Tuesday 20 November 2007

Dispatches: Mark Thomas on Coca-Cola

Or... Mark Thomas on Coke. Mark Thomas always reminds me of James Dean Bradfield. I think it's the heavy-handed political bent. Still, I like it. So, Coca-Cola did used to have cocaine in it. Coca-cola sponsored the Nazis (until they defected to Fanta!) Coca-cola is racist. Coca-Cola is nicking poor people's water in India.
The middle part of the show went over my head (mainly because I was writing my 'Celebrity..' blog), but involved Columbia, the bottling plant and dead people. Basically Coke don't care about the workers, they only care about money. Well, well.
They showed the sugar fields and a ten year old boy working in El Salvador. That is quite shocking. They really don't care, do they? The reason kids are working is because the wages are so crap. They could stop that happening. Instead they are polluting the water.
Next Mark looked at the health implications of drinking coke, not just from the sugar but the caffeine, especially for children. And then he got his brain scanned and realised he secretly loved coke. Doh!
I enjoyed the part about people on death rows asking for Coca-Cola for their final meal. I wonder if you're allowed booze with your last meal?
Anyway, I think my boyfriend summed it up by saying 'this programme makes me want a Coke' and then he left the room saying, 'I get it, Coke is bad.'
They are all bad, all these big boys, the are all the lizards. And we remain the mindless Coke drinking sheep. Baa!

5 comments:

* (asterisk) said...

I've missed Mark Thomas and was glad to see him back.

While much of this show was "obvious", the bit about the kids working the fields was quite moving, I thought. Entire families working their fingers to the bone in dangerous conditions to make a sum total of about US$10 per day. Even the most average-earning among us would barely miss that much from our pockets each day.

The bit that went over your head was actually that Coke was tacitly endorsing the assassination of union leaders in Columbia if they opposed the working conditions. Nice.

lightupvirginmary said...

It didn't go over my head, I just wasn't concentrating! (honest)

Shep said...

I'm alright with Irn Bru though, aren't I?

lightupvirginmary said...

If you're happy with the slaughter of innocent Scots... and the destroying of the Lock Ness monsters natural habitat.

lightupvirginmary said...

Loch! I'm so stupid.