Venezuela In Turmoil For Lack Of Flour, Milk And Diapers

NPR ^ | March 16, 2014 | Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

[grundle]

People line up to buy goods at a store in Caracas, Venezuela.

Alvaro Villarueda starts his morning the same way every day — putting in a call to his friend who has a friend who works at a Caracas, Venezuela, supermarket.

Today, he's looking for sugar, and he's asking his friend if he knows if any shipments have arrived. As he talks on the phone, his wife Lisbeth Nello, is in the kitchen.

There are 10 mouths to feed every day in this family — five of them children. The two youngest are still in diapers.

"The things that are the scarcest are actually what we need the most," Nello says. "Flour, cooking oil, butter, milk, diapers. I spent last week hunting for diapers everywhere. The situation is really tough for basic goods."

As with everything in Venezuela, the reasons given for the food shortages depend on political affiliation. The government says it's the result of unscrupulous businessmen waging an economic war and hoarding by regular people afraid of shortages.

Those in the opposition blame a system that imposes price controls, the lack of money to buy imports and problems in the supply chain after the expropriation of farms and factories by the socialist government.

[Usagi_yo]

Hard for me to QQ with all those fat people on line.

[managusta]

How come there are all those chubby Venezuelans in the queue?

Just looking at the line one would swear they are all living on big macs. At least that’s what Muchelle would have us believe.

[fungoking]

and TP..

don’t forget the TP..
___________________________________

Paper or plastic? PAPER!!!

[fungoking]

Venezuela, the Soviet Union called; it wants its economy back.

When I made several trips to VZ in the 2000’s, all over the pro Chavez folks would spray paint “Yanqui, Venezuela no se vende”.

Looks like nothing else is for sale now either.

[liberalh8ter]

I spoke with a friend the other day who has family in Venezuela. His family members are high level, retired military, we're talking statue in public building - high level. They have 20 days of food left with no prospects for the future. He told me they can contract from here in the States to have food delivered to his family from outside the Country but the likelihood of the food ever reaching them is slim to none. Funny thing is, he feels they are getting what they deserve.

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

[Kartographer]

Preppers’ PING!!

[ozarkgirl]

I know this is about more than just the diapers but doesn’t anyone remember what people did before “Pampers” came to be the standard?

That's what I couldn't understand as well, what's the big deal about being out of disposable diapers? Not a necessity, in a pinch, any cloth material will do.

[ryan71]

The cold hard fact is that the number of Americans eager to put their futures in the hands of the government is growing and there is nothing anybody can do to stop it. There will be a collapse. When is anybody’s guess.

[jwalsh07]

Wall Street will see it as excess demand and drive international stocks up 5% today.

[Hoodat]

How’s the toilet paper holding out? That was last months shortage.

Toilet paper is now considered a bourgeois excess of the past. Big Brother has successfully eradicated this abscess of capitalist evil. In its place, Big Brother will be increasing the chocolate ration to 20 grams next month.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
DEMOCRATS ARE PATRIOTS

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The gals in the line don’t look like they’ve missed any meals.

I was gonna post that. It was what I first noticed. They all look pleasingly plump. We must check back in 6 months time.

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

They probably have high starch (beans, rice and cheap white flour) diet.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Communism: Where everyone is equally miserable!

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yep, coming to a neighborhood near you soon.

[TexasRepublic]

I hope we’d have a revolution here before allowing things to get as bad as they are in VZ.

[greeneyes]

That’s exactly what I was thinking. Just buy a couple of packs of cloth diapers for each kid and your back up plan is ready.

[fortheDeclaration]

They would still vote for Chavez.

[dfwgator]

Yep, the poor will always vote for politicians who blow a few kisses their way, even if their lives don’t improve.

[bgill]

With two still in diapers, he needs to set priorities. First, unless they are twins, the oldest should be at least close to being potty trained. Second, cloth diapers have served the purpose for generations. This mess has been going on for a while in his country and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see times are tough and going to get tougher so quit having babies he can’t provide for.

Next, sugar is a want, not a need. Mark that luxury off his list. I noticed there were what appeared to be liters of coke on the grocery shelves so unless it’s being imported, there’s a sugar source somewhere.