Paula Shirk is flanked by sons Eli, 11 (l.) and Rudi, 6, at Brooklyn home. Shirk helped organize shipment of soccer gear to Cambodian orphanage, but gift has been stuck at dock for more than a year. (Photo: DeCrescenzo for News)Push for gift delivery to Cambodian kids
Monday, December 10th 2007
By DENISE ROMANO and ELIZABETH HAYS
New York Daily News Writers (USA)
A Brooklyn school group's gift of soccer balls and jerseys for an orphanage in Cambodia has been caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare of red tape and corruption.
For more than a year, the donated equipment intended to make life a little happier for needy kids has been held up at a Cambodian port while local officials demand hundreds of dollars in fees.
The parents group has tried desperately to get the gifts released, including appealing to top Cambodian officials.
So far, they've gotten nowhere but they haven't given up - even though the Cambodian ambassador to the U.S. concedes that port corruption is a problem.
"I'm not frustrated yet," said Paula Shirk, a Brooklyn Heights mother of two whose son Rudi, 6, was adopted as a baby from Cambodia and who has raised thousands of dollars to help his birth family. "I'm relentless."
The nonprofit group, called Brooklyn Bridge to Cambodia, has spent the past year writing to top Cambodian officials, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and even Phnom Penh's Cambodia Daily newspaper, urging that the goods be freed.
All that has changed is the amount of money government officials are demanding, which has gone up and down several times, for no apparent reason.
When the shipment arrived in Phnom Penh in October 2006, Cambodian Customs and Excise Department officials told the group it had to pay $650 for the goods to be released, the parents said.
The price then rose to $1,560 before eventually coming back down to $762 - more than twice what it cost to ship the goods in the first place - a payment the group's local contacts told them was essentially a bribe.
"It's very upsetting," said Craig Tooman, 45, of Boerum Hill, who helped coordinate the group's fund-raiser at Public School 261. "You try to teach your kids that they can make a difference."
Last spring, the group even launched a letter-writing campaign at PS 261 to pressure Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to step in.
"Please consider letting the soccer uniforms go to the children. You will be doing a good deed," wrote Hannah Wing, 10.
Told of the situation, Cambodian Ambassador to the U.S. Sereywath Ek said he would take the case to the country's minister of commerce.
"That happens sometimes in Cambodia that corrupt customs officers ask for bribes, not just in Cambodia but all over Asia," Ek told the Daily News. "I will try my best to help, but I cannot guarantee success."
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also vowed to "leave no stone unturned" until the donated goods reach the orphanage.
"The children of Brooklyn have sent a touching gift that will bring some cheer and enjoyment to orphans in impoverished Cambodia," Schumer said. "It is flat-out unacceptable that some corrupt Scrooges are preventing this gift from arriving."
For more than a year, the donated equipment intended to make life a little happier for needy kids has been held up at a Cambodian port while local officials demand hundreds of dollars in fees.
The parents group has tried desperately to get the gifts released, including appealing to top Cambodian officials.
So far, they've gotten nowhere but they haven't given up - even though the Cambodian ambassador to the U.S. concedes that port corruption is a problem.
"I'm not frustrated yet," said Paula Shirk, a Brooklyn Heights mother of two whose son Rudi, 6, was adopted as a baby from Cambodia and who has raised thousands of dollars to help his birth family. "I'm relentless."
The nonprofit group, called Brooklyn Bridge to Cambodia, has spent the past year writing to top Cambodian officials, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and even Phnom Penh's Cambodia Daily newspaper, urging that the goods be freed.
All that has changed is the amount of money government officials are demanding, which has gone up and down several times, for no apparent reason.
When the shipment arrived in Phnom Penh in October 2006, Cambodian Customs and Excise Department officials told the group it had to pay $650 for the goods to be released, the parents said.
The price then rose to $1,560 before eventually coming back down to $762 - more than twice what it cost to ship the goods in the first place - a payment the group's local contacts told them was essentially a bribe.
"It's very upsetting," said Craig Tooman, 45, of Boerum Hill, who helped coordinate the group's fund-raiser at Public School 261. "You try to teach your kids that they can make a difference."
Last spring, the group even launched a letter-writing campaign at PS 261 to pressure Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to step in.
"Please consider letting the soccer uniforms go to the children. You will be doing a good deed," wrote Hannah Wing, 10.
Told of the situation, Cambodian Ambassador to the U.S. Sereywath Ek said he would take the case to the country's minister of commerce.
"That happens sometimes in Cambodia that corrupt customs officers ask for bribes, not just in Cambodia but all over Asia," Ek told the Daily News. "I will try my best to help, but I cannot guarantee success."
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also vowed to "leave no stone unturned" until the donated goods reach the orphanage.
"The children of Brooklyn have sent a touching gift that will bring some cheer and enjoyment to orphans in impoverished Cambodia," Schumer said. "It is flat-out unacceptable that some corrupt Scrooges are preventing this gift from arriving."
12 comments:
Well, if we don't charge anything for those goods, we will be accused of not collecting tax, and when we do charged something for those goods, we will labeled as demanding bribe.
Damn if you do, and damn if you don't.
1:36 am, open your idoit blind dumn head and stop barking shit.
As customs officers, they must know which good are the persoanl effects and which are not.
AH HUN SEN SENT YOU TO SCHOLL AND YOU STILL FUCKING DUMB 1:36AM.
OR YOUR FATHER JUST BOUGHT YOU THE DIPLOMA?
YOU MOTHRFUCKER CAN NOT USE YOUR BRAIN STUPID CPP!
aND UN DO YOU THING IS THE TOME TO COMPLETE THE PARIS AGREEMENT?
Come on, guys, let's be fair about this. We can't have Duty officers to make that type of decision. They must charge taxes for everything. There is no multiple red tapes here. It all had been removed. You only have to pay the tax once.
Look, we can't just accept any story from anyone about their goods. That will be a nightmare for us. Just imagine that I am a merchant, and I wanted to import some shoes, shirts, ..., or whatever for sale for profit, and all I have to do is to tell the Duty officer that I intended to give those good to poor people, and the Duty officer should release those good to me? Don't be silly.
Hun Sen and CPP regime corrupt from bottom to top. No doubt about it. These are the gifts from hard-working parents of the students to provide to poor Cambodian students, but Cambodia government charged them as tax for their own pocket.
Next time don't bother to raise money for Cambodia. They don't deserve it. Unless Hun Sen is out of power, Cambodian and her country will be less corruption and good governent.
For 1:36 AM don't be stupid to charge tax for non-profit, only your country do that. But, the US don't collect tax for the non-profit organization. You're more-on and uneducated person who don't know a shit about life. Go back to your country.
2:23, don't be such a hypocrite. Try to buy some gifts in the US for the beggars in the US and see if they allowed you to get away with any tax, alright?
Cambodian Ambassador to the U.S. Sereywath Ek said he would take the case to the country's minister of commerce.
With respect to H.E.Sereywath Ek.
You would take this case to commerce PM Cham Prasidh??..
You can not even over rule your Deputy Chief of Mission,
Minister Counselor in Washington DC.
He is not over rule Cham Prasidh he just present the case! What do you want from him dude, he is Funsunpec!
Full above 3:07Am you ignorant son of Akwack yes none profit organozation in the stat buy any thing free of tax even office supply and food! and even buy thing to send to poor Cambodia if free of tax too! Ask people from NGO! you are came to West Point for not thing!
Like son like father!!!Stupid!
Please don't let your kids grow up to be bad boys in Cambodia.
Cambodian Customs (80%) officers are shit. they always like the bad merchants or traders and kill the good traders/importers or they normally teach good importers to make false documents to advoid full tax payment and then share the benifit.
As long as these officers make $30 to $50 a month you will have corruption. Everybody knows you can't live on this kind of money, even in Cambodia. How is someone expected to support a family on this salary?
Correct, and that is why we must get our economy into full swing, but for that to happen, our jobless number must be low. There is no other way.
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