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#1
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illegal orchids or orchid smuggling.....
Since you are in Canada, this might be of interest:
http://www.bedfordorchids.com/cfia.htm It is an article posted by the Canadian orchid vendor Bedford Orchids describing the beaurocratic incompetence of Toronto officials dealing with orchids legally imported into Canada after the World Orchid Conference that took place in Dijon, France in March 2005. While not precisely on illegal orchid smuggling, this article is related in that it shows some of the beaurocracy that can be in place to try to legally control orchid imports. The article ends on the intriguing statement "I have now found out that every single orchid plant declared in Toronto was detained. Every plant smuggled in was not found. Is Judy Smith and her petty officious nature CFIA 's new incentive to smuggle?" I assume that the author is just assuming that someone did smuggle in some orchids (?). Of course, the article is written from one point of view, and you might want to double-check the facts if you can find other articles on this matter -- vendors who are interested in imported orchids are not very objective observers of CITES enforcement officials. :-) In general you will probably find a lot of bias on this subject, and it may be difficult to sort out who is guilty/innocent, right/wrong, just-enforcing-laws/obstructing-imports. I do not know whether Mr. Norris for example was really guilty or innocent, what I do know is that a lot of the posts to orchid groups on this subject were written by people who sympathized with him -- was it because he was innocent? was it because they were his friends? was it because they in general think that CITES laws are unreasonable (a lot of people who are into orchids believe that these laws are quite stupid to begin with and then enforced incorrectly by officials who do not know enough about orchids)? I do not know, but if I were researching this subject, I would be very careful to double-check the sources, and keep in mind that the authors of any info I read may be biased -- this of course would apply to both sides, since those who ardently claimed that Mr. Norris was guilty may well have been his competitors or people with a grudge or people who are strong supporters of CITES regulations and wanted a conviction as a deterrent to orchid smuggling (?). As I said, I do not know the truth in the matter, but I know that many people in the orchid communities feel very strongly about it. Joanna wrote in message oups.com... Hey All! Workinng on a Case Study of Illegal Orchid Smugglings for a school project. Anyone have any first hand experiences with this? I would be interested to hear anyones experiences in dealing with underground Orchids. Confidentiality is assured. Would be up for either email correspondence and/or a quick telephone chat. I'm in Canada - but you could be wherever! Drop me a line at fergusonwoods AT hotmail DOT com if you're interested! Thanks! |
#2
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illegal orchids or orchid smuggling.....
I spoke at a SOOS meeting this last Spring, and heard all kinds of stories
about the return from France. Apparently it was a specific individual or group in a single point-of-entry that was the issue. Folks entering through other airports breezed through. -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info! "J Fortuna" wrote in message news:_%Aef.16668$rO4.1099@trnddc05... Since you are in Canada, this might be of interest: http://www.bedfordorchids.com/cfia.htm It is an article posted by the Canadian orchid vendor Bedford Orchids describing the beaurocratic incompetence of Toronto officials dealing with orchids legally imported into Canada after the World Orchid Conference that took place in Dijon, France in March 2005. While not precisely on illegal orchid smuggling, this article is related in that it shows some of the beaurocracy that can be in place to try to legally control orchid imports. The article ends on the intriguing statement "I have now found out that every single orchid plant declared in Toronto was detained. Every plant smuggled in was not found. Is Judy Smith and her petty officious nature CFIA 's new incentive to smuggle?" I assume that the author is just assuming that someone did smuggle in some orchids (?). Of course, the article is written from one point of view, and you might want to double-check the facts if you can find other articles on this matter -- vendors who are interested in imported orchids are not very objective observers of CITES enforcement officials. :-) In general you will probably find a lot of bias on this subject, and it may be difficult to sort out who is guilty/innocent, right/wrong, just-enforcing-laws/obstructing-imports. I do not know whether Mr. Norris for example was really guilty or innocent, what I do know is that a lot of the posts to orchid groups on this subject were written by people who sympathized with him -- was it because he was innocent? was it because they were his friends? was it because they in general think that CITES laws are unreasonable (a lot of people who are into orchids believe that these laws are quite stupid to begin with and then enforced incorrectly by officials who do not know enough about orchids)? I do not know, but if I were researching this subject, I would be very careful to double-check the sources, and keep in mind that the authors of any info I read may be biased -- this of course would apply to both sides, since those who ardently claimed that Mr. Norris was guilty may well have been his competitors or people with a grudge or people who are strong supporters of CITES regulations and wanted a conviction as a deterrent to orchid smuggling (?). As I said, I do not know the truth in the matter, but I know that many people in the orchid communities feel very strongly about it. Joanna wrote in message oups.com... Hey All! Workinng on a Case Study of Illegal Orchid Smugglings for a school project. Anyone have any first hand experiences with this? I would be interested to hear anyones experiences in dealing with underground Orchids. Confidentiality is assured. Would be up for either email correspondence and/or a quick telephone chat. I'm in Canada - but you could be wherever! Drop me a line at fergusonwoods AT hotmail DOT com if you're interested! Thanks! |
#3
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(another source of info for) illegal orchids or orchid smuggling.....
You might also find the following book a worthwhile read:
Orchid Fever : A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy by Eric Hansen Not all of the book is about orchid smuggling, but some of it is. In general, this is a book about how crazy people can get over orchids. One of the stories on orchid smuggling mentioned in this book talks of a case where some orchid grower in Europe (Britain I think) reported another orchid grower (his competitor?) to law enforcement for owning illegally smuggled orchids. The law enforcement officials raided the guy's greenhouse, confiscated the orchids, and then gave them to the informant to take care of (since he knew how to take care of orchids, and the officials did not have another greenhouse etc. available)! -------- Another part of the issue you may be interested in is that one way for orchid species that are illegal in the U.S. to become legally available is that plants that are confiscated from someone who smuggled them in (and thus illegal ones) are then propagated and the divisions or seedlings of those orchids are then legal in the U.S.. An example of that is legally available paph vietnamense in the U.S., which are then provided with paperwork that can trace them legally to plants that were confiscated. Joanna "J Fortuna" wrote in message news:_%Aef.16668$rO4.1099@trnddc05... Since you are in Canada, this might be of interest: http://www.bedfordorchids.com/cfia.htm It is an article posted by the Canadian orchid vendor Bedford Orchids describing the beaurocratic incompetence of Toronto officials dealing with orchids legally imported into Canada after the World Orchid Conference that took place in Dijon, France in March 2005. While not precisely on illegal orchid smuggling, this article is related in that it shows some of the beaurocracy that can be in place to try to legally control orchid imports. The article ends on the intriguing statement "I have now found out that every single orchid plant declared in Toronto was detained. Every plant smuggled in was not found. Is Judy Smith and her petty officious nature CFIA 's new incentive to smuggle?" I assume that the author is just assuming that someone did smuggle in some orchids (?). Of course, the article is written from one point of view, and you might want to double-check the facts if you can find other articles on this matter -- vendors who are interested in imported orchids are not very objective observers of CITES enforcement officials. :-) In general you will probably find a lot of bias on this subject, and it may be difficult to sort out who is guilty/innocent, right/wrong, just-enforcing-laws/obstructing-imports. I do not know whether Mr. Norris for example was really guilty or innocent, what I do know is that a lot of the posts to orchid groups on this subject were written by people who sympathized with him -- was it because he was innocent? was it because they were his friends? was it because they in general think that CITES laws are unreasonable (a lot of people who are into orchids believe that these laws are quite stupid to begin with and then enforced incorrectly by officials who do not know enough about orchids)? I do not know, but if I were researching this subject, I would be very careful to double-check the sources, and keep in mind that the authors of any info I read may be biased -- this of course would apply to both sides, since those who ardently claimed that Mr. Norris was guilty may well have been his competitors or people with a grudge or people who are strong supporters of CITES regulations and wanted a conviction as a deterrent to orchid smuggling (?). As I said, I do not know the truth in the matter, but I know that many people in the orchid communities feel very strongly about it. Joanna wrote in message oups.com... Hey All! Workinng on a Case Study of Illegal Orchid Smugglings for a school project. Anyone have any first hand experiences with this? I would be interested to hear anyones experiences in dealing with underground Orchids. Confidentiality is assured. Would be up for either email correspondence and/or a quick telephone chat. I'm in Canada - but you could be wherever! Drop me a line at fergusonwoods AT hotmail DOT com if you're interested! Thanks! |
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