Coca-Cola In India

[VinceZeb]

These people can just as easily not work at the factory, not buy the products and not accept Coke's existance.

India wouldn't have this problem if they wouldn't have decided to breed millions upon millions of people in an area that isn't very supportive of the human being. They wouldn't have these kinds of problems if they would get rid of their idiotic primal caste system that denies people their freedoms and liberties.

Besides, Achimp was being a smartass about the dirty water, but it is a truthism. These people bathe and drink the same fucking water they let the cows shit and piss and bathe in because of their "religious beliefs". I tolerate their beliefs but don't ask me to keep a straight face when they talk about sacred cows. They make the best burgers, as someone once said. It's also nice to see that Achimp is coming around to the capitalist "dark side", if you will. The lightsaber and the financial Force powers are in the mail.


And on another topic, if you hate that we are shipping help-desk jobs over to India, Russia, and China just do what I do. Ask the help desk person what location you are calling. If it ain't America, or it sounds like someone that ain't from the U.S. of A., I tell them to transfer me to someone from my country. Is it bigoted and snotty? You're damn right. But I'd rather wait 2 hours on the phone with someone that can actually speak English instead of horrible broken need-a-translator-stone-to-understand puesdo-English you get lately.

[Jeanette X]

AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEE! HE CAME BACK!

[AChimp]

The lightsaber and the financial Force powers are in the mail.

AWESOME!

[kellychaos]

Jeanette you seem to be prejudiced but in an unconscious yet caring way ... i.e. you mean well. It's like AChimp said "India is NOT a third world country." I may be reading this the wrong way but you seem to be under the misconception that India is a hapless victim of corporatization that can't take care of themselves. I think that you're underestimating them and that that article is a politically slanted piece of rubbish with an obvious political agenda.

[The One and Only...]

Originally Posted by VinceZeb

And on another topic, if you hate that we are shipping help-desk jobs over to India, Russia, and China just do what I do. Ask the help desk person what location you are calling. If it ain't America, or it sounds like someone that ain't from the U.S. of A., I tell them to transfer me to someone from my country. Is it bigoted and snotty? You're damn right. But I'd rather wait 2 hours on the phone with someone that can actually speak English instead of horrible broken need-a-translator-stone-to-understand puesdo-English you get lately.

Classic.

[Zhukov]

capitalism without morality just sucks so freaking bad.

What the hell? "Capitalists with morals" don't make money.



Doesn't anybody here understand simple psuedo-english!
I agree that the way to end this problem lies with the indian people.

[AChimp]

The article also fails to take into account OTHER causes that could be contributing to the low water table (which, BTW, is lowering all over India)... such as drought, or the neighbouring town taking it all.

[kellychaos]

Exactly. It's slanted. Critical thinking and paying attention to what's NOT said it an article speaks just as loudly as the facts that ARE given. I don't recall too many words from the opposition. Just because Coke is the Evil Empire doesn't mean they don't deserve a say. I don't have all the facts yet (and that just it) but I refuse to form an opinion just based on the facts in this particular article.

[Jeanette X]

Originally Posted by kellychaos

Jeanette you seem to be prejudiced but in an unconscious yet caring way ... i.e. you mean well. It's like AChimp said "India is NOT a third world country." I may be reading this the wrong way but you seem to be under the misconception that India is a hapless victim of corporatization that can't take care of themselves. I think that you're underestimating them and that that article is a politically slanted piece of rubbish with an obvious political agenda.

No, I don't underestimate India. I think they can take care of it. I just posted it on here because it looked interesting.

As for balance, what about this?

Coca-Cola denies responsibility for all this. In a statement from its headquarters in Atlanta, it said: "We would like to emphasise that, to the best of our knowledge, these allegations made against the plant in Kerala are untrue.

"In fact, we believe that the allegations are politically motivated. The plant concerned has not drained the aquifers and uses only six bore wells. In fact, the local villages receive tankers of free water supplies each day from the plant to supplement their existing water sources." And, it said, the company was establishing an elaborate system for rainwater harvesting.

The real culprit, the company says, is a reduction in rainfall in the area - from 1,213 mm in 2000, to 1,147mm in 2001 and just 670mm in 2002. It quotes India's National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad as saying: "There is no field evidence of overexploitation of the groundwater reserves in the plant area."

[VinceZeb]

Capitalism is supposed to have morality in it.

Adam Smith, the man who basically created mordern capitalism in 1776, said that business have the sole responsability to make money. But also the business should not become a monopoly and they should help the truly less fortunante and poor.

Socialism on the other hand.......

[mburbank]

"Truthism" is not a word, having children isn't 'breeding', if Adam Smith said something was a 'sole responsability' than he wouldn't have listed any other responsabilities after that, owing to the meaning of the word sole, the plural of business is businesses.

Aren't we still under warranty with Orkin? 'Cause I see a filthy dung beetle pushing a big old ball of crap.

[Big Papa Goat]

But also the business should not become a monopoly and they should help the truly less fortunante and poor.

What makes someone "truly" less fortunate and poor? And what exactly is the motivation, under capitalism, for businessmen to help the poor, or not monopolize their industries? Pure capitalism doesn't work any better than pure socialism.

[FS]

I think Vince's conditions for being "truly less fortunate and poor" consists mainly of "being Vince".

[Mungus the Foon]

whoever it was going on about sacred cows in india. you are wrong.
cows are only sacred to hindus and whilst there are a lot of hindus in india there are also a lot of muslims and sikhs. there are also other religions present in a lesser capacity.
the cow is the symbol of laxmi (the hindu goddess of wealth (i think))
anyway, india is not a hindu state and is in fact an exporter of beef.
it is illegal to kill cows in NEPAL, which is a hindu state, although it is still legal to eat beef which has been imported from india.
india IS a third world country by all definitions of the word spend a few months there and you will understand.
i know that this is pretty irrelevant but there you go.

[ScruU2wice]

my dad was born there and he says it isnt a third world country... dont think that you've actually been there because you've read a couple articles about the country

[VinceZeb]

What makes someone "Truly" less fortunate? Well, those kids you see on the Christian Children's Fund commericials would count. People that sleep with bugs and dirt and drink shit water and eat rancid food I believe count. Do I have to get any more specific or are you going to ask another idoitic question? If you don't know the difference between someone who is whining becuase they can't afford air conditioning and someone who hasn't eaten in 10 days because there exists no food then you need to go back to your hole.

[mburbank]

Wow, there's actually kids like that? Huh. I sure hope the coca cola company will help them. I'm sure they will, though. I mean, they do want to teach the world to smile.

[Mungus the Foon]

although i spent MOST of last year in nepal teaching english in kathmandu that doesn't mean that i didn't go to india.
i did. it is a third world country.
if you don't believe it then i suggest that you visit it yourself. a quick look around delhi (old or new) will confirm it.
yes there are modern things around and yes there are some rich people around but mostly there isn't. for a start look at the roads, then look at the places where most people live. gorakpur seems ok but sunauli is a dusty hole.
india is classified as a third world country by anyone who makes these classifications.

[ScruU2wice]

Idk who classifies 3rd world countries, or if there is a standard for a 3rd world country, but its all on how you live. If you live there everything around you is normal, but if you visit from a western country everything around you seems to be reaking poverty. Even though i haven't visited india, i stayed in pakistan and i too was hit by the shock of people sitting and begging for money and the unpaved roads. However, to my cousins it was completely normal. To me pakistan is a 3rd world country to them its home.

im sorry if i made it seem like i was taking a shot at u mungus but i was really bored and angry that i had to stay home on a saturday night

[AChimp]

I classify Mungus as a twit.

[Mungus the Foon]

a third world country is classified by the GDP per capita being below a certain level. any country with a GDP per capita below that level is classified as third world or developing to PC morons.
a better measure which is being used more recently is the purchasing power which the people have with the money they earn.
you will have noticed that in countries where the general income is lower goods are cheaper. for this reason it pisses me off when read things saying oh no! there are people out there living on less than £1 a day! boo hoo. i know from experience that it is quite possible to live on less than that quite comfortably as a tourist let alone as a local. in a local restaurant (shed with food for sale) you can get a good meal and a cup of tea for about 8p. you can get a good room for about 60p if you look around. so these people should all die.
back to subject, purchasing power measures whether or not people can live comfortably on the money they get. many people in third world countries can but not as comfortably as we can and many can't. if you travel around nepal you will see people living in sheds by the side of the road, same in india. that is how a third world country is defined. yes, they are used to it and it seems normal but it is a third world country anyway.

achimp- of course i'm a twit but fuck it who cares?

[Zero Signal]

Originally Posted by AChimp

I classify Mungus as a twit.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Originally Posted by AChimp

Yes, because the few hundred Indians who work at the Coke plant will be reflective of the rest of Indian society, which is completely dependent on Coke.

I wasn't implying, nor did I ever say that it would be all of Indian society. I think it's pretty clear I was talking about the families/generations of those who work there. (look, I can use the roll eyes emoticon, too!)

You're forgetting the caste system again. There's only a few brands of Indian who would be allowed to consider working in the Coke factory.

What kind of citizens work in a coke factory in the United States?? Are they people with MBAs or PhDs in Physics?? The only difference between the Indian caste system and the economic stratification of places like America is that in India, it's the same families and bloodlines caught in that stratification. America's upward mobility aside, the caste system has little to do with our argument.

Puh-leese. India is hardly a Third World country. When half your population lives like we do in the West, and the other half get to muck out clogged sewers, it's a social problem, not the fault of corporations.

I never said all of India was a third world nation, I was addressing the system of globalization as a whole. (Woah! This is fun!)

I think you're also grossly over-stating the "half of them live like us" point. Roughly 1/4 of the country lives in terrible poverty, the kind that would make even America's poorest look like wealthy aristocrats. If half the population is doing so well, "like us," then why do their brains come to our countries to make and save some money to return home with???

Perpetuating how? Like I said in my previous post, Coke is providing a product that millions of Indians use, throw away and stop caring about like the rest of us.

Jeanette addressed the water issue, but back to my initial point, there's a question of self-sustainability. Since 2002, India's agricultural output has dropped, which means farmers are shit out of luck. Do you think it's just these couple-hundred workers who are/will be working for a multi-national in India???

[Big Papa Goat]

Originally Posted by VinceZeb

What makes someone "Truly" less fortunate? Well, those kids you see on the Christian Children's Fund commericials would count. People that sleep with bugs and dirt and drink shit water and eat rancid food I believe count. Do I have to get any more specific or are you going to ask another idoitic question? If you don't know the difference between someone who is whining becuase they can't afford air conditioning and someone who hasn't eaten in 10 days because there exists no food then you need to go back to your hole.

So business should help people in third world countries? But I thought foreign aid was for commies? Just like welfare, taxes and public education right?

[Zero Signal]

Originally Posted by VinceZeb

What makes someone "Truly" less fortunate? Well, those kids you see on the Christian Children's Fund commericials would count. People that sleep with bugs and dirt and drink shit water and eat rancid food I believe count. Do I have to get any more specific or are you going to ask another idoitic question? If you don't know the difference between someone who is whining becuase they can't afford air conditioning and someone who hasn't eaten in 10 days because there exists no food then you need to go back to your hole.

Too bad that 80% of the money that the CCF scams out of people never sees the light of day in these countries with starving people.

The executives at CCF make money hand over fist for their salary and it seems that whatever they drop actually goes to the people that they claim that they are helping.