We live life day by day and maybe are so focused on the daily tasks, wins, failures that we miss the bigger picture, but then it comes a time when you are reminded of the change, want it or not.
Among the unused things, I have a box with several CDs. Unlike other's I've never been crazy about owning every CD, but there are still a good few sitting in the box. Do I play them? No. Do I have a CD player? No, I don't anymore. So why keep them, right?
Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash
We have everything digital, you don't even have to own the music, just subscribe to a music streaming platform and you can have literally any music you want, anytime you want, everywhere you want. You're not tied to any specific location, electricity or music playing device. A mobile phone is enough and a wireless speaker, in case you don't want earpieces.
Believe it or not, there are still people buying CDs and I'm glad as the other option, besides selling, is throw them away.
Lately I keep thinking of how much life has changed and how much is going to change in a few years. However, some things are never going to change and that's what human do.
Yesterday I got a letter from Germany, containing official documents I had to sign. Yes, I know, you can send them electronically, but these people like the old fashion way and there's nothing wrong with that. There's a reason why they stick to pen and paper by the way, but let's focus on what I want to say.
The letter arrived safely, but when I took it out of the mailbox just noticed, it had a stamp on the back, where you close it, from customs. This is unusual, as they don't stamp letters anymore and if they do, they apply the stamp where postal stamps are, not the back. There was a tape applied as well.
Most of you probably will say they need to check, to make sure there's nothing illegal, or banned, but this was an envelope, that you could see with a simple scan. It was slim, containing two sheets of paper, nothing more, but they still opened it.
At a closer look you can see how the glue was neutralized, so they don't leave a trace. I'm not sure how they do it these days, but in the movies they used to use steam. They were not looking for any banned substances here, they were looking for money and could not find it.
It's not the first time I see such thing and possibly not the last one either. For some reason, customs have the habit of opening letters, boxes and whatever you're sending or receiving.
Apart from my privacy violated, which is a huge thing for me, no harm was done, but I know cases where the abuse caused serious damages. I've read a case on etsy a few years ago, when I was selling my bags through the platform, about a crafter who sold a handmade, leather cover notebook. Those were real, unique beauties you would want for yourself and you have to know everything is made of genuine leather and handmade as well is far from cheap.
Photo by Jac Alexandru on Unsplash
So customs opened the pack, which was sent from Hungary if I'm not mistaken to Australia, replaced the notebook with newspaper and magazines and sent it on its way. The buyer got a really ugly and very damaging review, she had to refund the money and was left with the trauma for life, because of greedy, dishonest thieves.
The most frustrated part is, there's nothing you can do. Even if you file an official complaint, they are going to stall, till you get bored and at the end you get a reply like "there's no evidence of any crime, there's nothing we can do".
In the US, tampering with, or stealing mail is a federal crime and you can be sent to jail. Imagine committing such crime when you're in charge of the mail.
I'm not sure when we're going to get to the point where any individual is granted the privacy they deserve and when you will be able to sue customs for opening your letter unjustified.
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Yeah, they have been doing this since the birth of postal services, and they will do as long as it exists... That's why I'm always tempted to avoid this... As you say if it's just a case every now and then no one investigates, if they do it massively then they get busted, but those are dumb to do this