PUR_ple

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   2-16-96. FinTim:

   "First world smartcards and third world pensioners."

      Each month, a thin line of grandparents and
      great-grandparents shuffles across the rural wilderness
      clutching fresh banknotes dished out by the most
      sophisticated cash dispensers in the world. The machines
      are the hub of a thriving market economy. Mounted on
      unmarked pick-up trucks and escorted by armed guards,
      they are pursued across the hillsides by traders
      carrying buckets of freshly slaughtered meat, caged
      chickens, and an array of traditional medicines. The
      able-bodied carry the disabled and infirm with them in
      wheelbarrows. Under makeshift awnings, every pensioner
      swipes a plastic card through the machine, then rolls a
      weathered finger across a tiny scanner which checks the
      fingerprint against a digital template and dispenses a
      monthly allowance.

      Another machine, the "smartbox", keeps a tally of its
      contents and transmits an encrypted data stream with a
      constantly updated record of deposits to its destination
      bank. If tampered with, it sprays its contents with
      indelible purple ink like that with which the security
      police once sprayed anti-apartheid protesters. No
      reports yet of the graffiti inspired by the coloured ink
      in the 1980s, when township walls proudly proclaimed:
      "The Purple Shall Govern."

   PUR_ple