Ah, thanks - the picture I found labeled “kawala” showed a type of panpipe, but it must be from a different musical tradition.
According to legend, shakuhachi were actually used as weapons by the Fuke Zen monks (or by fake Fuke monks employed as spies for the Shogunate).
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It might be a more general term for instruments made from cane, but the kawalas I’ve seen are like a cane version of the kaval in that video.
I wish I could ‘like’ this post a few thousand times. Your post is spot on. Thank you.
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Well, yes, bamboo is in the USA, just like kudzu, purple loosestrife and oriental bittersweet. It is aggressive and incredibly difficult to eradicate and does real harm to the environment by permanently displacing native species. There are good reasons to stop the importation of live bamboo, although those reasons don’t actually apply to poor Mr. Razgui’s flutes in any way.
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Still preferable to private good squads any day…
Or worse still, used in a musical production that ridiculed the Security State that is growing like a cancer, on steroids.
And they just couldn’t chance that, so shredder-city. . .
Oh, no, my private goon squads would be far preferable (for me, anyway).
here’s how i think of it. it’s like anything else that is any fun at all.
i just planted enough to get a little shade for this window. you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to get rid of… i mean it burrows! now my neighbor is upset because they found it in their yard. damn that bamboo!
no. damn you.
Autonomy, you say? Why, we haven’t even owned our own bodies in just about forever.
- You may not put into it anything the government disapproves.
(Chemicals, vittles, contraband, replacement organs) - You may not remove from it anything the government disapproves.
(body parts, fetuses, contrabrand) - The government will put into and remove from it whatever it damned well pleases.
(X-rays, various parts of government employees related to possible contraband, chemicals, vittles, etc.)
If you can figure out how to just ‘be yourself’ in this mess, I strongly suggest you find yourself a new place to keep said self - because, you are a mere squatter in that particular body!
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Cheer up. The 110 federal entities created by Obamacare are being staffed with anonymous, unaccountable, robot-minded cretins mentally equivalents of flute destroyer. Over the coming years these folks will have increasing control over if and how you are treated
I don’t think @rider is engaging in victim blaming, simply pointing out that which is known by most travelers.
This is one of life’s catch-22’s. You should never check luggage containing anything you value. But of course if you didn’t value something you wouldn’t own it, and wouldn’t want to bring it with you on a trip.
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I agree with everything you’re saying, except your spelling of the word “sight” 
rider’s not blaming the guy, he’s just saying that this has happened 1000s of times before… we’ve all heard a horror story.
Chapter 2. Razgui’s Revenge
For eleven long, seething years Boujemaa Razgui sat in the tattered recliner by his fireside, brooding. Stripped of his flutes, he could no longer play. The flickering firelight made his nostrils glare a dull red as he slowly, forcefully puffed air in and out of his angry lungs. But he had a plan. He had turned to Linux and open source software, and the manifesto of Edward Snowden. For eleven years, he had festered a thought, a single, nagging, terrible thought. He was building a machine. A 3D printed machine. Not some cheap plastic 9mm gun that snapped into pieces after firing three rounds. No. Something much more sinister. Something effective. Something horrifying. He was printing the parts for a machine that would dissolve the US Customs agency. Complete and total annihilation. The thought of the agency melting into the earth was the only thing left that could make him smile. Well, that and his cute little dog, a Pomeranian that he had affectionately named Zamfir.
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Organizations tend to achieve the ends they’re given. Obamacare isn’t about fighting an existential “war on health” or even “war on walterhomple” so i’m pretty sure you’re going to make it through okay. The NSA and TSA, however, haven’t been tasked with rational ends – so they wind up committing irrational acts.
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I’m pretty sure prior to the invention of government people were completely free and independent beings with not a care in the world. Ah to return to those magical days of old.
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Flutes destroyed in violation of U.S. law…
https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1359/~/importing-bamboo-into-the-us
I agree - if there was a handful of uncarved reeds mixed in with the flutes, I’d say that exacerbated the problem. Still shouldn’t have happened (I imagine the materials to make the new nays were also dried reeds, not fresh living ones), but hey - customs agents are dicks. This is a known fact.
I’m not sure what use baggage insurance would be in this situation. These are handmade (by him) instruments. At best, the baggage insurance could be used to replace the raw materials, but its’ not going to replace the (I imagine, considerable) hours required to make them. And I imagine each flute was very specific in its sound, making them VERY hard to replace (as each reed would have its own individual, unique characteristics).
I do not work in the insurance industry, but I would be quite surprised if there was not a replacement cost option for travel/baggage insurance as there is for homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. Proving the value of the instruments is, as you say, very difficult but I expect that at some point someone, somewhere, has sold one of similar enough construction/design/quality to give the ballpark figure - or maybe he has had them appraised in the past?
Again, not his fault by any stretch of the imagination, and he will now be forced to waste a huge amount of time trying to recover and rebuild. But moving forward there are ways to mitigate the risk.
I’m sure there is - and yes, he might have some monetary recompense if he does have travel insurance (although if I was an insurance company, I would fight pretty hard against that claim since it was the government that destroyed his flutes, not the airline - until he could prove that the government did something illegal, any way). But I imagine the money isn’t really the issue for him here. 
