Toerke

We the people of the lowlands have an ancient Flemish tradition of stuffing postal parcels not quite filled to the brim with old newspapers and/or magazines. This is especially the case for parcels containing fragile items. A quite practical, environmental friendly and cheap tradition, if I may say so. So there I am at the China Post with a box, not quite filled to the brim, with breakable content. Kees runs out to get a stack of newspapers due to a lack of a carefully saved collection of old paper. I wrap the fragile items into blankets of print and roll the remaining newspaper into stuffing balls for the box, not quite filled to the brim.

At window 1, the postal clerk in his spic and span semi-military attire frowns disapprovingly and makes clear with a shaking of his uniformed head that this will not do. I look surprised and wait for a possible explanation of this rejection. “No Chinese newspaper!” I swallow my acutely aggrieved Flemish pride, turn my face into a question mark and look at him with surprise. “No Chinese newspaper outside!” he barks accompanied by a set of firm uniformed arm and head gymnastic gesticulations. And suddenly the sad truth dawns on me. No Chinese newspaper may cross the border. Well I’ll be..! Slightly bewildered I stutter “We can’t read this anyway! ” But I’ve got my back against the great wall of Bureaucracy. Welcome to the windmills of Protocolaria! The postal clerk sells me a big fat toilet roll with a smile. I stuff the box with rather fragile content. An illusion shattered.