"Et tu Brute? Then fall Caesar"

My father had many interesting stories growing up. One that I particularly enjoyed was about when he had enough of the shenanigans that his class was up to and stood up to join in the melee. His teacher looked upwards, raised his hands and shouted, "If Zobin is joining in, then the class is over." Picking up his briefcase, the teacher stormed out of the class dejected for not being able to complete his lesson.


One of my eighth grade English assignments was to narrate the play of Julius Caesar that my class was producing. The highlight was Act 3 Scene 1 where Brutus stabs and kills Caesar. I remember how precise my English teacher was with our pronunciation and expression when we were reading our lines in preparation for the play.

Both of the above examples provide insight about "You also?"
Caesar was so surprised that his friend Brutus joined the conspiracy against Caesar's life. How can a friend become an enemy?
My dad's teacher was so astonished that his top student joined in the fray of the class circus, that he resigned to have the class canceled for the rest of the period.


YOU ALSO? and Customs...
- Avoiding building a tariff database can lead to misclassification and exposure to assessments and penalties. 
- Not responding to an audit interim report allows for the auditor to finalize the findings even if there was a misinterpretation or misrepresentation of data.
- Justifying that proactive compliance is too expensive and just reacting to issues as they arise
- Forgetting to initiate "restricted party screening" or activate necessary due diligence with respect to exports.
- Using an Free Trade Agreement (FTA) certificate/statement of origin without ensuring that the products listed were reviewed and certified that they are eligible to utilize the FTA privileges.

As I speak to clients and listen to their responses (some of which are listed above), I have this neon sign in my head flashing, "YOU ALSO?"

There are many examples of conversations that surprised me. Of course, I do not have all the underlying information about the business decisions made, so my apologies if I have disrespected those decisions.

Customs in many jurisdictions (especially those that are members of the World Customs Organization) are getting more efficient with their inspection and audit process. The rules are there to protect us as importers, consumers, etc. 

I am hoping that more conversations will be about clients taking the necessary steps to proactively adhere to compliance measures, policies and procedures.
My hope is that the next time I think "YOU ALSO?" it will be from a positive perspective that more and more companies are taking the steps towards compliance instead of running away from it.


Obviously, the Caesar story has to do with the picture. I made a Caesar salad for dinner one evening. The recipe for the salad is my own but the dressing can be reviewed at:
https://cookieandkate.com/caesar-dressing-recipe/
(Note: I substituted the Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce.)

Recipe for the salad...
Ingredients
- two heads of romaine lettuce
- half an English Cucumber (feel free to use the whole thing if you wish)
- package of store bought seasoned croutons
- grated mozzarella cheese (be generous. I used about 1.5 cups)
- two green onions (scallions/shallots)
- 2 or 3 hard boiled eggs
- 1/4 of a cup of parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper to taste
- sprinkle of garlic powder or one or two garlic minced cloves

Instructions:
- Prepare a large bowl
- Dice two heads of romaine lettuce
- Cut up into small cubes half of an English Cucumber
- Add a package of croutons. (Some like to make their own but I chose to "cheat" and purchased a bag of seasoned flavored croutons.)
- Using very generous portions, sprinkle grated mozzarella cheese
- Cut up two green onions (scallions/shallots)
- Prepare two or three hard boiled eggs and then slice them up
- Add all ingredients to a large bowl
- Add the parmesan cheese
- Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste
- sprinkle the garlic powder or mix in the minced garlic cloves
- Mix and serve
- Add dressing as desired

ET TU can ENJOY!

Location: Montreal, QC, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Know Your Audience

Image
Please allow me to take a moment to thank you for your patience. This posting is the first since January, and I reiterate my appreciation for all the shout outs and voices of support for all the posting made. My wife's birthday is in the summer and to celebrate, it is always amazing to see her enjoy some of her favorite culinary delights. - Braided spiced mozzarella cheese with a thin slice of tomato on melba toast - Creamed garlic salmon - Roasted veggies covered with sumac and shredded cheese - Glass of wine https://www.saltandlavender.com/salmon-pasta-creamy-garlic-sauce/ - 2 heads of broccoli - 1 large sweet potato - shredded cheese - half a teaspoon of sumac - melba toast crackers - braided spiced mozzarella cheese  - 1 medium tomato (thinly sliced) - half a pound of fresh skinned salmon - 1 tablespoon olive oil - 1/4 teaspoon onion powder - salt and pepper (to taste) - 1 tablespoon butter - 1 tablespoon flour - 4 cloves of garlic (finely diced) - half a cup of white wine - 3/...
Read more

Partner

Image
  Whether it is with Customs or with cooking, one always needs support. To think that someone can do it ALL on their own is unrealistic. Let's look at a compliance department. Not a single individual will be available to respond to issues and emergencies 24/7/365. A team is built (whether it is a team of many or of two) to support each other. Vacations are taken. Family responsibilities need to be attended to. Personal health appointments are scheduled. All these "life issues" come up and require one to be away from their desk. Therefore, there is someone to back them up. Even if it is to defer and deflect until such time that the individual is back, there is usually someone to ensure that, at the very least, there is oversight of what is going on and what the best next steps should be. We can also look at back-up from the perspective of tools. Data is backed-up to ensure that if the primary location cannot be accessed, (see Blog post: https://customsandcooking.blogspot.c...
Read more

SOP

Image
I am sure that anyone who asked their grandmother for a recipe was told that you need to put in "a little bit of this and a little bit of that". Then, in order to determine what "this" and "that" was you had to stand over grandma to see exactly what she was doing and take meticulous notes in order to try and replicate the recipe in the future. My favorite example of this was my wife's grandmother's chicken soup. There was no way to get an exact recipe except by watching her add the specific ingredients and spices trying to determine how much to add and when in the process to do so. (The end result was a fabulous chicken soup.)  So when we talk about an SOP, a Standard Operating Procedure , "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" just won't do. For cooking, the SOP is a cookbook. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned cook, the cookbook is your guide. Even the greatest chefs use cookbooks. They may be the authors of those cook...
Read more