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Last year, Australian bureaucrats facilitated the destruction of a priceless, irreplaceable, scientific collection of plant materials on loan to their country's scientists from France. Apparently the actual destruction was carried out by an "external contractor", but that in no way absolves the bureaucracy.
Jeanson had received a message from the director of the Queensland Herbarium in Australia that was abrupt to the point of being blunt. It told him that a package of 105 botanical specimens of Australian plants owned by the Jardin des Plantes – and gathered by an intrepid French botanist more than 200 years earlier – had been destroyed by Australian biosecurity officials.
To this day, Jeanson can't quite believe what happened, and nor can scientists and museum directors from around the world who have followed the story with horror.
The specimens were both priceless and irreplaceable. How could anyone, let alone government officials, incinerate such artefacts? It was simply beyond Jeanson's comprehension. It remains so, even after post-mortems and investigations conducted in both countries, by scientists and bureaucrats, after diplomats stepped in and compensation negotiations were undertaken.
The specimens destroyed were part of the catalog of the world's plants and were a part of a base for pharmacy, agriculture, and any kind of science based on plants.
Source : 'Would you burn the Mona Lisa if it was sent?': Our horror bureaucratic bungle
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @06:14PM (32 children)
Never send anything outside your country that you can't afford to lose, especially when the destination country is somewhat backwards.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 26 2018, @06:26PM (19 children)
What's the appropriate punishment for this? Blacklist the criminal state of Australia forever?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @06:27PM
The man was proud of himself. He had done it. His RPM score was far higher than anyone else's in his city, and he had actually set a new record. Thanks to this, the man was to receive a prestigious award from the city government.
Indeed, achieving such a high Rapings Per Month score was extremely commendable and even heroic.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday February 26 2018, @06:37PM (1 child)
Basically, yes: don't ship any more extremely valuable scientific or cultural artifacts there. They've proven they can't be trusted with them.
It's just like loaning your tools to your neighbor: if you loan a nice cordless drill or air wrench or whatever to your neighbor, and he completely wrecks it or returns it in beat-up condition, would you ever loan such a tool to him again? You'd be an idiot if you did. In general, it's a bad idea to ever loan out valuables like this, unless the other party has proven themselves to be completely trustworthy. For France, they can probably trust certain countries with stuff like this, such as Netherlands or Norway or Germany. Australia isn't on that list, just like Zimbabwe or Sudan or Iraq.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:57AM
Actually Zimbabwe would not incinerate your valuable botanical samples. Oz-trill-ya, oh yes; Nude Sealind also (same sheepfarmerheads).
(Score: 5, Informative) by dtremenak on Monday February 26 2018, @06:43PM
Actually...yeah, basically. If you loan a few books or tools to a friend, and they don't come back, you stop loaning them things, right? Especially when it happens more than once (a rare lichen collection from a New Zealand museum was also incinerated by Australia last year).
And let's see what happened from TFA:
"Jeanson says ... the museum will maintain its suspension of loans to Australia. The ban includes not only botanical specimens, but those from across the museum's vast holdings in areas such as mineralogy, geology, palaeontology and comparative anatomy."
"Barbara Thiers, director of New York's Steere Herbarium, the world's second largest, [also] immediately suspended loans to Australia."
"The Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria agreed that the institutions they represent would stop even making requests until they could ensure the safety of specimens"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 26 2018, @06:54PM (2 children)
What's funny is the shameless defense - that the sticker price said $2 beside 'museum artifact' hence it was deemed useless enough to be incinerated. I mean, they are actually complaining about losing out some moolah! Surreal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @10:08AM
$2?! Sounds like somebody has confused priceless and worthless...
(Score: 3, Informative) by darnkitten on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:25PM
FTFA:
(Score: 2, Insightful) by edIII on Monday February 26 2018, @07:35PM (11 children)
Yes.
Until Australia passes laws that respect the scientific and cultural values of other people's property. This happened because of fucking ridiculous policy carried out by corrupt and inept politicians.
No art, no science, no nothing.
Australia, deeply, deeply, deeply, DEEEPLY, fucked up here. I wouldn't trust them with a preserved butterfly collection.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday February 26 2018, @09:02PM (9 children)
The policy had nothing to do with Australian politicians, they would not have been notified, as this would be an entirely operational matter.
It might be hard for people living outside the Antipodes to understand, but we guard our biosecurity very jealously here, as we depend very heavily on agricultural exports and we don't have many of the plant and animal diseases endemic to the northern hemisphere.
When you fly into Australia, (or New Zealand) you will be warned very strongly against bringing any food or other plant or animal products with you.
If you try, you will be caught and fined $300 or more.
I am not defending the indefensible here, just explaining that there is a different mindset here, and you should attempt to understand it.
Destroying botanical specimens is however bloody stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @09:44PM
Mindset understood.
Assurances won't trump it.
Permanent sample timeout is the only way to prevent this.
That says that for future comparisons, folks in Australia need to travel to where the samples are instead of asking for them to be shipped to them.
Given the mindset, seems like a reasonable way to proceed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:13PM (1 child)
There's a current story about car imports to New Zealand being infested with stink bugs; the cargo ships are just sat waiting, unable to offload the cars, as NZ can't risk the damn things going native. I vaguely remember reading that the best chemical to kill them off is also guaranteed to destroy the upholstery in the cars!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:23AM
> best chemical to kill them off
Can't they just put the cars in a 100% nitrogen atmosphere for awhile, maybe a big inflated bag? Or are these bugs able to hibernate without oxygen? If the eggs survive without O2, then you might have to do it a few times, wait for one brood to hatch, then back in the N2 atmosphere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @10:28PM (1 child)
i've seen the simpsons australia episode and figured this was bio pigs doing what bio pigs do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:11AM
Oh no, after a near miss from this flora, Australia is now infested with Simpsons.
Even with these amazing civil servants on the job, they don't appear to be doing enough to protect their environment.
Seems like a job for Dundee.
(Score: 1) by kramulous on Tuesday February 27 2018, @01:55AM
I'm wondering at this point if the incoming packages were not appropriately marked as some sort of precious cargo.
Some border security drone was just doing their job; saw what would have been determined as standard plant material and incinerated.
Still a terrible shame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:59AM (2 children)
Invasive foreign species are a problem worldwide, and similar import rules are common in many (most?)countries. Only Oz hauls out the flamethrower without thinking.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday February 28 2018, @12:01AM (1 child)
The irony is that these were Australian samples being repatriated for local study.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28 2018, @07:07AM
Doesn't matter where they were originally from, they had been overseas and possibly exposed to diseases or pests. You want to bring stuff in, you follow the procedures.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @12:54AM
Not just other's but their own historical contributions.
I recall going to a museum in Perth and reading again and again about the atrocities that "British settlers" did on the natives. Only at the end of the section did it mention Australians that, coincidentally, were heros driving out to the boonies to make pack lunches or something for the poor black folks that live there. Those darn British stole all the good land! Gnash gnash gnash.
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Monday February 26 2018, @06:42PM (11 children)
It's probably worse than that if it is part of the general trend towards uneducated, unknowledgeable, and undertrained staff I am seeing in recent years. It's a real bite but there might be few places remaining where even a motivated young person can get a proper education any more. A number of them that I knew who were motivated were really singled out by those in charge who really worked to beat it out of them. Two didn't break.
About how that Customs services, over on the other side of the planet a professional musician from Canada made the mistake of passing through JFK and had 11 of his flutes confiscated [slippedisc.com] and destroyed [bostonglobe.com]. When called out, the US Customs just doubled down on stupid [foreignpolicy.com].
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Monday February 26 2018, @06:51PM (2 children)
I once ordered some books from USA to Germany and it was held in the custom. I had to go there and open it to show them it wasn't containing god knows what they thought heavy thick books could be. Brick, may be?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday February 26 2018, @07:14PM (1 child)
Maybe they wanted you present when your shipment of Cuban Cigars was opened?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:54AM
Are cuban cigars banned in Germany too?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Monday February 26 2018, @07:12PM (3 children)
Your own linked story at foreign policy.com calls the whole incident into question.
Customs seized and disposed of fresh cut green bamboo, a notoriously invasive plant.
Those were packed in different luggage than the flutes, which customs said they didn't touch.
So at best this is a he-said she-said story. Maybe read these links before you post them?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by canopic jug on Monday February 26 2018, @07:44PM (2 children)
From the update in the Foreign Policy article:
If he did have fresh bamboo, then he is quite an asshole. However, separate from that the flutes are gone [npr.org]. The two problems are not mutually exclusive.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Monday February 26 2018, @09:43PM (1 child)
Occam suggests that these flutes were mistaken for live bamboo, and therefore the musician denying the existence of live bamboo, customs denying the existence of flutes, and the confiscated flutes not being in luggage all make sense. Anecdotally, I can see where an overzealous goon could mistake a Ney [wikipedia.org] for (dried) bamboo.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:32AM
Yeah. That assessment makes sense, particularly after re-reading all four articles.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 26 2018, @07:21PM (1 child)
Yeah, well, if the picolo player - errr, flute player - had been allowed through customs, he may well have planted his picolo - errr, FLUTE, I mean - and started another invasive species growing. Just look at this article, then try to imagine picolo bushes growing all over America - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu#Invasive_species [wikipedia.org]
/sarcasm
Picolo joke gratis - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dk_ZYw_BtY [youtube.com]
For those who fear Youtube - https://cosmo360.blogspot.com/2010/04/joke-piccolo-player.html [blogspot.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @11:29PM
Farmers grow highly invasive bamboos in the US south for profit. Most won't survive anywhere slightly near north.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 26 2018, @07:37PM
As long as they aren't slapped down, hard - they'll try for more the next time.
Such is human nature.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:43AM
Did you read the article you linked? It says that customs claims there were no flutes when they examined the luggage. Instead there were fresh cuttings. Now, that maybe bullshit, but they didn't double down on stupid. They claimed it wasn't true.