VENEZEULA ENFORCES FINGERPRINT REGISTRY TO BUY GROCERIES: WHAT TO DO BEFORE RATIONING STARTS IN AMERICA
by: Daisy Luther
What if you were forced to “register” in order to buy groceries?
And what if, through that registration, the food you bought could be
tracked and quantities could be limited?
That’s exactly the plan in Venezuela right now. The AP reports that
in an effort to crack down on “hoarding” that ID cards will be issued
to families. These will have to be presented before foodstuffs can be
purchased.
President Nicolas Maduro’s administration says the cards to track
families’ purchases will foil people who stock up on groceries at
subsidized prices and then illegally resell them for several times the
amount…
Registration began Tuesday at more than 100 government-run
supermarkets across the country. Working-class shoppers who sometimes
endure hours-long lines at government-run stores to buy groceries at
steeply reduced prices are welcoming the plan.
“The rich people have things all hoarded away, and they pull the
strings,” said Juan Rodriguez, who waited two hours to enter the
government-run Abastos Bicentenario supermarket near downtown Caracas on
Monday, and then waited another three hours to check out.
Checkout workers at Abastos Bicentenario were taking down customers’
cellphone numbers Monday, to ensure they couldn’t return for eight
days. Shoppers said employees also banned purchases by minors, to stop
parents from using their children to engage in hoarding, which the
government calls “nervous buying.”
Rodriguez supports both measures.
“People who go shopping every day hurt us all,” he said, drawing
approving nods from the friends he made over the course of his afternoon
slowly snaking through the aisles with his oversized cart.
Reflecting Maduro’s increasingly militarized discourse against
opponents he accuses of waging “economic war,” the government is calling
the new program the “system of secure supply.”
Patrons will register with their fingerprints, and the new ID card
will be linked to a computer system that monitors purchases. On Tuesday,
Food Minister Felix Osorio said the process was off to a smooth start.
He says the system will sound an alarm when it detects suspicious
purchasing patterns, barring people from buying the same goods every
day. But he also says the cards will be voluntary, with incentives like
discounts and entry into raffles for homes and cars.
Expressionless men with rifles patrolled the warehouse-size
supermarket Monday as shoppers hurried by, focusing on grabbing meat and
pantry items before they were gone. (source)
Some people may read this and think to themselves, “Why on earth do I care about what happens in Venezuela?”
You’d better care, because this is our future.
Already the Obama administration has moved the pieces into place on
the board to be able to appropriate supplies from anyone, at any time.
Mac Slavo of SHTFplan warns:
It should be clear from the laws that are already in effect that the
government has given itself a legal pretext for confiscating anything
they so choose in the midst of an emergency.
Should an emergency befall the United States, the military, national
guard, and local police operating under orders from the Department of
Homeland Security will have carte blanche to do as they please.
In a widespread emergency where supply lines have been threatened
and millions of Americans are without essential resources because they
failed to prepare, the government will swoop in and attempt to take
complete control.
They will enter our homes and search them without a warrant. They
will confiscate contraband. And they will take any ‘excessive resources’
that you may have accumulated. This includes food, toiletries, precious
metals and anything else emergency planners and officials deem to be a
scarce material. (source)
Just think how much easier it would be to do so if every purchase you make is tracked and documented for future reference.
How Much of a Footprint Are You Leaving?
Now, think about those “loyalty cards” that every grocery store in
North America promotes when you go through the checkout. Have you
noticed how much more those are being pushed lately? Could there be a
nefarious purpose to that? I doubt the person at the cash register
thinks twice about it – if these actually are data collection tools, it
is something put in place by people far higher up the food chain (pun
intended) than the staff of your local supermarket.
I strongly recommend you think twice about collecting “points” – the
discounts may not be worth it if it means that your stock-up purchases
are in some database, easily accessible to the NSA. If you feel it is
imperative to have one of those cards, consider using a pseudonym and
false address. You really don’t want to provide an inventory of your
stockpile to the government. Some cards, like the one from Target, for
example, even take it a step further and link to your credit card or
debit account. I can’t even wrap my brain around giving out that type
of information to the person who rings up my paper towels and garbage
bags.
To take this even further, if you haven’t been convinced yet that you need to begin producing your own food by gardening and
raising micro-livestock, this should solidify the importance of not
being totally dependent on “the system” for what you eat. Looking at
the drought conditions across America’s farmland,
is it a stretch of the imagination to think we could soon be facing
rationing like that which is currently happening in Venezuela? As the
middle class gasps its last breath here in America, we may soon be faced
with a situation where only the wealthy can afford to avoid rationing.
By becoming independent from the purveyors of food, you can assure that
your family will not go hungry at the whims of a government who really
doesn’t care.
Plan of Action
Here are a few things that you can do to pre-empt feeling the
effects of a system like the one in Venezuela before such a change
occurs on our own soil. Start now to leave less of a footprint for the
government to follow.
Plant a garden.
Grow food indoors in sunny windows.
Consider an aquaponics set-up in a spare room.
Raise chickens and meat rabbits.
Stock up NOW on long-term staples like grains and beans, before limits are instituted.
Buy heirloom seeds – lots and lots of seeds.
Practice careful OPSEC (OPerational SECurity) when making large purchases.
Store longterm food supplies in more than one location. That way if
you lose some of your supplies to thugs (government or other varieties),
you still have supplies to fall back on.
Learn to preserve food.
Stock up of preservation supplies like lids, jars, etc.
Do NOT use so-called “loyalty cards” or memberships to make large purchases.
When ordering large quantities of supplies, consider having them mailed to some place other than your home.
Use cash or prepaid VISA cards purchased with cash to make large purchases.
Don’t tell others about your supplies and purchases.
Teach your children not to discuss things like food pantries and preparedness.
Don’t store your supplies out in the open for anyone who comes into
your home to see. Stash your 5 gallon pails away in closets, under beds,
or in the basement.
Disengage from the system by purchasing from small local farmers.
Use the barter system whenever possible. When money was tight and I
lived in a place where I couldn’t grow much food, I worked on a farm
harvesting vegetables in exchange for produce that I could preserve for
my family.
Change the way you eat – go with a local, in-season menu that is far more difficult to track than grocery-store purchased items.
Learn to forage. Even in the city, you might be surprised at how
many things can be found growing in your own back yard or falling off of
the trees in a local park. My children and I picked up one small bag
of walnuts a day at a little park down the street one year, resulting in
almost 15 pounds of shelled nuts by the time we were through.
Whatever your plan, don’t delay. We need only to read the many
articles predicting a food shortage this year due to poor weather
conditions to see the writing on the wall. You must become
responsible for your family’s sustenance if you don’t want to suffer at
the hands of those in power. I have no intention of standing in line for
hours with my “ID card”, only to be allowed to purchase a small amount
of highly inflated food.
About the author:
Please feel free to share any information from this site in part
or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to this
website and the following bio.
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions.
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