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group of guys wearing heavy eye-shadow and lipstick stomp to the front door of a rich man’s house. Passers-by stop to snigger as a man in a pink silk frock tells the homeowner, “Hi sweetie. We’re civil servants from the Tax Department and we’re going to wait here you’ve paid in full.” This is the new “tax reminder service” in Pakistan — and other countries are watching carefully to see if it could work for them.

The scheme was dreamed up by judges in Karachi who wanted to find useful jobs for hijras, or “transgendered persons”. So far, it’s been a hit, with embarrassed guys instantly paying up all their back taxes and offering extra. “I love the job,” Shahzadi, an individual with heavy make-up on a masculine face, told a BBC reporter.

I printed out the report, forwarded by a reader, and took it to a bar where people of many nations hang out. Inmates agreed it would work fine in most Asian countries, where big earners tended to be macho males (a breed easy to embarrass), but felt it would have no effect in the West.

“Guys who don’t wear make-up and frilly dresses in San Francisco are considered weird,” said an American student. His friend added, “In the West, it’s actually fashionable to be surrounded by men dressed as women, look at Obama’s cabinet,” winning the title of Most Baffling Statement of the Day.

Are Westerners impossible to embarrass? Some of them (Sarah Palin, Donald Trump) appear to be. A quick visit to Google News answered that question. Researchers at the University of California last week located an “embarrassment” nodule in the brain (front part of the right hemisphere) by forcing 79 volunteers to listen to themselves singing karaoke songs.

If karaoke embarrasses Westerners and cross-dressing embarrasses Easterners, the perfect tax official would be a transvestite amateur singer. An international tax expert I phoned to discuss this with said he did not want to comment and rang off abruptly. Hah. Spot the guilty reaction! Guess whose house I am going to be hanging around outside with a low-light, long-range camera?

More helpful was a financial journalist from the same city who told me that people in the West DID use embarrassment to collect cash. “In Spain, a debt collection agency called El Cobrador del Frac sends out people dressed as clowns or vampires to hang around the homes and offices of debtors,” he said. “One of the most successful members of the team is a guy who plays the bagpipes. Another is a dog with a really annoying bark.”

I must tell my dog. Finally, she can start to earn her keep. Anyway, all this leads to an unmistakable conclusion: being annoying is now a valued, saleable skill. How things change. I can remember one of my teachers (okay, all of them) saying to me that my only real talent in life was being utterly irritating. Clearly I was ahead of my time. Note to parents: It’s probably better not to let your children know this. This particular skill comes all too naturally to many of them.

If any tax officials are reading this, please note. My dog is at your service.

The writer is a columnist and journalist.