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Germany, Customs & Arnold Schwarzenegger, BIG fines over Luxury watch…

brilliantviewpoint 9 Comments

Have you seen this in the news? I still don’t understand it completely. Why did Schwarzenegger have to declare the luxury watch. I travel to Europe quite often and I’m never asked to declare anything. Only when I am coming back to America. I don’t think Germany allows for dual citizenship unless that law changed.

Maybe this is because he was going to Auction off the watch in Austria, so then it goes from being a “personal watch” for himself to “selling goods” for profit? So, he had to declare it at the first point of entry into the EU? Someone must have alerted Customs to this.

He had to pay hefty fines: $38,000, including $4,000 tax value and approximately $5,000 penalty. The comedy in this, is that Custom’s credit card machine was not working. So, they brought Schwarzenegger to a bank, which was closed and he could not withdraw enough money due to withdrawal limits.

Curious, the value of the watch was $30,000, so he was paying more than the watch was worth? But then he was going to Auction it starting at 50,000 euros.

Luckily, Schwarzenegger had good humor. His mind immediately went to — GREAT COP MOVIE!

It would be funny to see a movie made out of this situation, with him as the main actor!! Did you know he is 76 years old now. Wow, getting close to 80.

Here is the YouTube video from the Today show.

Great movie idea. I’d go see it!  

Japan – Emperor Akihito, 85 yrs old abdicates, first time in over 200 years

brilliantviewpoint 2 Comments

Emperor_Akihito_and_empress_Michiko_of_japan (1)

This past week, I have been reading about the abdication of Japanese Emperor Akihito. An emperor has not abdicated in over 200 years. It’s sad, but he has had illnesses, so he needs to rest.

He met his wife, a commoner, while playing tennis. They married in 1959. He and Empress Michiko have three children.

His son, Crown Prince Naruhito, 59,and Princess Masako will now take the thrown. Life has not been easy for Princess Masako. She did not want to marry into royalty and when she did all of her freedoms for traveling, etc. were taken away from her. This caused her to fall into great depression. Also, the fact that she gave birth to a daughter and not a son was stressful. Hopefully, her new role changes her outlook on life.

In America, we are lacking when it comes to International news. Luckily, with the Internet, we can read Asian newspapers to understand what is going on in Japan right now. It’s all very interesting. I wish them well.