselves.

3.  Do nothing;  and never again will the issue come up in Congress.  If the Democrats can’t pass their view of health care/insurance reform this year, they’ll never do it.

4.  Do nothing;  give Republican members of Congress the power to stop any of President Obama’s proposals, appointees [Supreme Court and otherwise].  Invalidate the election last November.

5.  Do nothing;  watch Democratic senators, of all kinds, get defeated in the next elections.

1.  Pass reform without a Public Option:  have some form of health care/insurance reform [44,000+ people get to live if they can afford to buy their insurance from an insurance company], but no competition for the insurance companies.

2.  Pass reform without a Public Option:  have reform, but also have the government subsidize in full all people needing access to coverage - in effect, using non-Public Option health care reform to underwrite profits for the insurance companies.  Almost a form of socialism, if you think about it. That’s what Senator Grassley is for.

3.  Pass reform without a Public Option:  cover more people, subsidize the insurance companies who will be covering them, ensure profits for those insurance companies, prevent any competition between companies since they will all have more money rolling in from the government, resulting in higher costs and eventually bankrupting the government while allowing insurance and health care executives to make even more money and retire wealthy.

1.  Pass reform with a Public Option:  have some form of health care [44,000+ people get to live] and have some type of competition for coverage between the “public option” entity or choices and the insurance companies.  How else will competition be fostered?

2.  Pass reform with a Public Option:  have some form of health care and because there is competition, the cost of insurance and health care decreases or stabilizes.  Unless of course, the people against the public option are right and competition won’t result in lower or stable prices, which calls into question the free market economy premise entirely.

3.  Pass reform with a Public Option:  have some form of health care coverage and and have competition with the insurance company provision of coverage, and use that to contain the rising cost of health care/insurance, while cutting down on bankruptcies of people and small business.

I know what should happen and hope it will.

Frank Schaeffer: Bad News! Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Because President Obama has not been on a timetable of a fast-paced music video but rather has approached governing at a measured pace working for long term results the smart ass part of the left, raised on high sugar content breakfast cereals and too much TV, a group of people who think in soundbites and 30 second news cycles, will somehow, like the far right, turn this good news into bad news.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/bad-news-obama-wins-nobel_b_314915.html

Interesting article which points out the various views of people about the award.  I thought the above point was especially well made.  Obama's measured and looking ahead far down the road and in this day of instantaneous decisionmaking and short-term fixes, that's hard to understand as a value.

Another funny from Huffington Post:  David Parker: Breaking News: Barack Obama Wins AL and NL MVP, Other Awards

In a stunning turn of events, President Barack Obama has swept baseball's postseason honors in both leagues, a feat never before accomplished and long considered impossible.