#Grocery List in Zimbabwe

[matovugodfreymg]

*🌍 A҉F҉R҉I҉C҉A҉*

*𝒁𝒊𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒃𝒘𝒆'𝒔* 🇿🇼 gold-backed *𝒁𝑰𝑮* , which stands for Zimbabwe Gold, being the country's sixth attempt at a stable currency in _15 years_ , is facing headwinds five months on.

It was introduced in April at a rate of *13.6 ZiG per U.S* . dollar and has since lost almost 80% of its value on the black market.

Wheat farmers have refused to be paid in the local currency instead they want payment solely in United States dollars.

President *_Emmerson Mnangagwa_* 's government has buckled under pressure and will now pay in US Dollars.

For now, the use of the local currency has been turned into part-time legal tender.

In May, the government unleashed Republic police, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's Financial Intelligence Unit and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission on people rejecting new ZiG currency and to try to enforce the acceptance of ZiG.

Some businesses, such as gas stations, refuse to accept the ZiG in favor of U.S. dollars.

Across Zimbabwe, it is widely used for paying rent, school fees and to buy groceries. Many citizens, including government workers, take their local currency earnings to the black market to trade for dollars.

Some departments, like the office that issues and renews passports, also accept only greenbacks. Many others still list their fees in U.S. dollars, although they accept the equivalent in local currency.

*Source: @Reuters, @AP,* *@NewsDayZimbabwe.* 🇿🇼

*@𝑴𝒈* 💕🕊️

*#A҉F҉R҉I҉C҉A҉_U҉N҉I҉T҉E҉D҉* 🌍

*𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭𝓹𝓮𝓸𝓹𝓵𝓮𝓸𝓯𝓪𝓯𝓻𝓲𝓬𝓪.𝓸𝓻𝓰*

☕︎☕︎☕︎

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

068 of 2024

The Yellow Survey 💛

by joybucket

1. Name three things you like that are yellow. Lemons, ducklings, honey.

2. When was the last time you rode on a school bus? 🚌 Probably 15 years ago or even longer, but our school buses aren't yellow. They are white. :P

3. When you were younger, did you ever ride the bus to school? 🚌 Yeah, to secondary school. To primary school, I was taking the tram.

4. Would you say you are a generally optimistic person, or are you more of a pessimist? Definitely optimistic. I always see things as an opportunity, too.

5. Which of these names do you like best for a girl: Sunny, Joy, Summer, October, or Autumn? Joy and Autumn.

6. Are you wearing anything yellow right now, and if so, what? One of my bracelets has yellow in it, it's an autism bracelet.

8. When was the last time you made yourself some macaroni and cheese? I don't like macaroni and cheese. I tried it once and no, thanks. :P

9. Would you rather drink fresh-squeezed lemonade, a banana smoothie, or 7-Up? Lemonade.

11. What are three things that make you happy? My cat and cats in general, the beauty of nature, trains.

12. Which one of these words would you say describes you best: optimistic, childlike, childish, flirty, or bright 💡? Optimistic and childish at times, because I still have a sense of humour of a 12 years old boy. :P

13. How many times have you gotten stung by a bee in your lifetime? 🐝 Maybe once or twice, but I've been stung by a wasp more times. And I'm allergic to them.

14. Which of these cartoon characters do you like the most: SpongeBob SquarePants, The Simpsons, Bananas in Pajamas, Pluto (Goofy's dog), or Tweety Bird? Pluto and the Simpsons.

15. List three things you can see in the room right now that are yellow. A highlighter (I prefer using yellow ones, I don't know, the shade is just awesome), grocery bag from Jumbo, box of cookies.

16. Would you rather eat a slice of lemon meringue pie, banana pudding, or a cheese danish? Cheese danish. I didn't know it was called that way, though :D

17. What is your favorite type of cheese? 🧀 Young gouda and mozzarella, in recent years I also got to like emmental.

18. Are you a natural blonde? 👱‍♀️ No, I'm not. I wish I was, though.

19. Have you ever dyed your hair blonde? 👱‍♀️ No, it wouldn't work on my hair without bleaching :(

20. Name three people you know who have natural light blonde hair. My sister, our friend Peggy (her hair is really amazing), and my ex.

21. Is there a hair color you like better than blonde, and if so, what is it? Yeah, red. More like that copper shade.

22. Did you see the April 2024 solar eclipse? No, it was passing through the US :( all I could do was watching a livestream on YouTube.

23. Which of these careers do you think you would enjoy the most: motivational speaker, lifeguard, circus clown 🤡, surfer 🏄, or photographer? Photographer, definitely. It was a really easy choice. :D

24. Have you ever had a yellow lab for a pet? No, but I had a yellowish-beige dog before.

25. Do you like to eat corn on the cob? 🌽 Never tried it.

26. Which of these types of soup do you like best: corn chowder, cheesy broccoli, cheesy potato, or butternut squash? Cheesy broccoli, yum.

27. What is your favorite way to eat eggs? 🍳 Hard-boiled or scrambled.

28. Would you rather visit Spain 🇪🇸, Zimbabwe 🇿🇼, or Venezuela 🇻🇪? Spain, it's been my dream.

29. What are three of your favorite McDonald's menu items? 🍔🍟 Nuggets with barbecue sauce, Filet-O-Fish, and McMuffins (sadly not available in my country, I have to go to France for that :()

30. What are three things you dislike that are yellow? Bananas, mango, dandelions (I'm allergic to them).

31. What is your favorite shade of yellow? Neon yellow (I love neon colours, oh my), cream, lemon, chartreuse yellow.

32. What is your least favorite shade of yellow? That old gold/mustard shade or whatever. Looks like diarrhea to me.

33. What is your favorite way to eat pineapple? 🍍 I don't like pineapples.

34. List three things that you think taste better with butter. �� Potatoes, bread, anything fried on butter (better than oil, in my opinion).

35. Which of these cartoon characters do you like best: Big Bird, Flounder, Charlie Brown, Woodstock, or Donald Duck? Donald Duck.

36. Do you own a pair of rain boots, and if so, what do they look like? No, I don't. Maybe I should, given my country's reputation as very rainy :P

37. Have you ever had a sunflower garden in your yard? 🌻 I had sunflowers in the garden when I was a child. They were cute.

38. Do you prefer dandelions, daffodils, marigolds, daisies, or sunflowers? Daffodils, I have some sentiment to them.

39. How many rubber ducks do you own? None. :P

40. Name someone you know who doesn't like cheese. There was someone I think, but I don't remember right now.

41. Which of these things would you prefer to dress up as for Halloween: a bumblebee 🐝 , Princess Belle, an emoji 😃, candy corn, or Big Bird? I don't celebrate Halloween, so problem solved :P maybe a bumblebee, though.

42. What was the last thing you ate that was yellow? Lemon candy for my throat. And fries before that :P

43. What was the last thing you drank what was yellow? Some kind of fruit juice.

44. Do you own a yellow sweater? No, I don't.

46. When was the last time you ate banana bread? Never, but I ate banana pancakes and they were strangely good, even though I don't like bananas.

47. What are three things you like about the sun? ☀️ It's warm, it shines when there's no clouds in the sky, and it's always nice to see the sun in this rainy country.

48. Do you know anyone who is colorblind and can't see the color yellow? No, I don't.

49. When was the last time you used a highlighter marker to highlight something? Yesterday, for marking the packing list, and today at work, to mark the missing parts for my team leader.

50. What are three things you like that are yellow that haven't already been mentioned? Fries, yellow tulips, yellow curry.

[myzimstore]

[bitcofun]

Lebanese people are now actively carrying out payments in cryptocurrencies, particularly in USDT. As reported by CNBC, Lebanon stands 2nd to Turkey in regards to overall crypto deals that it gets from other nations. As devaluation grips Lebanon, the residents have actually turned towards decentralised systems like cryptocurrencies to sustain their income in the long run. Lebanese people have actually begun accepting digital crypto payments, which have now end up being an essential part of their everyday lives. Lebanese Locals Warms Up To Crypto Lebanese people, according to a current report by CNBC, have actually welcomed cryptocurrencies in an effort to fight the devaluation that the nation has actually been handling for many years. CNBC: in devaluation and chaos in Lebanon, USDT remains in substantial need and can be paid at coffee shops, trips, and electronic devices shops. One dining establishment mentioned that about 30% are paid in crypto, "we transfer cash in cellphones (rather of banks)." https://t.co/jAv0QKVtgz-- Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 5, 2022 The nation is now open up to accepting payments in Tether and is gradually heating up to cryptocurrencies by making it a big part of their daily lives. The report later on includes how Lebanese residents have actually begun to accept payments in USDT, which has now end up being an accepted mode of payment in the area. Per the report, all significant electronic organizations, coffee shops, and dining establishments are now accepting payments in cryptocurrency as the Lebanese pound continues to plunge to brand-new lows. The report likewise describes how Lebanese people have actually begun to utilize Tether to purchase standard life requirements such as groceries and food " The usage of USDT is extensive." There are a great deal of coffee bar, dining establishments, and electronic devices shops that accept USDT as a payment, so that's hassle-free if I require to invest not in fiat however from my bitcoin cost savings. The federal government has much larger issues today than to stress over some shops accepting cryptocurrency. The report later on includes According to the World Bank, Lebanon is fighting among the most extreme recessions, stimulated by the continuous war and civil discontent that the nation has actually been experiencing for many years." The World Bank states Lebanon's financial and monetary crisis is amongst the worst it's seen anywhere in the world because the 1850 s. The United Nations approximates that 78% of the Lebanese population has actually now fallen listed below the hardship line. Goldman Sachs experts approximate losses at the regional banks are around $65 billion to $70 billion, a figure that is 4 times the nation's whole GDP. Fitch jobs inflation increasing to 178% this year-- even worse than in both Venezuela and Zimbabwe-- and there are clashing messages from the federal government's leading brass regarding whether the nation is formally insolvent." However, amidst such plain times of monetary crisis and financial chaos, Lebanese residents have actually discovered hope in the type of cryptocurrency. A number of Lebanese people have actually begun to mine crypto expertly in order to make good earnings. The area's inexpensive electrical power facilities has actually shown to be an advantage for these miners, who are eagerly anticipating increasing their earnings. " If you can get the device and you can get the power, you get the cash," stated Nicholas Shafer, a University of Oxford scholastic studying Lebanon's crypto mining market. According to Chainanalysis, Lebanon has actually taped a substantial rise of 147% in the overall quantity of crypto deals that it processes in the area. The nation is placed just 2nd to Turkey in regards to the volume of cryptocurrency gotten from other nations." If you had your deposit in Lebanon, it's all gone. Who understands just how much of it you will ever see once again? Bitcoin increases and

falls in the worldwide market, however if you self-custody your bitcoin, you constantly have it as a property, and you can utilize it as you see healthy and send it anywhere in the world. It has actually superpowers compared to fiat currency. A Lebanese person informed CNBC Image: Charbel Karam/Unsplash Read More

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/health/mozambique-recovers-from-cyclone-fights-threat-of-cholera/

Mozambique recovers from cyclone, fights threat of cholera

As battered notebook in the lists the people still alive in this village after a devastating cyclone. But sip by sip, a deadly threat remains.

Nearly a month after Cyclone Idai made landfall and unleashed flooding that reached the tops of trees, more than 1,300 people in Bopira have been drinking from the local pond and whatever the muddy waters left behind, including the contents of flooded latrines. The conditions are ripe for deadly disease.

Already a cholera outbreak has been declared in the regional city of Beira, many of whose half-million residents live in slums, and in a few outlying communities where scores of thousands of people now huddle in displacement camps with few toilets and little clean water.

Confirmed cases of the acute diarrheal disease quickly shot from five when it was declared on March 27 into the hundreds and currently is above 3,100, with six deaths.

Now health workers are holding their breath, encouraged by a rapid response in Beira and the restoration of running water there, though it reaches only 60 percent of the city’s residents and some must defecate openly in slums.

“I’m quite optimistic. Yes, honestly,” Julien Graveleau, a cholera specialist with the United Nations who coordinates the post-cyclone water and sanitation relief effort, told The Associated Press. “Of course, the numbers will be increasing but I believe we’re ready for it.”

Plenty of challenges lie ahead. “We have seen one today,” Graveleau said of his visit to Bopira, where he demonstrated how to use a shipment of water filters. But in a week or so the effects of a huge cholera vaccination campaign should start to be seen, he said.

Nearly 900,000 oral cholera vaccines arrived in Beira last week for a mass vaccination that Doctors Without Borders calls “the most ambitious campaign ever conducted using the one-dose oral cholera vaccine strategy.”

The vaccine is normally given in two spaced-out doses but the aid group asserts that one dose is effective in emergencies where it can be difficult to find people for the second. A single dose offers six months of coverage.

Now hundreds of vaccine promoters are said to be active in Beira and elsewhere, messaging with megaphones or handing out the doses in high-traffic areas. Cholera is endemic in Mozambique, a hotspot in Africa along with parts of Congo, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, and many people are familiar with purification tablets and other precautions.

At the popular Shoprite grocery, people knocked back the doses like shots in a bar and walked on. More than 70 percent of the vaccines had been administered as of Sunday morning, Mozambique’s health ministry said.

“We were prepared really for the worst,” said Francisca Baptista da Silva, a project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, which operates cholera treatment centers and oral rehydration centers. “But for the moment we are controlling it.”

She spoke at a cholera treatment center in the worn-down Beira neighborhood of Pioneros, where fetid pools of water remained in the streets and a young woman balancing a bucket of water from a nearby tap stepped carefully around the gray mud.

“It’s a big problem,” said Rosa Zimbane, who was selling bottled water outside the treatment center and reported herself healthy so far.

An ambulance carrying two women with small children was parked at the entrance. Treatment for cholera can be simple rehydration but it must come quickly, as the disease can kill within hours.

More severe cases need intravenous drips, and inside the center more than a dozen people lay on beds with strategically placed holes, with two buckets at the ready. One was for vomiting.

This cholera outbreak is more complicated for people with HIV in a country where some 13 percent of people have the virus, a prevalence considered very high.

The cholera treatment centers are not normally equipped for people with immune systems weakened by HIV, and many people stopped receiving regular care after the cyclone, da Silva said.

Now the cholera treatment centers have basic stocks of antiretroviral drugs and basic testing for depressed immune systems, said Dr. Katrien Duquet at the Pioneros center.

Overall the medical charity had been expecting more cholera cases, project coordinator da Silva said. “It never spiked to the level we thought.” Such spikes occur two to three weeks after an outbreak.

The dry season that begins in the coming weeks is expected to help contain the disease across the region.

And yet health workers are not relaxing. Outlying areas like the riverside town of Buzi, where disease surveillance is much weaker, remain a concern.

“People are still afraid of cholera,” da Silva said. “We are not claiming this is over.”

———

Associated Press photographer Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi in Beira, Mozambique, contributed.

[michaelbennettcrypto]

Is It Worth Buying Bitcoin Now?

After watching Bitcoin’s astronomical rise from $997.69 at the start of 2017 to the current value of $15,429.68, as of January 2nd, 2018, it is safe to say that many people have suddenly taken notice of cryptocurrency and are eager to buy Bitcoin for future gains.

Bitcoin has made many headlines in 2017. What’s the buzz?

It is highly unusual for any commodity, let alone a currency, to appreciate by 1,410 percent year-on-year. The average market gain for all stocks is around 7 percent, so it is no wonder that a great deal of discussion has centered around the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was invented on January 3rd, 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto whose identity is still unknown. Speculation abounds as to who Nakamoto is, and many also believe that Nakamoto is a single alias used by a whole group of programmers.

The purpose of Bitcoin was to be a currency that did not rely on banks or intermediaries to be owned, but could instead be transferred by peer-to-peer networks – this is what is meant by a decentralized currency. Bitcoins are created through the encoding of private and public cryptographic keys, a process that requires supercomputers to crunch through a bewilderingly high number of calculations every second. This is what secures the Blockchain network – the fact that it would take immense processing power to defraud the network – more processing power than any individual has. Only 21-million Bitcoins will ever be created.

Initially, not many people took notice of Bitcoin, as its technical nature made some people reluctant to understand it, and its lack of a central issuing authority, such as a bank, made others hesitant to invest in it or use it as a currency.  However, a rise of 1,410 percent in a given year is hard to ignore, especially when new millionaires are being created practically overnight. This is why 2017 has been a year for Bitcoin to break into the public consciousness.

By how much has Bitcoin’s value appreciated and depreciated historically and in 2017?

According to World Coin Index, Bitcoin is prone to sharp rises and sharp, sudden falls. Initially, Bitcoin’s value was insignificant. On March 17th, 2010, BitcoinMarket.com listed a sale price of $0.003 per Bitcoin or 333 BTC for $1. Over a year later, on April 22, 2011, Bitcoin reached the value of 1 USD. The first major ‘bubble’ price it reached was $31 and then dropped to $2. The second major bubble was $266, then it fell to $70. The third bubble took it as high as $1,242 on November 29th, 2013. After this crash, it rarely returned to the $1,000 mark, reaching as low as $200 in March 2015 but usually staying in between $500 and $800.

This trend held true right through to the end of 2016, breaking the $1,000 mark again only on January 1st, 2017. By November 28th, 2017, Bitcoin was at $10,000 and rising.

Will this year bring Bitcoin’s fourth price bubble?

What are some threats to Bitcoin?

As you can see from the price fluctuations, Bitcoin is a very volatile currency. No one knows what its value will even be tomorrow, let alone a week from now.  This makes Bitcoin very unsuitable as a currency. This is similar to national currencies where there is hyperinflation, which is what happened in Zimbabwe in 2009. Eventually, after printing notes worth one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars, Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank stopped printing its national currency as it was completely inappropriate for people to bring wheelbarrow-loads of money into stores to do their grocery shopping.  What this means for users is that investing in Bitcoin right now is very like gambling – highly speculative.

Another threat that has recently emerged is the processing fees of Bitcoin. At the moment, the Bitcoin network can only process four transactions per second. At the start of the year 2017, some exchanges charged 19 US cents to get your transaction confirmed within an hour. At the time of writing, it costs almost $17 to process within an hour, or just under $29 to have it processed within ten minutes. The graph of transaction costs closely resembles the graph of the value of Bitcoin itself.

Currently, according to The Motley Fool, Bitcoin is illegal in six countries – Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and most recently, Morocco. Furthermore, Russia’s finance ministry suggested in September 2017 that they may soon ban payments in Cryptocurrency, too. Each country that makes Bitcoin illegal is a risk to the value of Bitcoin because it decreases investors’ confidence.

Other possible threats to the price of Bitcoin include loss of appeal. Big businesses no longer accepting Bitcoin, hackers targeting large Bitcoin exchanges in order to illegally steal Bitcoin, and the fact that many investors are individuals rather than firms mean that any bad news about Bitcoin is likely to have a snowball effect – just as the good news throughout 2017 has arguably done.

Who thinks investing in Bitcoin is a good idea, and why?

According to ARS Technica, Bitcoin may well not be a classical investor bubble. Bitcoin has so far recovered from all of its shocks, each time becoming higher. This consistent recovery of Bitcoin over the years, along with the durability of the global Internet, suggests that the network won’t be shut down, nor will confidence suddenly plummet to zero. Finally, it is actually possible to print your own keys on paper, so non-digital storage is possible, too.

So, should you buy Bitcoins now?

Some believe the safest option for individuals without specialist trading knowledge is the ‘buying and holding’ method with which you should never invest more than 1 percent of your net worth, use your own hardware or paper ‘wallet’, and, instead of buying all your Bitcoins in one transaction, rather buy a fixed number every day, week or month until you reach your intended amount.

To buy Bitcoins easily you can turn to cryptocurrency exchanges like CEX.IO that offer a variety of trading options and operate in most countries. CEX.IO stands out for its useful feature of buying cryptocurrency with a payment card, be it VISA or MasterCard. By linking one or several cards to the account, CEX.IO users are able to carry out purchasing operations faster and with no risk as the exchange possesses the PCI DSS certificate (Level 2), which indicates safe processing of the cardholder data. Apart from the credit card payment option, CEX.IO also supports wire transfers and CryptoCapital transactions to provide the comfort of use and improve customer experience on the platform.

In the end, it is up to you to decide whether it is worth spending your hard-earned money and buying Bitcoin now. The only advice that should be running in your mind – Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

The post Is It Worth Buying Bitcoin Now? appeared first on NewsBTC.

from Cryptocracken WP http://ift.tt/2CA1r3z via IFTTT

[brettzjacksonblog]

Is It Worth Buying Bitcoin Now?

After watching Bitcoin’s astronomical rise from $997.69 at the start of 2017 to the current value of $15,429.68, as of January 2nd, 2018, it is safe to say that many people have suddenly taken notice of cryptocurrency and are eager to buy Bitcoin for future gains.

Bitcoin has made many headlines in 2017. What’s the buzz?

It is highly unusual for any commodity, let alone a currency, to appreciate by 1,410 percent year-on-year. The average market gain for all stocks is around 7 percent, so it is no wonder that a great deal of discussion has centered around the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was invented on January 3rd, 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto whose identity is still unknown. Speculation abounds as to who Nakamoto is, and many also believe that Nakamoto is a single alias used by a whole group of programmers.

The purpose of Bitcoin was to be a currency that did not rely on banks or intermediaries to be owned, but could instead be transferred by peer-to-peer networks – this is what is meant by a decentralized currency. Bitcoins are created through the encoding of private and public cryptographic keys, a process that requires supercomputers to crunch through a bewilderingly high number of calculations every second. This is what secures the Blockchain network – the fact that it would take immense processing power to defraud the network – more processing power than any individual has. Only 21-million Bitcoins will ever be created.

Initially, not many people took notice of Bitcoin, as its technical nature made some people reluctant to understand it, and its lack of a central issuing authority, such as a bank, made others hesitant to invest in it or use it as a currency.  However, a rise of 1,410 percent in a given year is hard to ignore, especially when new millionaires are being created practically overnight. This is why 2017 has been a year for Bitcoin to break into the public consciousness.

By how much has Bitcoin’s value appreciated and depreciated historically and in 2017?

According to World Coin Index, Bitcoin is prone to sharp rises and sharp, sudden falls. Initially, Bitcoin’s value was insignificant. On March 17th, 2010, BitcoinMarket.com listed a sale price of $0.003 per Bitcoin or 333 BTC for $1. Over a year later, on April 22, 2011, Bitcoin reached the value of 1 USD. The first major ‘bubble’ price it reached was $31 and then dropped to $2. The second major bubble was $266, then it fell to $70. The third bubble took it as high as $1,242 on November 29th, 2013. After this crash, it rarely returned to the $1,000 mark, reaching as low as $200 in March 2015 but usually staying in between $500 and $800.

This trend held true right through to the end of 2016, breaking the $1,000 mark again only on January 1st, 2017. By November 28th, 2017, Bitcoin was at $10,000 and rising.

Will this year bring Bitcoin’s fourth price bubble?

What are some threats to Bitcoin?

As you can see from the price fluctuations, Bitcoin is a very volatile currency. No one knows what its value will even be tomorrow, let alone a week from now.  This makes Bitcoin very unsuitable as a currency. This is similar to national currencies where there is hyperinflation, which is what happened in Zimbabwe in 2009. Eventually, after printing notes worth one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars, Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank stopped printing its national currency as it was completely inappropriate for people to bring wheelbarrow-loads of money into stores to do their grocery shopping.  What this means for users is that investing in Bitcoin right now is very like gambling – highly speculative.

Another threat that has recently emerged is the processing fees of Bitcoin. At the moment, the Bitcoin network can only process four transactions per second. At the start of the year 2017, some exchanges charged 19 US cents to get your transaction confirmed within an hour. At the time of writing, it costs almost $17 to process within an hour, or just under $29 to have it processed within ten minutes. The graph of transaction costs closely resembles the graph of the value of Bitcoin itself.

Currently, according to The Motley Fool, Bitcoin is illegal in six countries – Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and most recently, Morocco. Furthermore, Russia’s finance ministry suggested in September 2017 that they may soon ban payments in Cryptocurrency, too. Each country that makes Bitcoin illegal is a risk to the value of Bitcoin because it decreases investors’ confidence.

Other possible threats to the price of Bitcoin include loss of appeal. Big businesses no longer accepting Bitcoin, hackers targeting large Bitcoin exchanges in order to illegally steal Bitcoin, and the fact that many investors are individuals rather than firms mean that any bad news about Bitcoin is likely to have a snowball effect – just as the good news throughout 2017 has arguably done.

Who thinks investing in Bitcoin is a good idea, and why?

According to ARS Technica, Bitcoin may well not be a classical investor bubble. Bitcoin has so far recovered from all of its shocks, each time becoming higher. This consistent recovery of Bitcoin over the years, along with the durability of the global Internet, suggests that the network won’t be shut down, nor will confidence suddenly plummet to zero. Finally, it is actually possible to print your own keys on paper, so non-digital storage is possible, too.

So, should you buy Bitcoins now?

Some believe the safest option for individuals without specialist trading knowledge is the ‘buying and holding’ method with which you should never invest more than 1 percent of your net worth, use your own hardware or paper ‘wallet’, and, instead of buying all your Bitcoins in one transaction, rather buy a fixed number every day, week or month until you reach your intended amount.

To buy Bitcoins easily you can turn to cryptocurrency exchanges like CEX.IO that offer a variety of trading options and operate in most countries. CEX.IO stands out for its useful feature of buying cryptocurrency with a payment card, be it VISA or MasterCard. By linking one or several cards to the account, CEX.IO users are able to carry out purchasing operations faster and with no risk as the exchange possesses the PCI DSS certificate (Level 2), which indicates safe processing of the cardholder data. Apart from the credit card payment option, CEX.IO also supports wire transfers and CryptoCapital transactions to provide the comfort of use and improve customer experience on the platform.

In the end, it is up to you to decide whether it is worth spending your hard-earned money and buying Bitcoin now. The only advice that should be running in your mind – Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

The post Is It Worth Buying Bitcoin Now? appeared first on NewsBTC.

from CryptoCracken SMFeed http://ift.tt/2CA1r3z via IFTTT

[joshuajacksonlyblog]

Is It Worth Buying Bitcoin Now?

After watching Bitcoin’s astronomical rise from $997.69 at the start of 2017 to the current value of $15,429.68, as of January 2nd, 2018, it is safe to say that many people have suddenly taken notice of cryptocurrency and are eager to buy Bitcoin for future gains.

Bitcoin has made many headlines in 2017. What’s the buzz?

It is highly unusual for any commodity, let alone a currency, to appreciate by 1,410 percent year-on-year. The average market gain for all stocks is around 7 percent, so it is no wonder that a great deal of discussion has centered around the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was invented on January 3rd, 2009 by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto whose identity is still unknown. Speculation abounds as to who Nakamoto is, and many also believe that Nakamoto is a single alias used by a whole group of programmers.

The purpose of Bitcoin was to be a currency that did not rely on banks or intermediaries to be owned, but could instead be transferred by peer-to-peer networks – this is what is meant by a decentralized currency. Bitcoins are created through the encoding of private and public cryptographic keys, a process that requires supercomputers to crunch through a bewilderingly high number of calculations every second. This is what secures the Blockchain network – the fact that it would take immense processing power to defraud the network – more processing power than any individual has. Only 21-million Bitcoins will ever be created.

Initially, not many people took notice of Bitcoin, as its technical nature made some people reluctant to understand it, and its lack of a central issuing authority, such as a bank, made others hesitant to invest in it or use it as a currency.  However, a rise of 1,410 percent in a given year is hard to ignore, especially when new millionaires are being created practically overnight. This is why 2017 has been a year for Bitcoin to break into the public consciousness.

By how much has Bitcoin’s value appreciated and depreciated historically and in 2017?

According to World Coin Index, Bitcoin is prone to sharp rises and sharp, sudden falls. Initially, Bitcoin’s value was insignificant. On March 17th, 2010, BitcoinMarket.com listed a sale price of $0.003 per Bitcoin or 333 BTC for $1. Over a year later, on April 22, 2011, Bitcoin reached the value of 1 USD. The first major ‘bubble’ price it reached was $31 and then dropped to $2. The second major bubble was $266, then it fell to $70. The third bubble took it as high as $1,242 on November 29th, 2013. After this crash, it rarely returned to the $1,000 mark, reaching as low as $200 in March 2015 but usually staying in between $500 and $800.

This trend held true right through to the end of 2016, breaking the $1,000 mark again only on January 1st, 2017. By November 28th, 2017, Bitcoin was at $10,000 and rising.

Will this year bring Bitcoin’s fourth price bubble?

What are some threats to Bitcoin?

As you can see from the price fluctuations, Bitcoin is a very volatile currency. No one knows what its value will even be tomorrow, let alone a week from now.  This makes Bitcoin very unsuitable as a currency. This is similar to national currencies where there is hyperinflation, which is what happened in Zimbabwe in 2009. Eventually, after printing notes worth one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollars, Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank stopped printing its national currency as it was completely inappropriate for people to bring wheelbarrow-loads of money into stores to do their grocery shopping.  What this means for users is that investing in Bitcoin right now is very like gambling – highly speculative.

Another threat that has recently emerged is the processing fees of Bitcoin. At the moment, the Bitcoin network can only process four transactions per second. At the start of the year 2017, some exchanges charged 19 US cents to get your transaction confirmed within an hour. At the time of writing, it costs almost $17 to process within an hour, or just under $29 to have it processed within ten minutes. The graph of transaction costs closely resembles the graph of the value of Bitcoin itself.

Currently, according to The Motley Fool, Bitcoin is illegal in six countries – Bolivia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and most recently, Morocco. Furthermore, Russia’s finance ministry suggested in September 2017 that they may soon ban payments in Cryptocurrency, too. Each country that makes Bitcoin illegal is a risk to the value of Bitcoin because it decreases investors’ confidence.

Other possible threats to the price of Bitcoin include loss of appeal. Big businesses no longer accepting Bitcoin, hackers targeting large Bitcoin exchanges in order to illegally steal Bitcoin, and the fact that many investors are individuals rather than firms mean that any bad news about Bitcoin is likely to have a snowball effect – just as the good news throughout 2017 has arguably done.

Who thinks investing in Bitcoin is a good idea, and why?

According to ARS Technica, Bitcoin may well not be a classical investor bubble. Bitcoin has so far recovered from all of its shocks, each time becoming higher. This consistent recovery of Bitcoin over the years, along with the durability of the global Internet, suggests that the network won’t be shut down, nor will confidence suddenly plummet to zero. Finally, it is actually possible to print your own keys on paper, so non-digital storage is possible, too.

So, should you buy Bitcoins now?

Some believe the safest option for individuals without specialist trading knowledge is the ‘buying and holding’ method with which you should never invest more than 1 percent of your net worth, use your own hardware or paper ‘wallet’, and, instead of buying all your Bitcoins in one transaction, rather buy a fixed number every day, week or month until you reach your intended amount.

To buy Bitcoins easily you can turn to cryptocurrency exchanges like CEX.IO that offer a variety of trading options and operate in most countries. CEX.IO stands out for its useful feature of buying cryptocurrency with a payment card, be it VISA or MasterCard. By linking one or several cards to the account, CEX.IO users are able to carry out purchasing operations faster and with no risk as the exchange possesses the PCI DSS certificate (Level 2), which indicates safe processing of the cardholder data. Apart from the credit card payment option, CEX.IO also supports wire transfers and CryptoCapital transactions to provide the comfort of use and improve customer experience on the platform.

In the end, it is up to you to decide whether it is worth spending your hard-earned money and buying Bitcoin now. The only advice that should be running in your mind – Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

The post Is It Worth Buying Bitcoin Now? appeared first on NewsBTC.

from Cryptocracken Tumblr http://ift.tt/2CA1r3z via IFTTT

[drtanstravels]

The year 2020 was initially going to be an epic one for Anna and myself with a ton of travelling involved, due solely to the fact that a lot of ophthalmological conferences and other eye-related organisations wanted to take advantage of the potential for 20/20 vision puns. The year started relatively normally, first boarding a ship in Sydney in mid-January and cruising to to New Caledonia and back for my friend’s 40th birthday and then celebrating Chinese New Year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia almost as soon as we got back. The next month we spent a few days in Mexico before making our way to San Diego so Anna could be inducted into the Macula Society, but that all seems like a distant memory at this point in time. In fact, the idea of taking a cruise ship now just seems insane and it appears as if people will forever now question their decision to get on a giant boat with several thousand other people, but it will have nothing to do with the possibility of seasickness or even the ship sinking. In fact, at the end of March there were still more than 10 cruise ships and 10,000 passengers stranded at sea, all unable to dock anywhere because of the risk of Covid-19.

We definitely dodged a bullet with the ship, but so far a lot of our plans for the first half of the year have been dashed; by the end of July we were supposed to have traveled to China, South Korea, Taiwan, USA again, Ireland, Philippines, Thailand, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The bulk of those were for Anna’s work, Philippines was a local holiday in place of a canceled conference to use already booked leave, Thailand was a wedding, and both Tanzania and Zimbabwe were for a Safari to celebrate Anna’s 40th birthday which incidentally happens to coincide with a conference that was supposed be held in Cape Town, South Africa. Now we’re not even certain when we’ll be able to go shopping, eat in a restaurant, or just hang out normally with friends again. Maybe the current situation is the new normal for the foreseeable future, but one thing is for sure — I’m certainly glad we’re stuck in Singapore during this pandemic, because the government here got on top of the whole coronavirus thing early, first taking action on January 2 when mandatory temperature checks were issued at Changi airport for passengers arriving from Wuhan and all passengers from China two and a half weeks later. Regardless, the first coronavirus case was reported in Singapore on Thursday, January 23. In an interesting twist, the 12th reported case in Singapore was apparently a prostitute from Wuhan, China, having visited two red-light districts and stayed in three-different hotels, one with hourly rates, with different men.

I sure am glad we got to skip all that

On Friday, January 24 we were set to travel to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for Chinese New Year with Anna’s family, but that was also the first day that mandatory temperature checks at all Singapore borders were enforced due to the first case in the country the previous day so we were met at the airport with insane hold ups (right). Fortunately for us, with all of the flying we do we are classed as Priority Passengers when we fly with Singapore Airlines and other Krisflyer affiliates so we got to skip the queues, check in, have our temperature scanned, and be on our way. This was well before the US had even considered the possibility of taking any measures on the coronavirus, but it wasn’t like they were oblivious to what was going on in other parts of the world; I posted these photos of some of our Chinese New Year dishes on several Facebook food pages (unfortunately, I don’t have links to the exact pages) and the responses generally weren’t all that positive, mainly because of the belief that Covid-19 started as the result of people eating bat soup in rural China:

Steamed fish

Braised chicken

Suckling pig

It was mainly the picture of the chicken that got the attention, but all of the meat dishes were served with the heads merely for presentation and, with the exception of the fish, the head isn’t consumed. Fish heads have been eaten by the poor in both Eastern and Western culture for centuries, but pig heads are a little too crunchy, and if any of the detractors had tasted the chicken without being able to see its cranium, they would more than likely agree that it was one of the better braised chicken dishes they had ever been served, but that didn’t stop the onslaught of hate and racist comments, ranging from, “That’s why you have coronavirus,” to “We need to nuke China!!!” and everything in between. When I clarified that these pictures were taken in Malaysia, not China, the same arguments constantly came up, with people claiming it is the same place. That’s funny, because it takes six hours to fly from KL to Beijing, whereas the flight from Toronto to Mexico City is shorter, yet Canada and Mexico are not generally considered “the same place.” Other detractors on the pages just pointed out that there is a Chinese woman in one of the photos so it must be in China. When I clicked on the profiles of those posting the worst comments, they were almost always Americans so the the citizens there obviously knew there was trouble afoot. It’s strange that the country with the chicken head on the plate is doing far better when it comes to handling the virus than the US currently is.

A screenshot of genuine WHO advice received on January 28

We returned to Singapore on the evening of Monday, January 27 and when we had stopped laughing at the World Health Organization’s advice on reducing infection (left) the following day, we decided to go grocery shopping. Definitely a good decision. On Friday, February 7 the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (DORSCON) level was raised from Yellow to Orange, putting us in a position where the future was rather unclear. This meant that all healthcare workers were from then on required to take and submit their temperature twice per day in order to prove they hadn’t developed a fever. For the general population, however, that’s when the panic-buying began. Now, I’ve watched enough TV shows and movies that begin with similar events including Outbreak, The Stand, and Shaun of the Dead so I thought I knew the type of stuff people would be hoarding in a time when a virus makes the future a little uncertain; bottled water, canned food, pasta, rice, batteries, that type of thing, but it turned out that those items weren’t that high on the general population’s shopping lists. People here mainly wanted toilet paper and at first I thought it was just the local mentality, but it would eventually turn out to be a global thing. Back when I was in university I had no money so I learnt quickly that many things can be used as toilet paper — I used to use the free Melbourne street-press in desperate situations and then have a shower to wash the newspaper ink off my backside afterwards. Many things can be substituted for toilet paper, but very few can be food, yet that was secondary on most people’s collective minds. Once the toilet paper had run dry that’s when the kiasu mentality kicked in on all other goods. I’ve mentioned ‘kiasu’ before, but for those who don’t know what it means and can’t be bothered clicking that link and scrolling down, here’s the definition:

kiasu

ˈkjɑːsuː/

adjective

1. (of a person) having a grasping or selfish attitude arising from a fear of missing out on something: “kiasu parents enrol their kids in more and more tuition classes.”

noun

1. a grasping, selfish attitude.

Origin: From Hokkien (驚輸 POJ: kiaⁿ-su, kiaⁿ-si); literally: “afraid to lose”

Despite being told time and time again to stay calm and that hoarding goods wasn’t at all necessary, people started taking all of the items on the shelves that they could possibly fit in their car and filled up rooms in their homes to the point that they could start up their own convenience stores. However, if you take a look at the videos in that link, you will see that for some there wasn’t a whole lot of logic involved, especially the people who were essentially just stocking up on condiments and expensive, auspicious foodstuffs. Of course, this idea backfired for a lot of people when it became clear that supermarkets weren’t going to close, especially for those who had stashed perishables and then later had their requests for refunds rejected when their food rotted, as fresh vegetables tend to do over time.

It was Friday, February 14 when we flew out to Mexico and California, going through all of the temperature screenings again as we left Singapore, but absolutely no safety measures whatsoever when we arrived at LAX. When we were to fly back from the US to Singapore more than a week later, after stocking up on hand sanitiser in San Diego, another commodity rapidly becoming in short supply in Singapore at the time, we drove to the airport and were herded into large groups and searched for drugs going out of Los Angeles, but still they didn’t particularly seem all that bothered by people’s health. Kind of unusual, because not long after we had returned to Singapore, a couple of my friends here were put under 14-days home quarantine because one of them had been to the same gym on the same day as a reported Covid-19 case. This action wasn’t taken lightly by the Singapore government, either, as they were subjected to multiple random visits and calls throughout the day without warning, the phone calls requesting they send their GPS coordinates to confirm they hadn’t left the house. In the most Singaporean story possible, one of the first people charged under the Infectious Disease act with breaching a mandatory stay-home notice was a man who was being quarantined for 14 days at home after returning from Myanmar, but felt he just needed to go out and eat bak kuh teh, a regional pork rib soup dish. In a sign of how seriously the Singapore government is taking its quarantine measures, the case went to court, he will be sentenced on April 23, and the Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Chin urged the court to sentence him to at least 10 to 12 weeks’ jail to “reflect the seriousness of the offence” and deter others from committing a similar act! In slightly more subtle measures, Anna developed a runny nose 13 days after our return to Singapore so she had to go to the hospital for a rather painful nasal swab and then we waited until the next day for the results, hoping there wouldn’t be any men in hazmat suits knocking on our door to take us away. The results came back clear, but she was still given five days mandatory sick leave, all because we had been overseas in the previous 14 days.

Temperature checks when entering any public building in Singapore became the norm in mid to late February so even if you went to a shopping mall, you would be screened and then certified with a sticker placed on the sleeve of your clothing to confirm your temperature was in a healthy range. This made shopping in major areas kind of amusing, because you could look at a person’s clothes and see how many different malls they had visited, some of the more obsessive shoppers appearing as if a game of Connect-4 had been played on them. It was Tuesday, March 24 that it was announced that the beginning of the end had officially begun — As of the Thursday, March 26, all entertainment outlets, nightclubs, bars, places of worship, attractions, and tuition centres would be closed and a S$10,000 (US$7000.00) fine and/or six months imprisonment penalty put in place for offending operators, however, eateries could remain open, meaning you could still go out for a drink if the venue was licensed as a restaurant and wasn’t showing anything on screens or playing music. This entertainment closure even specifically included “Axe-Throwing Centres,” something I didn’t even know was a thing here. In fact, I can’t recall ever even having seen an axe for sale in Singapore, let alone someone throwing one! Boy, is my finger not on the pulse:

A huge blow to the axe-throwing industry

Social distancing measures were brought in as well at that time, there needed to be a space of one metre (3’4″) between people and groups hanging out together could consist of no more than 10 individuals and they were still required to be spaced a metre apart. We knew at that time the end was near and then it happened. The Prime Minister gave a formal announcement on Friday, April 3 saying that as of Tuesday, April 7 a “circuit breaker” would be put into place for at least four weeks and that is where we are now. What’s this circuit breaker I hear you ask in your internal monologue? Well, it is a stricter set of laws that means all non-essential business and workplaces are closed, schools are also closed and have become home-based learning, and any food and drink establishment has become takeaway or delivery only. To add to all of this, everybody is required to stay at home except for essential tasks such as buying necessary goods, dog-walking, or forms of solo exercise and if you do leave your abode, there is a S$300.00 (US$210.00) fine for not wearing a face mask when you do so, increasing after the first offence. For a little perspective, Florida Govenor Ron DeSantis has extended “essential services” to include professional wrestling matches of all things. Anna had managed to purchase some masks online for us when the outbreak first happened and the government also delegated four reusable masks per person per household, but the reusable masks are just too small for me; my big nose makes the mask painfully pull my ears forward, while the surface area of the mask only allows me to speak through clenched teeth like a ventriloquist, otherwise my aforementioned massive nose pops out over the top. Fortunately for us, the circuit breaker was announced with a few days warning so we had time to think of some hobbies to fill in our homestay. I enjoy art and have always loved Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting, every episode of which is currently available on YouTube, so I showed Anna a couple of episodes and she was keen to take up landscape painting, however, we have recently sold our apartment, yet are still staying in it and I can’t see us successfully being able to paint all that cleanly so she opted for sewing instead. This meant going to Spotlight to buy some supplies and a sewing machine to get started, also finding that they sold wall art of a dog that eerily resembled ours in the process, and while we were in the mall I decided to purchase a PS4 so I could play video games in between tasks, chores, and errands while Anna was making Tim-sized masks among other things. The only problem was that, while the rest of the world had only recently caught up and were panic-buying toilet paper, Singaporeans had moved on to purchasing emergency gaming consoles. They were sold out everywhere! We still got the sewing machine, as well as a case of beer and some other groceries, but those larger items in a trolley with some stuff from the supermarket would have given the impression to others that we were doomsday prepping too. The following day was the last feeling of freedom we would experience for at least a month so I walked into town to visit Funan, a mall specialising in electronics, with the intention of buy a PS4, but it was impossible to find one anywhere, the stores had just resorted to putting signs out the front saying that all consoles were sold out, they even had very few games, so all hope was lost… or so I thought. The last store I tried was Best, a chain of electronics stores, and I saw a display box in a cabinet so I thought I may as well ask, only to be met with a reply of “sold out.” Upon closer inspection, it appeared as if the security seal was still on the box so I asked the elderly man working in that department if I could see the box in the cabinet and the look on the employees’ collective faces confirmed my suspicions, I may have found one of the very last PlayStations in Singapore, complete with five games including an old favourite of mine, Grand Theft Auto V. I took it over to a younger, dumbfounded cashier, he opened up the box and told me that the membership included would have expired so he knocked an extra S$50.00 (US$35.00) off the price, an action that was met with death-stares from all of the other male customers in my immediate vicinity. I tried to play it down by blatantly lying and saying that the PS4 was for my non-existent son, but that didn’t really clear the air with the other shoppers. A few scenes from the days before the circuit breaker kicked in:

The line in front of me at the butcher just so I can buy meat for our dog…

…and the line behind me

Whomever is responsible for creating example pieces at Spotlight Singapore should be fired!

I don’t recall having anyone come into our apartment to take photos recently, except for a real estate agent

It really does look like I’m hoarding stuff…

…but there’s a slab and a sewing machine in there

Things are looking bleak

Even if I were lucky, not a whole lot available in the way of games, either

These masks simply don’t fit

So, since we’ve been put on a stay at home notice, Anna and I have both been collectively losing our minds and we’re only a little over a week in. After we went grocery shopping we decided to clean out our cupboards and fridge to store food more easily and that’s when we realised that we probably should’ve cleared out our kitchen a lot earlier. Besides many other outdated goods, we found some baking soda that expired in 2015, a bottle of Sriracha sauce that was so old that it had turned dark brown, and some grated cheese in the freezer that should’ve been thrown out more than two years ago. However, after a little research we discovered that the cheese expiry only counts if it’s stored sealed in the fridge, but frozen, grated mozzarella lasts indefinitely so I later used it to cook with and we’re still here. The next day I plugged in the PS4, downloaded NBA 2K20, and tried to create my own player by scanning my face and it does resemble me, but only if I had recently suffered a stroke, mainly due to the fact that I was staring into a light while doing the facial scanning. It’s still a bit of fun, though. The last major event was that eight days into quarantine there was an internet outage islandwide, but Anna thought it may have just been our place so she tried the old adage of “turn it off and on again” to get the modem restarted. The only problem was that she didn’t turn the devices off individually, she decided to just turn everything off at the wall, an event that stopped our TV from working again. Initially we thought she may have blown a fuse, but when a repairman was able to come over three hours later with us sans internet or TV, we were informed that the circuitboard was burnt out, would need to be replaced for a substantial amount of cash, and wouldn’t be ready for another four days. We do have a second older and smaller TV that we are now using in the meantime, but its screen is pretty burnt out too, with weird, snowy white patches all over it and only watchable from directly in front, otherwise appearing to be a cloudy version of a negative picture. Cool. Some of the latest images from our quarantine:

Our five-year old baking soda

This was about three years past its date, too

The internet outage that resulted in Anna killing our TV

The old replacement TV when viewed from the front

Now viewed from the side

The side view adjusted for angle

If you’ve made it this far through the story of living in Singapore during Covid-19, then congratulations. The beginning of this post says that we made some amusing and interesting discoveries during the pandemic thus far so here they are, my equivalent of tl;dr for this post:

Don’t have unprotected sex with animals, wild or otherwise, if you want to avoid contracting the coronavirus

A large portion of the Covid-19 virus in Singapore was initially more than likely spread by a hooker

Eating bak kuh teh has the potential to land you in jail

Axe-throwing is a game here

People panic-buy gaming consoles in Singapore too

Some also tried to return hoarded goods for a refund when they rotted

Frozen cheese lasts indefinitely

Florida classes pro-wrestling as an “essential service”

Watching our current TV is how people with cataracts would probably experience it

There’s at least almost three more weeks left of quarantine officially remaining here and I still think that is a little optimistic so I’m almost certain there will be a sequel to this post. In the meantime, to give you something to which you can look forward, I came up with an idea that I am certain someone else would’ve thought of as well — Although I’m not a particularly hairy person, I’m not going to shave or cut my hair until I’m allowed to hang out with friends in public again, and I will take a photo in the same pose as an earlier one to show the results of my complete lack of hard work, a la the Beatles:

(image source)

Dealing with Covid-19 has been a trying time, but we've made some interesting and amusing discoveries in the process The year 2020 was initially going to be an epic one for Anna and myself with a ton of travelling involved, due solely to the fact that a lot of ophthalmological conferences and other eye-related organisations wanted to take advantage of the potential for 20/20 vision puns.

[shirlleycoyle]

Doomsday Prepper Store Has a Hot New Product: Flour

While the global coronavirus pandemic has caused some Americans to consider how to use it to accelerate the collapse of society and others to line up in droves to buy ammunition, one army-surplus store is pushing an unlikely product on its customers: Flour.

KommandoStore, which operates out of St. Paul, Minnesota, is providing all the doomsday goods one would expect. It offers gas masks, protective rubber gloves, premade meals, respirators, and Rhodesian military patches—popular tokens among white supremacists who glorify the former African state, which had a white minority government that brutally ruled over what is now Zimbabwe. It's also hawking a 50-pound bag of flour for less than $25, for the prepper who hasn't bothered to prep.

"It's not the 50s, the food pyramid doesn't go bread, bread, bread, meat, bread anymore," copy on its site reads. "However when the trucks stop rolling and uber eats stops delivering what are you going to do?"

KommandoStore, which declined to comment on its sale of Rhodesian military patches, told VICE that it wasn’t able to respond to press inquiries because it was “prioritizing our existing effort to distribute PPE inventory at cost to hospitals/EMS etc.” Recently, it said it had diverted a stash of personal protective equipment worth over $300,000 to hospitals and emergency services after a Twitter follower accused the store of "spreading fear" and being in position to profit from the pandemic.

That it would be getting into the flour game, though, makes a certain amount of sense.

As hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people stock up on whatever they can buy (flooding survival stores in the progress), preppers are finally getting their chance to see how they’re planning has held up. Some are doing their best to use what they learned to help others get through the pandemic. Others look down at the lowly “panic buyers.” Many, though, are coming to the realization that maybe, just maybe, they didn’t prepare all that well themselves.

The pitch for flour stockpiling—not typically offered at Army-surplus stores—comes on the heels of the booming bread craze, which has caused flour shortages in some grocery stores in the U.S. These stores are popular among doomsday preppers, who buy purportedly essential survival gear like gas masks, army-certified attire, and long-lasting food rations.

Plenty of vendors are offering variants of military Meals Ready to Eat (MREs). Bradley’s Surplus, for example, a popular army-surplus store, lists MREs as one of its current best sellers. My Patriot Supply, a well-known prepper site that proclaims “It's Not Just Food, It's Freedom,” is advertising a 30-day food supply package stacked with flour products called the “Ready Hour,” but has sold out of its emergency crates of food and survival tools.

For its part, KommandoStore offers mass bundles for preppers looking to stockpile up to 500 days worth of wheat flour for multiple people.

"While many people already have 3 or 6 months of emergency food on hand," the site's sales pitch reads, "many many households have been caught off guard by recent events—and many people are scrambling to play catch up." It goes on to suggest over 13 uses for flour, including pound cake, gougere, and pasta.

Recent posts online within the doomsday prepper community suggest deep concerns about what they're eating in these times of coronavirus pandemic—and lots of people who could use a good pound cake. Some, it seems, may just have misjudged just how many supplies they needed to feed themselves in their personal stockpiles.

In a post on a prepper subreddit, one user lamented how fast their supplies were already dwindling.

“Is anyone else shocked by how quickly their prep supplies go when they actually use them? It’s actually quite alarming,” wrote user best_damn_milkshake. “What I thought was a three month supply of beef/chicken/pork and canned veggies and fruit is turning out to be about a month and a half. It’s making me realize if this lockdown situation gets much worse we’re totally and completely fucked.”

It’s unsurprising, of course, that worries run rampant on a subreddit dedicated to a community based around worrying about a future event. The struggle, though, is real.

“I guess prepping was more of a fun hobby to keep my time occupied, but now that it may be a trait that is useful I feel like a novice,” wrote another user who had to go to the store because they forgot to stock up on pet food and cans.

While preparing to have the essentials during a time like this is prudent, some preppers exude an almost overwhelming aurora of smugness. Many have used online forums to express their glee about how well they’re handling the pandemic and ridicule those who used to mock them. One long-time user actually bailed on the community because it became “too full of smug and down-talk.”

However, even among these (more or less) diligent preppers, there are those who still fear for what the future holds. In one discussion, entitled “I thought I’d prepped and now I realize just how bad I prepped and I can’t wait for this shit to end and go back to school and work. No, seriously,” a poster said he “can’t enjoy the smug feeling” as he's “not as prepared as I thought I was.”

“While I am more prepared than most people, I’m also screwed in more aspects than I thought I’d be,” they wrote. “I need to get my degree to actually start prepping for an emergency. I need to get my firearms license finished. I need to get my driver's license and get my vehicle. I need to buy my own property (after my degree) and I need to get my head out of my ass and watch less post-apocalyptic/the system goes to shit movies.”

One of the main complaints that appear on the subreddit has to do with how the preppers have planned for everything except for the economic repercussions that come with a shit-hits-the-fan scenario.

“So I am a hobby prepper, planned out 90 days of quality food and another 60 days of crapola, and enough protection to outlast my odds of living through trying,” wrote one user. “However, I have failed in one critical area. Work.

“Hot air balloon ride companies are the ultimate non-essential.”

Follow Ben Makuch and Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

Doomsday Prepper Store Has a Hot New Product: Flour syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[zofranspace]

Gold and Silver Is Real Money

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a presentation here in Calgary about Gold and Silver, and why you might want to go out and acquire some. Why Gold and Silver? As you can see by watching the video below, the only real money the world has ever recognized over time is gold and silver. The paper stuff (or actually plastic here in Canada now) that we carry around isn’t really money – it’s currency. And currency only has value if people continue to recognize it as a medium of exchange. It has no intrinsic value, and in fact isn’t even worth the same as a blank piece of paper if hyperinflation hits because with all the writing and images all over it you can’t even use it as a piece of note paper. In Zimbabwe after their hyperinflation they had to put up signs in the public washrooms to keep people from using their currency as toilet paper. If that doesn’t show you how worthless currencies can become, I don’t know what will. Gold and Silver have experienced thousands of years with ZERO inflation. Name one other medium of exchange that can say that – there isn’t one. Do you have a different perspective now on gold and silver? Is there any reason why you wouldn’t go out today and at least get one or two silver coins? (remember to get privately minted coins – not government issue). One of the points I wanted to emphasize from the video was the advantages silver has over gold as a potential investment. While I generally stress having gold and silver primarily for insurance purposes, silver does have some unique attributes that put it head and shoulders above gold as an investment. #1 Silver is cheap At under $35 per ounce currently it is far more affordable for the average person. Also, the historic ratio of silver to gold has been about 12:1 meaning if we are to return to those levels gold has to drop to $420/oz or silver has to jump to $145/oz to get back in line. #2 Gold is Hoarded – Silver is Used Silver is an industrial metal and one of the most versatile metals on the planet. It gets used in everything from traditional uses like jewelry and silverware, to electronics, cell phones, laptops, anti-microbial clothing, medical devices, mirrors, dentistry, solar panels and a long list of other items. Many of these items use such small quantities of silver that recycling and recovering the silver isn’t cost effective so much of it ends up in landfills and is no longer available. Those are just a couple of reasons I feel silver has the most potential as an investment. Regardless, I think everyone can and should own some physical gold and silver if for no other reason than as a hedge against inflation and to protect their purchasing power should you ever need it to buy groceries.

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2UEYHGU via IFTTT

[myzimstore]

Grocery List in Zimbabwe - Myzimstore

Grocery List in Zimbabwe. We provide grocery items at affordable prices. MyZimStore Offers sauces, spreads, condiments, baking ingredients, rice, mealie meal, noodles, pasta, canned food, etc. Shop now! For more information

visit our website - Grocery List in Zimbabwe

[atravellingaccountant]

October 12, 2018

I have now been a week in Harare, Zimbabwe and all I have taken pictures of are flowers, birds and trees. That is pretty normal for me but seems so bland given what has been going on in that time.  

4 days before I arrived, the government made an announcement about their dual currencies which gave its citizens flashbacks to 2008 when their economy and currency basically collapsed. As this week has progressed the line ups (queues) at the gas stations have extended for blocks, if not full kilometers.  Similar queues are still growing in the grocery stores as people stock up while dollars and food last.  Bread is already gone in many stores, as is flour.  Some have closed their doors until further notice.  

But, no rioting or demonstrations.  I haven’t even heard complaining.  Conversations, yes.  Sardonic smiles.  But mostly just people getting on with it.  Going to school, going to work – if they have work.  I wouldn’t know such uncertainty was hanging over my coworkers if it wasn’t all over the newspapers and radio.

I am humbled by their resilience and their capacity to just keep going.  In Canada we complain about everything.  A carbon tax is a severe hardship for us.  Or, heaven forbid, the Prime Minister forgets to list your province during a speech.  We never worry if there will be gas at the station when we go to fill up.  Or bread at the store.  

I’m not worried for my safety (I don’t walk around alone at night in Edmonton either) or about whether I will eat.  I’m a foreigner with US dollars and offshore (Canadian) bank accounts so I am protected by privilege yet again.  I am grateful for this experience.  To get to know these people and have my eyes opened again to how good I really have it.

And here are some pretty pictures.  

[griswoldadventures]

More Visitors!! Grandpa & Marcia Visit

A little over a week after our last visitors left, we welcomed Grandpa & Marcia to South Africa! They were here for 2 weeks and we were excited to show them the beauty of South Africa!

We had one quiet day in Pretoria to allow them to rest a bit and then we flew off to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe! We hadn’t been to Victoria Falls yet and it’s definitely been on our list of things to do since we moved out here 5 years ago, so it was nice to take this trip together.

We also arrived the day after Former President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe resigned. Mugabe has been the President since 1987 and was very corrupt. It was so exciting to visit the country when the people were so excited and hopeful for change under a new leader!

We stayed at the Victoria Falls Safari Suites in a 3 bedroom suite that I got a pretty great deal on when booking online. We actually booked a 2 bedroom suite but they put us in a larger one and it was great that Jackson had his own room and we had a HUGE room where we could give Riley a quiet corner and not disturb her. 

After breakfast we made our way to the Falls and walked along the falls, stopping at different view points along the way. Riley was tired and struggling a bit to sleep in the stroller, so it made for a rough morning for her. 

Being November, the water levels here were very low, so the falls weren’t as big as they would be in a few months. But, that also meant that we didn’t get soaked as we were walking, which I think the kids would have appreciated!

That evening was Thanksgiving and we booked a babysitter to sit with Riley while the rest of us went to a Dinner & Drum show at The Boma restaurant just a short walk from our room.

As we arrived, we were dressed in our “chitenge” and greeted by traditional dancers, music, and face paint!

We took our seats at our table and enjoyed the buffet, which featured lots of different kids of meat, including crocodile tail and mopani worms. We all tried the mopani worms, including Jackson!

As we ate our dinner, the drum show started. We were each given a drum so that we could play along and watch the dancing and enjoy the music. Jackson had a great time!

We made our way back to our room by 9pm to get Jackson to bed, but were happy that we did this. Definitely a unique experience!

The next day we hung out at the lodge after taking a drive into town in the morning to do some craft shopping. We enjoyed seeing the animals walking around near our room, including tons of baby warthogs!

And we really enjoyed the pool! Riley was very nervous about the water and refused to even let her feet get wet. But, Jackson loved it and had so much fun swimming and getting wet! There were several pools, but we found a nice one that had a kiddie pool next to it, which was great for Jackson to play with some of the toys he brought from home. It was a little cold, but Jackson loved jumping in and going underwater, so we braved the cold temps to get in with him so he could have fun!

For our last night, we booked a dinner cruise on the Zambezi River! A van picked us up at our lodge and drove us to the boat where we ordered drinks and started our cruise down the river. There were no other kids on the boat and unfortunately, they hadn’t prepared kids meals (despite us booking ahead of time), but they were very accommodating and thankfully the kids did very well!

We had a nice 4-course meal and enjoyed the sights as the sunset behind us. At one point, we spotted an elephant on one of the islands and then were very excited to see that it was actually a family of elephants! And before too long, they started to make the journey from the island to the main land, swimming through the river! It was very cool to watch!

We also saw lots of birds and a few crocodiles and several hippos in the water that popped their heads up a few times. 

And the sunset was especially beautiful that night!

It was a great way to end our time in Zimbabwe! 

After we returned home the next day, we spent a couple of days exploring Pretoria before Grandpa and Marcia went to Sabi Sands for a 2-night safari and we caught up on things at home. We met them at the airport on their way back and all flew to Cape Town for the last leg of their trip. 

This was going to be our last time visiting Cape Town for likely many years, so we wanted to make sure we made the most of it! Of course, we were just there earlier in the month, so we relaxed a bit more this time as we didn’t feel like we had to see everything again. 

We found an awesome house in Camps Bay that was absolutely gorgeous and had amazing views of the water. The entire house had recently been done and it was perfect for us.

Lots of open spaces for the kids to run around and play and great size bedrooms that allowed us to spread out a bit too. 

This house also had a great pool, but it was still a bit cold and the pool wasn’t working properly, so we didn’t go swimming. 

On our first day, Grandpa and Marcia got up early to head to Table Mountain so they could avoid the crowds that we faced on our last trip. We decided to skip Table Mountain this time and instead hung out at the house and let the kids get good naps. Steph and Jackson went grocery shopping in the morning and found a nice breakfast spot while Marc stayed back with Riley and did some work. 

That afternoon we met Grandpa and Marcia at the V&A waterfront to have some dinner and walk around a bit. 

The next day, we rented a Cobra again and drove down to the Cape of Good Hope! This time, we left pretty early and went straight to the Cape, hoping to avoid the crowds. We made good timing and it wasn’t busy at all when we got there. Phew!

Lots of people stopped to look at the car, especially when these guys were sitting in it!

We took our obligatory Cape of Good Hope pictures and we were back on our way. 

We stopped a few times to take photos on our way out of the park and then drove down to Simonstown to see the penguins again. Jackson was having some popcorn in the car and something must have gone down the wrong pipe because he started coughing and ultimately threw up just as we were getting ready to park. It was pretty disgusting and we didn’t really have anything to help clean things off. We ended up taking his car seat apart in the parking lot and cleaning what we could with baby wipes. And, of course we didn’t have a change of clothes for him, so he ended up wearing Steph’s sweater. After that, he was good to go! 

We walked along the boardwalk and spotted penguins in the water and on the beach. There were some people that were getting in to go swim with the penguins, but it was definitely a bit cold for that!

After visiting with the penguins, we drove down to Kalk Bay and had lunch at the Brass Bell. And while we were waiting for our food, Marc bought Jackson a new shirt. Though, he didn’t seem to mind wearing Steph’s shirt for the afternoon!

The kids napped on the car ride back and we headed over to the V&A waterfront again to do some more shopping. As Grandpa and Marcia shopped, we rode the Cape Wheel one last time! 

And because he was such a good boy, Jackson also got to do a train ride with Thomas! Daddy and Jackson rode together and had a great time!

And we got all of our final shopping in before grabbing a quick dinner at the Food Market. 

And Jackson was very happy to top things off with some chocolate ice cream!

The next day, Grandpa and Marcia got picked up in the morning to go wine tasting. While the kids did well the last time, we didn’t really want to put them through another long day, so we opted to stay behind. Marc had some work to do, some Steph and Jackson found a nearby playground for some morning fun. 

There were lots of families and dogs running around and Jackson had a lot of fun! 

That afternoon, we walked around Camps Bay and stopped at Hard Rock for a beer and to get the kids some dinner. Once Grandpa and Marcia got back, we had some food delivered and enjoyed our last night in Cape Town. 

The next day, we spent some time at the house and the kids played while we enjoyed our last few hours of the beautiful views of Camps Bay. We then made our way to the airport to head back to Johannesburg. After waiting forever for our stroller and car seat to come off the plane, we said goodbye to Grandpa and Marcia and headed home. 

We will definitely miss Cape Town, but we’re so glad that we’ve been lucky enough to have several awesome trips there over the past few years!

[trendingnewsb]

These 5 entrepreneurs want to eliminate global food waste

Image: PIXABAY

Most people know that global hunger is a pressing issue — but what you may not know is that food waste is equally concerning. 

This doesn’t seem to make sense: How is it that so many go hungry if there’s so much usable food heading to landfills? If you think the issue of food waste is counterintuitive, you’re not alone. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals outline a series of objectives to tackle global problems including hunger and food waste, among others. 

There are a number of entrepreneurs who recognize that food waste is an unacceptable problem in our modern world — and they’re doing their part to bring the UN’s SDGs like zero hunger, sustainable agriculture practices, and sustainable consumption and production to fruition. Below are five individuals who are making a serious impact on every level of the food waste chain — from farming and agriculture to supermarkets and retail, all the way down to the individual consumer.

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feedback

Campaigning to improve every link of the “food waste” chain.

When Tristram Stuart was just a teenager, he noticed a problem that many of us have likely observed at one point or another: Supermarkets, restaurants, bakeries, and grocers throwing away bins full of perfectly usable food.

“We were wasting food at every link in the entire chain,” Stuart says in a video detailing his philosophy behind Feedback, the company he started in 2009 to address the problem of food waste. Feedback organizes action and awareness campaigns (as well as events) that target food waste from — literally — the ground up. From working with governments and international institutions to educating businesses and rallying grassroots organizations and the public, the group aims to be a catalyst for changing global attitudes about food waste.

Stuart has dedicated his career to the issue; while researching for his book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, he realized how many of the food waste issues facing supermarkets are tied up in buying policies and cosmetic standards — and sometimes, even stemming from obscure governmental regulations. He founded Feedback to fight these policies on a systemic level.

Feedback’s first awareness event took place in London’s Trafalgar Square in December 2009 and fed 5,000 people — and the resulting media coverage was a catalyst for the UK government to change some of its policies about food waste. Today, Feedback has hosted similar events in 45 cities, and has had significant global impact on the way the world views waste.

Tristram Stuart is part of the UBS Global Visionary program. Read more about his story and learn about other young entrepreneurs making an impact around the world.

Nnaemeka Ikegwuonuu, founder of ColdHubs 

Mitigating post-harvest losses for farmers in developing nations.

In Nigeria, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, more than 35 million tons of fruits and veggies are produced each year. Yet, according to startup ColdHubs, 45% of this food spoils due to inadequate storage methods. And beyond this region of the world, post-harvest losses of fresh fruits and vegetables affect 470 million farmers and retailers in other developing nations. The bottom line: Small farmers may lose as much as 25% of their annual income due to spoilage.

Enter Nnaemeka Ikegwuonuu, a Nigerian agriculturist. His startup is a social venture that produces modular, walk-in cold rooms that extend the shelf life of perishable foods — and not just by hours or days, but by weeks. The rooms are fueled by solar panels and high-capacity batteries, making them an eco-conscious solution for portable refrigeration. 

Image: Nnaemeka Ikegwuonuu

The company designs, assembles, installs, and commissions these rooms, which farmers purchase on a pay-as-you-store subscription model. Ikegwuonuu has long-term goals for ColdHubs: He plans to have 1,000 units operating in the next five years.

Tessa Cook, founder of OLIO

Addressing food waste on the consumer level.

While food waste on a mass scale often occurs on the front lines of consumerism (places like grocery stores and supermarkets) or on an agricultural level, in the developed world, almost half of all food waste takes place in the home. Entrepreneur Tessa Cook wanted to do something to cut down the £13 billion worth of food that the UK collectively throws out each year.

“It’s crazy that our solution to too much good food is to throw it away, and that there’s been no innovation since the rubbish bin,” says Cook. 

Image: annabel staff photography

To combat this issue, Cook and co-founder Saasha Celestial-One started OLIO, a free app that connects neighbors with local shops and cafes so that surplus food can be repurposed. The app (available for both Android and iPhone) is simple to use: Just snap a photo of items you wish to discard, and neighbors receive alerts and can request whatever piques their interest. Pickup is arranged via private message.

There are multiple use cases for the app, Cook explains: Like when families go on a diet, move home, leave for vacation, over-cater a party, or receive unwanted gifts. (Finally, something to do with all those holiday fruit cakes.) 

“Demand for surplus food is incredibly high, with 40% of listings requested in less than an hour, and 86% of listings requested in less than 24 hours,” Cook says. The app, which launched in the UK in January 2016 and globally in October 2016, has accrued more than 225,000 users to date.

“So many go hungry and the environmental consequences are nothing short of devastating,” says Cook. “OLIO aims to make food sharing a viable alternative to the bin, and to do so in a way that is simple, convenient, and fun.”

Amanda Weeks, cofounder of Industrial/Organic

Putting food waste to good use.

So, what about food waste that’s already on its way to the landfill? Amanda Weeks is an entrepreneur tackling the problem from another angle: Using waste as a resource. 

Image: amanda weeks

Industrial/Organic, Weeks’ Brooklyn-based startup tackling food recycling in urban areas, finds ways to put the water, energy, and nutrients of food waste to work. Through a multi-step recovery process (technically termed “anaerobic fermentation”), the company plans to up-cycle waste into bio-based products including household cleaners, fragrances, and organic fertilizer. It goes beyond composting; the process generates no methane, and produces fewer emissions and odors than other solutions.

“Our approach closes several crucial loops necessary to support public health, environmental resilience, and economic growth,” explains the Industrial/Organic website. “We reclaim the resources spent on food that is wasted, and reuse them to create a more sustainable system for future generations.”

Keiran Whitaker, founder of Entocycle

Coming full circle: Up-cycling waste for agriculture.

Keiran Olivares Whitaker‘s company, Entocycle, takes another creative approach to food waste recycling — harnessing the power of nature.

“We are using nature to fight on two fronts: Tackling both the food waste we create, and the unsustainability of the protein farming industry,” explains Whitaker.

Entocycle transforms food waste into sustainable, protein-based feed for the agriculture industry — all using the power of insects. The company is developing the first fully automated “smart factory” that produces insect protein meal.

Image: keiran whitaker

“Insects are nature’s recyclers, and a natural food for animals,” Whitaker explains. Entocycle’s darlings are black soldier flies, which transform food rubbish — things like spent beer grains, potato peelings, and fruit and vegetable waste — into viable animal feed pellets. The system employs vertical farming, so it’s able to produce large volumes of product in very small spaces. The whole up-cycling process takes less than a week.

Entocycle’s facility is currently up and running in the heart of London. In collaboration with the Good Kitchen accelerator program, Entocycle aims to revolutionize the $150 billion animal feed industry, eventually replacing environmentally destructive solutions like fish and soy meal.

Partnership for the goals: Achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

UBS White Paper

This paper for the WEF Annual Meeting explores our progress in meeting our commitment to the UN SDGs, in particular our pledge to raise USD 5bn of client money within five years to fund the SDGs. We unveil more than 30 partnerships which UBS has forged with public and private organizations to support positive social and environmental change.

Want to learn more about how to support organizations like those profiled here? Find out more about impact investing or read on about these other social entrepreneurs tackling global issues in innovative ways.

The value of investments can go down as well as up. Your capital and income is at risk. Assets used for secured borrowing are at risk if you do not keep up with repayments. In the UK, UBS AG is authorized by the Prudential Regulation Authority and subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. © UBS 2017. All rights reserved.

Read more: https://mashable.com/2018/02/05/food-waste-social-entrepreneurs/

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2FbbX2t via Viral News HQ

[newstfionline]

How hyperinflation stole Christmas in Venezuela

By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, December 22, 2017

CARACAS, Venezuela--They were the cheapest in the store, but the Converse knockoffs were still 500,000 bolívars a pair. “Son locos”--they’re crazy--Viviana Acosta had said, gingerly placing the sneakers back on the shelf.

Just before Christmas, the world’s worst inflation crisis in nearly a decade was escalating--bringing a country of nearly 32 million, once Latin America’s richest per capita, to its knees. Shoes for the kids had been Viviana’s plan for the holidays. But multiply by three--for two daughters and one son--and it was three months worth of what she earned doing house-call hair and nails.

She walked outside, to the half-empty shopping street, rubbing the fatigue out of her eyes. The treat she’d just given the kids for breakfast--oatmeal, sold by a man on the street--had nearly doubled in price in one month, to 5,000 bolívars a cup. Viviana and Enrique Alvarado, her husband, had gone without.

They were passing an image of Venezuela’s late leader Hugo Chávez--”Always with us,” the writing underneath proclaimed--when she spotted real trouble.

The toy store.

“Don’t get too excited,” Viviana, 29, called out as squealing Victoria, 4, Ruben, 9, and Michel, 12, dashed inside.

“Mommy, look!” said Ruben, pointing at a box of Transformers.

She leaned in, reading the price.

“Five million,” she mouthed, aghast. Ten months’ pay.

Ruben looked up at his mother. She looked embarrassed.

Then Ruben was blushing, too.

“Mommy,” he said, taking her hand. “Let’s go look at something else.”

Venezuelans are calling this “Infeliz Navidad”--Unhappy Christmas--a holiday season devastated by hyperinflation.

Under Chavez, who came to power in 1999, oil-rich Venezuela proclaimed itself a socialist paradise. Industries were nationalized. Government handouts multiplied.

But Venezuela’s economy no longer works.

The past six months have brought the kind of shocking price surges that the world last saw in Zimbabwe in 2008. Venezuela hasn’t released official inflation data since 2015. But last month, according to the Caracas-based statistical firm Ecoanalitica, the country slipped into hyperinflation--and hit an annualized rate of nearly 2,000 percent.

The cash-strapped government is now teetering on default, printing reams of bills to keep the economy afloat. That fuels inflation. Venezuela has tried to prop up an official exchange rate as low as 10 bolívars to the dollar. But the thriving black market has effectively set its own exchange rate, in which the bolívar has fallen 97 percent against the dollar since Jan. 1.

Then, it took 3,164 bolívars to buy a dollar.

Now, it takes 123,000.

The nearly worthless bolívar means that imports--which are generally purchased in dollars--are prohibitively expensive, and Venezuelan businesses can’t afford to buy foreign-made inputs, slowing their production.

As inflation soars, hospitals are increasingly running short of antibiotics, gauze, HIV antiretroviral and cancer drugs. Parents unable to feed their children are abandoning them at orphanages. Because public utilities can’t afford new electricity cords or spare parts, the country is experiencing frequent blackouts. The government just minted a 100,000-bolívar note.

Consumer prices here have been rising for years, particularly since President Nicolás Maduro took over after Chavez’s death in 2013. The plunge in the global price for oil has been one big factor. Another is sharply falling oil production, as the industry here buckles under the weight of corruption, neglect and a flight of expertise.

The government has sought to aid citizens with additional cash handouts and the promise of extra food baskets. It blames the economic woes on speculators, hoarding by greedy oligarchs and attacks by foreign powers--particularly the Trump administration, which in August imposed sanctions that made it harder for Venezuela to access the U.S. financial system.

Yet the vastly accelerated slide into hyperinflation came after a July election tainted by fraud. It created a new super-legislature of government loyalists that replaced the opposition-controlled National Assembly, and gave Maduro virtually dictatorial power.

Modern currency values are linked to the credibility and solvency of national governments. Critics now say Venezuela’s government lacks both.

Downtown Caracas was once festooned with Christmas lights during the holidays. Now, as Enrique and Viviana strolled with their kids down a major Caracas shopping street, it was devoid of holiday decor.

“It’s like Christmas isn’t even happening this year,” said Enrique, 30, as he carried his 4-year-old, Victoria, in his arms.

As the family walked the Boulevard Sabana Grande, they passed long lines at ATMs. In Venezuela, larger transactions are now mostly made by bank card. Financial institutions are rationing cash withdrawals to 10,000 bolívars a day, about 8 cents at the black market rate. To have enough cash to buy smaller items, many Venezuelans must go to the ATM day after day.

Viviana and Enrique had some cash on hand--but for all the wrong reasons.

To keep up with inflation, the government is constantly raising the monthly minimum wage. The last hike, in November--from 325,000 to 456,000 bolívars, in cash and food stamps--was too much for the construction company that employed Enrique. It laid off nearly half its staff--including him.

“I don’t blame them,” said Enrique, adjusting his L.A. Lakers hat. “Nobody is building. Everything has stopped.”

Enrique and his wife had decided that Enrique would use his 1 million bolívar severance payment to go to Colombia in January. Following in the footsteps of tens of thousands of Venezuelans, he’d cross the border illegally--passports were too expensive, and took too long to get--to look for work. They’d be apart, but he’d send money home.

Both Ruben and his eldest sister sensed how bad things were. To spare their parents, they hadn’t even turned in Christmas lists this year.

Little Victoria was a different story.

In her father’s arms, she smiled wide, pulling out a creased piece of paper from her pocket and holding it in front of her pink plaid shirt. The letter was decorated with a Christmas tree and Santa’s face.

“Dear Baby Jesus,” she began reading aloud, addressing the figure who in the Venezuelan tradition was the real power behind Santa’s throne.

“I want roller skates, makeup, a puppy and a baby doll.”

She folded her hands.

“That’s what I want, Daddy,” she said. “Can I have it?”

Enrique blinked.

“Little daughter,” he said, burying his face in her shoulder.

Two days later in their townhouse an hour west of Caracas, Viviana had almost forgotten about gifts. She was too busy worrying about food.

The family had never seen themselves as quite middle class, but for a while, they got close. They took holiday trips to the beach. Last year, with inflation growing, the vacations stopped and they cut back on food, but they’d still managed a traditional Christmas dinner of baked ham, chicken salad and hallacas--meat-stuffed tamales.

This year, it was going to be just the hallacas--if they could find, and afford, the ingredients.

That morning, she’d prepared herself for the hours-long line at the grocery store to get beef at government-regulated prices. But she’d heard from a cousin who had just been at the market. “Don’t bother,” she’d said. There was none on the shelves.

It had been like this for days. Chicken, too, had almost disappeared. The government has sought to limit the inflationary pain by regulating prices for foodstuffs like meat, corn meal and bread. But it only appeared to be making the shortages worse. Producers, their costs soaring, were refusing to sell at a loss.

So far this year, Viviana had lost 20 pounds, skipping meals so she could feed the kids.

“It’s the Maduro diet,” she said. “The kids are joking at school that even Santa is thin this year.”

At the same time, hyperinflation was eating away at her income. This month, she was charging 25,000 bolívars for doing nails--the same as she did in November. Yet the cost of the nail hardener she used had tripled in one month, to 3,000 bolívars. If her blow dryer went, so too would her sideline business in hair. A replacement now would run 1.5 million.

Christmas was just making the stress worse.

“I wish we could just fall asleep for a day and not wake up for Christmas,” Viviana said. “That would be better.”

“But,” she said, “the kids.”

They were born-again Christians, and hadn’t put up a tree in years--didn’t really believe in it. Like many in their neighborhood, though, they decorated every year, with bunting and lights. This year, it wasn’t happening. Only one street in the neighborhood had bothered to decorate--and that was just five plastic lights.

Victoria had insisted on a tree this year. They had struck a compromise: They would take some old pine garland and glue it to the wall in the shape of a tree.

But “her tree” needed lights, Victoria had insisted.

At a moment of raging inflation and food shortages, it was an absurd luxury--a 40,000-bolívar hit. Enrique needed that money for his Colombia trip. But it was Christmas, and she was his 4-year-old.

Viviana sighed when her husband walked in the door with the box.

“Twenty lights for 40,000?” she exclaimed.

And then the “tree” was twinkling with the tiny, blinking white lights. Victoria was beaming. Enrique was smiling, too.