Funny thing happened in class today

[Onephd]

I teach Managerial Accounting at a university in Michigan.  Today we were discussing a case where the manaagement team had to decided if they were going to pay a "grease payment" to ensure that the product cleared customs etc.

I asked the class if anyone had ever tried to send something to another country and what country was it?  I was trying to see who had experience with shipping things and understand how this is a real problem.

Well anyway, after class, one student told me that her brother married a Russian woman about six years ago and now they were getting divorced.  They met online.  She told me that the woman wants all of his assets includeing any inheritance the husband is intitled to from his grandmother(who by the way is not even close to dying).  They have two kids together and they were not a May-December marriage.  I think they were only about 5 years apart.  

I guess you never know and some things are not meant to last.  I don't know who did what or any of that, I just thought that it was interesting that the MOB/intercultural/internet dating-marriage thing popped up in my Accounting class.  

[Ricky]

... in response to Funny thing happened in class today, posted by Onephd on Jan 27, 2005

What does the topic of shipping goods have to do with
some couple getting a nasty divorce? Did I miss the
point?

[Onephd]

... in response to Re: Funny thing happened in class today, posted by Ricky on Jan 28, 2005

I was just giving you some background as to how the conversation got started.  I never would have thought that any of my students would know about much less have some experience or direct contact with someone about the MOB/Interculture marriages.  Thats all.  I didn't go into too much detail as I was trying to make the point of how what were are doing is perhaps more known than we know and to explain what I knew about an obviously bad situation for the man that married the Russian woman.

It was more of a "funny thing happened to me on the way to the office" story.

nothing more.  Sorry if it confused or disappointed you.  Juust wanted to share.

[Pete E]

... in response to Re: Funny thing happened in class today, posted by Ricky on Jan 28, 2005

Yes,you missed the point.For whatever reason this person opened up and told him the story,which was worth him repeating.
If you expect things to follow your logic you will have alot of trouble in Colombia.One friend of mine was here.He was saying I would think they would think ---.You have no idea what they think.Better to just deal with the situation at hand and try to communicate without preconcieved notions about how things should tie together.

Pete

[Jeff S]

... in response to Funny thing happened in class today, posted by Onephd on Jan 27, 2005

Speaking of greasing, I used to run a twin plant operation - one in Irvine CA and the other in Tijuana. We ran a weekly truck back and forth bringing raw materials to TJ and finished goods to the US. The first year, about once every 3 months or so the TJ bound truck got torn apart and they'd find something wrong - once a box of capacitors that was supposed to have 236 in it and actually had 238, another time for two digits of the serial number of a printer that were transposed - always something. Anyway, the "official" fine was about $1200, but for $400 or so the customs agents could make sure the paperwork was corrected. Guess what I did?

After careful consideration and coonsultation with my Mexican contacts, I decided to pay the official fine. The second year there were only two searches, the third year none, the fourth, only one, etc. Had I paid the "fix it" rate, the careful inspections would have become a weekly occurance, and ended up costing much more in the long run.

- Jeff

[Fuzzyone]

... in response to Re: Funny thing happened in class today, posted by Jeff S on Jan 27, 2005

Well when I got married in Barranquilla we had to jump thru hoops like you
could not believe. Every where we went there was another paper they wanted. I
thought we were not going to get married. My wife and I went back to the first
place we went to three months before and she must have talked to the woman
at the front desk for over a hour. Next thing I knew we actually got to talk to the
Notary. When we left that day my wife told me we had to go out and buy the two
woman each a gift because they helped us so much. The woman actually told my
wife what they wanted and we went and got them. I think we spent about $50.00
each for them but if I had to do it over I would have because no one there would
marry us no matter how correct the papers were.