Nearly 1.6 billion servings of Coca-Cola-branded beverages are served each day. Now some of them will be just a little bit greener now that Coke has announced the global rollout of its PlantBottle, a plastic bottle made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and 30% plant based materials (derived from sugar cane and molasses). The new bottles stand to cut down on carbon emissions by up to 25% compared to traditional PET bottles.

The PlantBottle has a number of advantages over PET bottles and other plant-based bottles. In addition to its carbon cutting qualities, it can be processed through existing recycling facilities without contaminating petroleum-based bottles, and most importantly, it raises awareness of the need for more eco-friendly plastic bottles.

There’s just one problem: Coke is rolling out the PlantBottle for its Dasani brand of water. As avid readers of Inhabitat know, bottled water is anything but sustainable. Still, it’s a start, and Coke expects over 2 billion PlantBottles to have sold worldwide by the end of 2010. Next year, the company plans to expand the PlantBottle to its vitamin water brands as well. And eventually, Coke hopes to introduce bottles made from 100% recyclable and renewable materials.

Via Environmental Leader

The following information was provided by Pete Van Cleave, Water for Life http://www.waterforlifeonline.com/

Everybody is susceptible to being scammed, simply because they want to believe!

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the drinking water business. Politics spawns a lot of lies in the water business since the government is responsible for making tap water. Franchising and exclusive territories also spawn lies.  The internet has spawned much nonsense, too, with it’s uncensored, wild west sort of approach to business. It is truly alarming to see the explosion of internet products claiming to infuse water with magical properties to cure all your ills. These specially altered waters claim to be superior because they’re wetter, oxygenated, clustered, enhanced, magnetized, energized, alkalized, vitalized, or some other pseudoscientific term.  These empty promises simply do not hold water.

We always look for scientific and verifiable data from reliable third parties than can provide the proven facts about the various treatment technologies and how pure water works to support good health.  Education is the only way to battle bogus claims. I have studied water for 20 years and I stand firm in my commitment to bring you the very best possible drinking water and water purification systems based upon the best information available.

Distillation is the only method to produce legally purified water

Since 2002, it is one of three methods to produce legally purified water.  Competitors only selling one thing tend to defend it well, but also get their blinders on regarding other advances.  Biopure Everclean Reverse Osmosis also produces microbiologically pure water according to the NSF without electricity. We believe independence protects consumers best.

Common Reverse Osmosis works as well as NSF Nano filter/Everclean Rinse Reverse Osmosis

Common Reverse Osmosis systems degrade from day one like a filter does. Microbiological contaminants often migrate through the membrane or o-rings. Everclean Rinse Reverse Osmosis prevents the membrane from degrading and keeps the water 100% consistently pure. It costs more, but the value is there because the membrane does not have to be replaced like it does with common RO.  The NSF Nano filter technology gives a non electric system barrier protection against all forms of bacteria for those undergoing chemotherapy, organ transplant, or HIV/Aids.

Throwaway bottles are not a problem because they break down in the landfill.

There is an area of floating plastic trash in the Northern Pacific ocean that is twice the size of the continental United States. Experts tell us that dangerous chemicals from industrial waste stick to the plastics and enter the food chain as it is ingested by birds and marine life.  Americans bought about 50,000,000,000 plastic bottles in 2006 and the cost of energy and pollution is staggering! It takes enough crude oil to fuel 100,000 cars for a year to make a year’s supply of those plastic bottles. It takes 1000 years for these bottles to break down 100%.

Energized, vitalized, living, hexagonal, activated, ionized, and restructured water is purported to slow aging, restore cellular balance, or raise consciousness, and promote world peace.

All scams and hoaxes supported by testimonial evidence which only tries to take advantage of feel good placebo marketing. Absolutely no third party testing or science supports this.

 Oxygenated water enhances performance and post recovery workout.

The grossly overpriced Penta water is priced at $15.00 per gallon.  Perfect water by Amway is priced at $36.00 per case. Infused with 30- 40% more oxygen than ordinary water, it is marketed on the premise that the body can actually absorb oxygen directly into the bloodstream via the digestive system. The only way to get oxygen into the blood is through the lungs.  Trying to get oxygen into your body from water is called “drowning”! Unless you have gills, there is no need to search out water with extra oxygen.  This is a case of pure fraud without physiologic foundation.

 Clustered water is the fountain of youth.

Each year, university researchers on human aging bestow their annual “Silver Fleece” award on anti-aging quackery.  The 2002 recipient was “clustered” water. Water only really clusters when it crystallizes during freezing.

Magnetic water can cure all manner of human ailments.

There is no scientific evidence that water can even be magnetized in the first place.  This scam is at odds with the fundamental laws of physics.

Advanced filters can protect you as well as legal purifiers

Filters do not protect against microbiological or inorganic contaminants. They are often not changed properly, they break down, they dump, they channel, and they produce a declining level of performance the older they get. I often test the water coming out of them worse than the water going into them because they have no automatic shutdown devices.

 Cheap spring or national brand water in 16.9 oz bottles is the answer to tap water problems.  

Teton Springs, Quibell, Lithia Springs, and Big Springs are all local springs that have gone out of business in Georgia in the past 15 years because they failed to protect their customers from microbiological contamination in their water. Crystal Springs, Dasani, and Aquafina have all been cited for contaminants in their water in the past 8 years. We have tested our water against Deer Park, Zephyr Hills, Nestle Pure Life, Crystal Geyser, and every cheap brand sold in the state of Georgia. They all test out with contamination higher than tap water.

Municipal water systems are still keeping our drinking water safe.  Every system using chlorine contains the cancer causing agent trihalomethanes.  63% of waterborne illnesses in the U.S. are directly caused by Cryptosporidium and Giardia cysts, which are city water chlorine tolerant.  Flouride is ineffective and has serious health risks.  The American Dental Association is now warning parents not to use fluoridated water in the preparation of formula. After so many “boil water” alerts, chemical spills, broken water mains, and now AP’s pharmaceutical expose, Municipalities and states are now spending $63 billion dollars a year to try to keep up, but they can’t.  Legal testing requirements and repairs are currently routinely granted waivers. Many municipalities are using the exact same technology that has been in place for 100 years.  TDS levels, by my own testing are double what they were 20 years ago.  Standards are getting tougher as we find out new scientific facts and more contaminants are being discovered.  For example, in January 2006, the standard for Arsenic was reduced from 50 PPB to 10 PPB.  That means the previous standard was off by 500 percent! The distribution system is completely laden with problems: over 237,000 water main breaks in 2006.  The distribution system is coated with dangerous layers of mineral, biological, and chemical deposits that recontaminate the water as it travels in pipes from treatment plant to homes.  We now have over 2100 chemical contaminants in the drinking water that we can test for but we don’t. The EPA estimates there is a gap of $22 billion per year between what is needed and what is done. The fact is that in the next 30 years, every city water supply in the U.S. will reach or exceed it’s expected lifetime, costing the American taxpayer somewhere near $300 billion just to fix the underground pipes. 

Respectfully,

Pete Van Cleave

Water for Life

(770) 578-0600

SWEETIES

I beseech you all to find it in your candy hearts to forgive me!

It has been ages since I’ve posted. Trust and believe I’ve been behind the scenes shuckin’ and jivin’ to take Nightly Candy to the next level but alas there are no excuses just my sincere apologies are in order.

Now that I have your understanding let’s unwrap this sweet treat of a story.

Last Sunday I FINALLY had the chance to see “THIS IS IT!!”

FOREVER MICHAEL!!

As a true MJ fan my heart yearned to see “This is It” the minute it came out but my love for MJ doesn’t cancel out my disdain for waiting in long lines. I am not the one for that mess. Last sunday at 12:30 PM was a perfect time to see this movie without any  screaming Michael Jackson fans or perturbing lines. There were only a handful of people in the theater which is just the way I like it.  I also like being able to sneak in snacks into the theater. It’s one of the many simple pleasures in life I enjoy  and besides it’s one of the many ways that I stick it to “the man”.  Thank goodness for this oversized Dolce & Gabbana bag. My friend and I were able to fit a slice of pizza and a breakfast burrito comfortably inside.  We did purchase a bottle of water from the theater which is something I will NEVER do again. I can’t stomach paying $4.50 for a bottle of water and it was DASANI water at that.  No offense but Dasani is not real water. There has got to be some type of High Fructose Corn Syrup mixed in there. It’s made by the Coke a Cola Company . In good conscious I must raise an eyebrow at that.  If I wasn’t such a dedicated MJ fan I would have taken myself over to  Chinatown where I am sure on Canal Street I could find an elderly Chinese woman selling the bootleg version of “This is It” for $5 bucks.

“This is It” was Michael Jackson portrayed in his finest form.

Dismiss the media images that were blasted days after his death which showcased a frail looking  Michael who could barely get a leg up. “This is It” proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that after 40 years of performing Michael was on top of his game.

The documentary gave us a  glimpse into the enchantment of Michael Jackson unlike I had ever seen before.  I have watched many exposes, interviews, and documentaries on MJ and none of them have been able to encapsulate just how spellbinding of a visionary he truly was. Every minute of these two hours was simply breathtaking. The water works started to well up within my eyes within the  first five minutes. It was beautiful to hear the countless number of testimonies  from the “This is It” crew. Each and every one of them were moved by Michael. Everyone that he worked with had something larger than life to say regarding their MJ experience.

It was undeniable after watching this film that Michael Jackson is the most talented entertainer that the world will ever know. His voice was still pitch perfect as the day he took the stage at  the age of  five.  It was refreshing to watch especially in this day and age where many musicians are  synthetically engineered by producers. The idea of a LIVE show now-a-days consists of lip syncing so to watch Michael Jackson singing every song beautifully in perfect pitch during the rehearsal was out of this world.

Besides the incredible songs, the behind the scenes look at the phenomenal visual effects, a personal favorite for me was MJ’s fashions.

Throughout his illustrious life Michael Jackson influenced countless trends on the runway. I found myself drooling over some of the pieces he was wore throughout the film. The gold glitter pants and the leather blazer with the space-age shoulder pads were my personal favorites.

MJ's space age leather blazer with shoulder pads

Even in death  Michael Jackson continues to influence and dominate pop culture and fashion.

If you claim to be a true MJ fan and you haven’t seen this film you must take yourself to a theater ASAP. Even if you are not an MJ fan (which is an unfathomable thought) this is still a film you’ve got to see because I believe that even the most cynical of souls enjoys a little magic once in a while.  ”This is It” is most definitely a little slice of the magical mysticism that was and forever will be Michael Jackson.

Although you may think that bottled water is a safer option than tap, two new reports show that the store-bought stuff is actually less regulated than the water you get out of your faucet for free. What’s in your water? You may be hard pressed to find out, reports the Environmental Working Group.

The Food and Drug Administration has little authority to regulate bottled brands, according to a U.S. Congressional report released recently. While municipal water utilities are required to provide public reports of test results, bottled-water makers are not. (On the other hand, well water, which is found in many rural areas, isn’t regulated as water provided by towns and cities is.) So although you may fork over a pretty penny for bottled water, that doesn’t mean it’s any better than what’s coming out of your faucet. In fact, it could be worse and you’d never know it. The new research is backed by a second report from the Environmental Working Group.

The nonprofit advocacy organization surveyed the labels and web sites of nearly 200 popular bottled-water brands and found that less than 2 percent disclosed three important facts that can affect safety: the water’s source, purification methods, and chemical pollutants in each bottle.

Beyond H2O is different and is delivering water the way it should be – pure and refreshing – while disclosing its source, purification process, and the pollutants it DOES NOT have in it.

For more information visit our website today:

http://www.DrinkBeyondH2O.com

Beyond H2O Bottled Water Is Quickly Becoming The New Water Of Choice

Man, Bruce Lee turning in his grave right now! hahaha



Here are some incredible quotes from reputable sources regarding drinking water facts and fiction brought to you by Beyond H2O…

“Because most food contains a large amount of water, you obtain approximately 3 1/2 cups from what is eaten over the course of a day. Interestingly, the body’s metabolism itself is another source, since — as it makes and uses energy — one of its daily byproducts is about 1/2 cup of water. So, if you add up your losses (two cups for the lungs, two for sweating, and six for the intestines and kidneys), you come up with a total loss of ten cups … not counting any excess lost through perspiration during exercise. Therefore, taking into account the approximately four cups provided by food and metabolism, the average person needs to drink six to eight cups of water daily just to keep functioning well.”

– Mother Earth News

“Drinks containing concentrated nutrients, such as milk, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, and salty tomato-based juices, count more as food than drink since they themselves increase your body’s water needs.”

– N.Y. Times Guide to Personal Health

“A reduction of 4-5% in body water will result in a decline of 20-30% in work performance.”

– N.Y. Times Guide to Personal Health

“An athlete commonly loses four or five quarts (of water) in a practice session.”

– “Realities of Nutrition”

The connection between chlorinated tap water and serious health problems such as cancer and heart disease may be clearer than advertised. Read this important article on “Chlorine and Cancer.”

Brought to you by Team Beyond H2O

Inside this one-liter bottle is the life-blood for any servicemember serving in Iraq — purified, clean fish water.

I’m only half-joking when I call this “fish water.” It’s really the best-tasting purified water I’ve ever had in my life. It even tastes better than Evian or Dasani.

The only catch is that it comes from the same lake water where our demon fish friends live.

That’s right, the very water that these thousands of giant fish swim in while they enjoy our dining facility leftovers is what fills our bottles of water.

I ran across an old archived article that details the process of making this fish water something that the entire population in Baghdad drinks as if it’s going out of style.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

First, the water is pumped into a machine in the facility, where it is treated with chlorine to kill any living organisms. Then it undergoes reverse osmosis, a process that uses pressure to separate out impurities.

The water also passes through a carbon filter, which uses carbon particles with a positive charge to pull negatively charged, impure particles from the water, then through an ultraviolet light filter, which works to disable the reproductive processes of any remaining microscopic organisms.

Finally, the water is moved to a sterilized contact tank and infused with ozone, which removes anything that may have survived the previous filters and also removes any odors. The ozone dissipates into the water after two to four hours, leaving behind nothing but pure drinking water.

It’s actually a very interesting process. At the time the article was written, they were producing more than 420,000 bottles per day. That easily sustains the number of military and contractors in the Baghdad area… especially when it’s not summer anymore.

The weather has been very cool lately. Today, it was overcast all afternoon, and there are storms expected tomorrow afternoon. It’s a far cry from the 120-degree weather we were having when I arrived here in June.

I was drinking about four bottles per day for quite a while. I don’t think it was until August when someone told me where the bottled water originated.

Still, if you can get some purified fish water, I highly recommend it.

Migraine headache is a sign of water need by the brain and the eyes. It will totally clear up if dehydration is prevented from establishing in the body. The type of dehydration that causes migraine might eventually cause inflammation of the back of the eye and possibly loss of eye sight.

For more information, call us or visit our website today:
1-866-688-6672
http://www.DrinkBeyondH2O.com

there was a great article about bds by sousan hammad in counterpunch last month, which begins with a great fanon quote and engages in an important analysis of the psychological complications involved when trying to educate palestinians about bds:

“An underdeveloped people must prove, by its fighting power, its ability to set itself up as a nation, and by the purity of every one of its acts, that it is, even to the smallest detail, the most lucid, the most self-controlled people.”

–Frantz Fanon, “A Dying Colonialism”

There is an echoing sentiment here in Ramallah that Israeli milk is more “tasteful” and “nutritious” than Palestinian milk. The same goes for wine, apples, dates, juice, and just about everything else…except for maybe olives. In fact, Palestinian shopkeepers even stock Israeli-made milk at the front of their store while Palestinian milk sits in a far-to-reach crate collecting dust in the corner.

Palestinians do this for two reasons: one is they truly believe their senses, the other, and possibly more understanding, is because selling Israeli products yield a much higher profit.

A recent study by the Swiss Development Center, an organization that aims to promote Palestinian products, found that Palestinians within the higher socioeconomic strata tend to buy more Israeli goods than those in the lower strata. In French colonial-Martinique, mothers would sing to their children in French instead of their native language because it was more “civilized” to speak the colonizer’s language.

Appropriating the colonialist brand seems to imply prestige – a product, perhaps, of the inferiority complex – but if you push this aside as a psychological epiphenomenon that is a result of colonialism and consider the economic dependency Palestinians are forced to live with, one way to overcome the subjugation of the colonialist-settler (thus racist and discriminatory) policies would be to boycott Israeli products. Besides forcing Palestinians to consume their own products, it would promote and develop a domestic industry and manufactured goods. If it takes a pyramid to list all the nutritional benefits of Palestinian produce, then onward with the label! Whatever it may be, the Palestinians must ascertain that they can have a functioning society without being indebted to Israel.

This is, essentially, what the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement is about. Using Apartheid South Africa as a model, a coalition of Palestinian groups felt compelled to combat Israel’s economic power over Palestine, and, in 2005 the BDS movement was created.

Besides placing political pressure on corporations to divest from Israel, BDS focuses strongly on its consumer boycott efforts, which according to the BDS website, is to put “pressure on companies whose exports are linked to some of the most evident aspects of the Israeli occupation and apartheid.”

One of the many campaigns of BDS is to target stores that sell Israeli products and persuade them to stop stocking them. While much of the campaign is based on Israel’s exports to the West, activists here in the West Bank also try to deter Palestinian shopkeepers from selling produce that is grown in Israeli settlements. (Again, these yield more profit for Palestinians.) It is highly unlikely, though, that Palestinians will collectively and instantaneously dump their Israeli products for Palestinian manufactured goods and produce because an activist tells them so. They want to know if there is proof of sustainability.

A BDS Victory

Enter the story of Veolia and the light rail.

In 1902, Theodore Herzl wrote in his book, Altneuland, that the future of Jerusalem would be made of “modern neighborhoods with electric lines, tree-lined boulevards” and that Jerusalem would become “a metropolis of the 20th century”.

Materialized a century later as the Jerusalem light rail project, the father of Zionism’s idea of an electric-lined-boulevard is halfway in construction. When, and if, completed, the light rail will conveniently accommodate Jewish-Israelis, connecting West Jerusalem to Jewish settlements. The light rail travels through Palestinian neighborhoods, but makes no stops and as one Israeli blogger put it “…all the windows have been reinforced to be resistant to stones and Molotov cocktails.”

But officials are now facing a major setback: In June, Ha’aretz reported that Veolia, a French transportation company that was to operate the light rail post-construction, abandoned the project because of the “political pressure” it was facing: a direct implication of the BDS “Derail Veolia and Alstom Campaign”.

Said an exultant Omar Barghouti, a BDS founding member:

“Veolia’s reported intention to withdraw from the illegal JLR project gives the BDS movement an important victory: success in applying concerted, intensive pressure on a company that is complicit in the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, enough to compel it to withdraw from an illegal project. This may well usher in a new era of corporate accountability, whereby companies that are profiting from Israel’s illegal colonial and racist regime over the indigenous people of Palestine will start to pay a real price in profits and image for their collusion.”

The pressure from human rights activists and lawyers throughout Europe battered Veolia, costing it multiple contracts – a loss that amounted to more than $7 billion. From Stockholm to Bordeaux, companies dumped Veolia on account of its stake in a project that violates international law. Veolia, along with Alstom – the engineering enterprise behind the light rail – were taken to a French court by Association France-Palestine Solidarité along with attorneys from the PLO legal counsel. AFPS filed the complaint against Alstom and Veolia in 2007, arguing that the 8.3-mile project violates international law since East Jerusalem is not sovereign Israeli territory. “Our main argument is that the light rail project is intended to serve illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and thus it’s part of illegal settlement infrastructure and by being involved in project, the French companies are violating international law,” says Azem Bishara, an attorney with the Negotiation Support Unit in Ramallah.

When the Arab League organized a boycott of Israel after its colonization of Palestine in 1948, Arab countries refused to deal with Israel by boycotting their products, services and even refusing to allow Israelis into their country. Lebanon and Syria are the only countries that allegedly adhere to the boycott today, as they have yet to sign trade agreements with Israel. The Israeli Chamber of Commerce reported Israel was losing an average of 10 percent in export revenue per year when the boycott was in its prime. This spearheaded the fight by the American Jewish Committee to pressure Congress to pass an anti-boycott legislation. In 1977, then-President Jimmy Carter, who now advocates the window-dressing of Palestinian national independence, signed a law that would impose a fine on American companies that cooperated with the boycott.

It seems safe to assume that this legislative effort by AJC indicated that it, at least, believed the Arab League boycott was having some effect.

Although it was with similar calculations and campaigning that U.S. and European companies pulled out of South Africa over 20 years ago, how do we know companies like Veolia won’t be targeted by anti-boycott Israeli investors? Whether or not Veolia goes through with its withdrawal, the question remains: is it really a victory? And how can an effective boycott promote economic independence so that Palestinian milk will no longer have to be in the dustbin of stores? These are questions the boycott campaign has to confront.

one of the products that is not mentioned in the above article is coca cola, which many palestinians insist is palestinian because the owner of the franchise is palestinian (zahi khoury) and because they bottle it in al bireh, which i’ve written about before. coca cola is one of the most evil companies in the world for so many reasons. but i was delighted to discover a wonderful critique of sonallah ibrahim’s novel the committee. ever since i read his novel zaat i became enamored with his politics and his writing style. i have been dying to read this novel for a while now and finally got around to it this week. (my form of escapism and procrastination all rolled into one delightful novel.) the egyptian narrator of the novel, who is under investigation by an anonymous, foreign, non-Arabic speaking committee described as “consist[ing] entirely of officers, some of whom sometimes wear civilian clothes, or it consists of civilians, some of whom sometimes wear military uniforms,” (111) to whom he reveals the following:

Since its advent, Coca-Cola has been linked with the major trends of the age, sometimes sharing to a large extent in their formation. The American pharmacist Pemberton synthesized it in Atlanta, famous as the capital of Georgia, the birthplace of the American president Carter and of the notorious Ku Klux Klan. This was during 1886, the very year in which the famous Statue of Liberty, that symbol of the New World, was completed.

As for the bottle, it was one product of an American “war of liberation.” Having vanquished the Indians, the United States plunged into the Spanish-American War in Cuba, which ended in 1899, with the proclamation of “independence” for Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. An American soldier, who, coincidentally, had the same name as the great American philosopher of the preceding century, Benjamin Franklin, saw a bottle of a carbonated beverage made from banana syrup. On returning home, he obtained bottling rights for a new product. The bottle’s shape varied until it finally stabilized in the universally recognized form of “a girl with an hourglass figure.”

It may have been Coca-Cola that first shattered the traditional image of the ad, previously a mere description of a product. Thus it laid the cornerstone of that towering structure, that leading art of the age, namely, advertising. Certainly, it broke the long-standing illusion of a relationship between thirst and heat through the slogan: “Thirst knows no season.” It was ahead of its time in the use of radio and neon for advertisements. it sponsored television shows, produced films, and backed new international stars and idols such as actors, the Beatles, and the pioneers of rock and roll, the twist, and pop.

Coca-Cola went through two world wars and emerged from them victorious. It sold five billion bottles during the seven years of World War II. Then it slipped into Europe under the wing of the Marshall Plan, which backed the war-weakened European currencies by means of American products and loans.

It then took its place as a leading consumer product along with Ford cars, Parker pens, Ronson lighters, but still kept its finger on the pulse of today’s ever-changing world. With the advent of the great age of installment plans, and neighbor competing with neighbor for the newest model car with the largest trunk, capable of holding enough groceries to fill the largest fridge, Coca-Cola marketed the family-sized bottle, the “Maxi.”

When the United States cooperated in a new “war of liberation” in Korea, Coca-Cola created the tin can, in order to parachute Coke to the troops. The image of an American opening a can with his teeth has become a symbol of manhood and bravery. However, the can’s importance is not limited to this image or the way in which it displaced the bottle during the subsequent Vietnam War, but is outweighed by something more significant. It inaugurated the age of the “empty”: a container to be discarded after its contents have been consumed.

Without doubt, the success of Coca-Cola goes back primarily to the excellence of the organizational structure it pioneered: the pyramid. The original company comprises the tip, and the independent bottlers and distributors come below it, forming the base. At first, this unique structure enabled it to obtain the necessary financing to saturate the American market. Later, it helped the company avoid Roosevelt’s campaign against monopolies and finally allowed Coca-Cola to infiltrate the world. In opening world markets, the company relied on establishing independent franchises headed by well-known local capitalists in every country. This practice produced astounding results. Most strikingly, the American bottle came to symbolize indigenous nationalism. (19-22)

coca-cola is a metaphor for colonialism, corruption, and consumption in the novel. and he shows precisely how deviously coca-cola (like all foreign franchises of american products) works to make people think that it is somehow “indigenous” because the product is produced locally. even though that product always has to send proceeds home to the u.s., and then, of course, they send them directly back to the zionist entity for investment (see post i linked to earlier on this). ibrahim shows how coca-cola came to invade egypt later in the novel:

As you have learned, your honors, this bottle entered our country at the end of the ’40s and beginning of the ’50s under the aegis of the vast advertising campaign that facilitated its spread to even the most remote villages and hamlets. Coca-Cola became a household word.

After the revolution, Coca-Cola’s popularity soon began to wane. I found out that the Doctor, among other factors, was responsible. To wit, he tried to compete by using a local beverage destined to succeed only for a short while.

However, the crushing blow fell at the beginning of the ’60s, when the Arab governmental agencies boycotting Israel discovered that Coca-Cola had given the Israelis bottling rights. As a result, Coca-Cola was blacklisted and barred from Arab countries. The market was wide open for the Doctor. (73-74)

ibrahim’s narrator gets even more specific in his indictment of coca-cola towards the end of the novel:

Many obscure phenomena are linked to the evolution of this well-known beverage.

For example, I read of a far-reaching crusade launched in 1970 in the United States over the mis-treatment of a quarter million migrant workers on farms controlled by Coca-Cola. I mean farms, not factories. This crusade spread to television and from there to Congress. Senator Walter Mondale, at that time a member of the Committee for Migrant Workers, summoned the president of Coca-Cola to answer officially, before the United States Senate, the accusations leveled against Coca-Cola.

Not three years later, the president of Coca-Cola participated in selecting that same Mondale for membership in the Trilateral Commission I told you about in our first meeting. Then he selected him as vice president to President Carter.

At the same time as Coca-Cola was accused of the theft of a handful of dollars from its workers, we read that it dedicated vast sums for charitable and cultural works ranging from an entire university budget to an important prize for artistic and literary creativity. It also presented a huge grant to the Brooklyn Museum in 1977 to rescue Egyptian pharaonic antiquities from collapse.

Coca-Cola, according to statistics for 1978, distributes two hundred million bottles of soft drinks daily throughout the world, leaving tap water as its only rival. So, now we see it sponsoring projects for the desalinization of sea water, relying on the Aqua Chem Company that I bought a few years ago, in 1970 to be precise.

These contradictions confused me, so I did several studies on Coca-Cola. Its policy was to remain committed to the two basic principles set down by its great founders. The first principle was to make every participant in the Coca-Cola enterprise rich and happy. The second was to restrict its energies to creating a single commodity: the well-known bottle.

But the winds of change that blew in the early ’60s forced a choice between the principles. In order not to sacrifice the first, Coca-Cola preferred to diversify its products. It began by producing other types of carbonated beverages, then extended its interests to farming peanuts, coffee, and tea. It had extensive holdings int hat same state of Georgia where it was founded. its farms neighbored those of the American president Carter, which perhaps was behind its involvement in public affairs, both domestic and international, and thus its policy of diversification grew all out of proportion.

Obviously, this policy couldn’t help but be successful. In this regard, it is sufficient to mention the return of the familiar bottle to both China and Egypt through the initiative in both countries of brave patriots, who acted on their principles.

However, this success produced a strange phenomenon. With modern methods and lower production costs gained by relying on poorly paid migrant workers, Coca-Cola became the largest producer of fresh fruit in the Western world. But, sadly, it found itself forced to dump a large portion of the yield into the sea to keep the world market from collapsing.

There was no solution to this problem except to continue diversifying. Coca-Cola exploited its great assets and expertise in the field of agriculture by sponsoring many nutritional programs in underdeveloped countries, among them a project to farm legumes in Abou Dhabi, undertaken by its subsidiary, Aqua Chem. Likewise, it extensively researched the production of drinks rich in proteins and other nutrients, thereby compensating consumers for the surpluses it had been forced to dump in the ocean. (124-127)

there is so much more to the novel, but i especially love the extended commentary on the evil, insidious inner workings of coke. and, of course, which was one of the first companies to move into occupied iraq and occupied afghanistan? coca cola. here is an article on coca cola’s war profiteering in afghanistan from 2006:

Coca-Cola has returned to war-torn Afghanistan with a gleaming $25m factory, calling the country a ‘missing link’ in its international business.

Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai opened the 60,000sq-metre Coca-Cola bottling plant in capital city Kabul, more than a decade after civil war forced the soft drinks group out of the country.

It is a controversial and risky move for Coca-Cola at a time when violence directed against NATO forces in the country, including American soldiers, appears in danger of spiralling out of control.

Coca-Cola’s Kabul plant will be operated under franchise by local businessman Habib Gulzar, and is expected to focus on core carbonated soft drink brands such as Coca-Cola, Fanta and Sprite. Bottled water could be added in the future.

Selcuk Erden, president of Coca-Cola’s Southern Eurasia division, which will oversee Afghanistan, said: “Afghanistan was the missing link in our geography and we were following this country very carefully.”

The group said the country had the potential to be a strong emerging market for its drinks.

Critics have suggested Coca-Cola is not what Afghans really need right now.

Afghanistan is ranked as the fifth poorest country in the world by the United Nations. “The depth of poverty in Afghanistan is reflected consistently in all human development indicators, revealing a mosaic of a nation in need of sustained assistance,” a recent UN development report says.

and here is an article on coca cola’s war profiteering in iraq from the guardian by rory carroll:

Coca-Cola has returned to Iraq after an absence of nearly four decades, triggering a cola war in a lucrative but potentially hostile market.

Coke ended its 37-year exile last week by setting up a joint-venture bottling company to compete with Pepsi for 26 million consumers.

The upsides for Coke include a thirst-inducing climate and burgeoning Islamic conservatism which has banned beer and other alcoholic drinks in much of the country.

The downsides, besides Pepsi’s head start, are a raging insurgency and banditry which threaten supply routes, and a perception that Coca-Cola is linked to Israel and “American Zionists”.

Coke withdrew from Iraq in 1968 when the Arab League declared a boycott because of business ties to Israel, leaving Pepsi to dominate the Middle East market for soft drinks. The boycott ended in 1991, but sanctions and wars kept Coke out of Iraq.

After a trickle of Coca-Cola imports from neighbouring countries, the company is attempting a proper comeback by launching a joint venture with a Turkish company, Efes Invest, and its Iraqi partner HMBS, which will reportedly bottle the Coke in Dubai and distribute it across Iraq.

“A local bottling company will employ local people to do this,” a Coca-Cola spokesman said yesterday. “This happens in most of the 200 countries in which we operate around the world, despite the perception of us as an American company.”

The response in Baghdad yesterday was mixed. One drink wholesaler, Abbas Salih, said the initiative was doomed. “Coca-Cola does business with those who are shooting our brothers in Palestine,” he said. “How can we drink it?”

when i was searching for material on why coca cola is evil i stumbled upon this great article from 2004 that i had never found that encapsulates the numerous reasons why one should boycott coca cola by mohammed mesbahi, which is long, but well worth the read for its variety of issues (health, environmental, political, etc.):

Coca Cola was invented in the United States in 1886 as a medicine, rather than a drink, to stimulate the brain and the nervous system, from a mixture of coca leaves and kola nuts, sweetened with sugar, hence the name Coca Cola. It was not until 1893 that Coca Cola was sold and promoted as a drink. Gradually the cocaine was eliminated, but in order to maintain the stimulant effect caffeine was substituted.

Phosphoric acid (0.055%) is now added to increase the fizziness and zingy taste. This gives the drink a pH of 2.8, making it almost as acidic as lemon juice (pH 2.2), which is why more sugar has to be added in order for it to taste sweet. Weak acidic solutions will dissolve the calcium in teeth over a period of time and will also interfere with calcium metabolism. This is especially of concern to post-menopausal women, who are already have a tendency towards osteoporosis.

Stimulants and sugar are habit forming, and Coca Cola contains large quantities of both. It is now sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. Fructose is a simple carbohydrate.

Carbohydrates are divided into two broad categories:

simple carbohydrates,

e.g. glucose,

fructose (fruit sugar),

lactose (milk sugar),

sucrose (table sugar) etc.

complex carbohydrates,

e.g. starch

cellulose

High fructose corn syrup is produced by processing corn starch to yield glucose and then processing the glucose to produce a high proportion (80%) of fructose. This is not natural fructose, as found in fruit, since fruit usually contains 50% fructose, 50% glucose and is absorbed into the blood stream slowly, because the fruit also contains high levels of fibre. The fructose in high fructose corn syrup is absorbed into the body rapidly and transformed into glucose by the liver. There is currently some concern surrounding the consumption of high levels of fructose because it seems to interfere with copper metabolism and with the formation of collagen and elastin, essential components of the growing body.

When we eat (or drink) a high dose of sugar (sucrose, glucose or fructose) our blood glucose level rises suddenly, producing a feeling of elation. However high blood glucose levels also stimulate the pancreas to release insulin, which causes the glucose to be removed from the blood stream and converted into fat. This results in low blood sugar, low energy, irritability and low mood. At this point, we crave the feeling of elation associated with the sugar. This is why soft drinks are habit forming.

When, on the other hand, we eat complex carbohydrates, such as potatoes, bread, pasta, rice etc., the body breaks down these complex molecules gradually, over a period of several hours, into molecules of glucose. This glucose is released into the blood stream gradually, thus maintaining blood glucose at the level required by the body and brain for proper functioning.

Putting high quantities of sugar into drinks is an insidious way of introducing calories into people. People eating a chocolate bar are aware that they are consuming something fattening. People, especially children, consuming the same amount of calories in a drink are not. Regular consumption of drinks containing high levels of sugar lead to a gradual build up of stored fat and contribute to the rising levels of obesity in the West. Over-consumption of sugar causes over-stimulation of the pancreas. Over a period of many years, the pancreas loses its ability to produce adequate quantities of insulin. This leads to late-onset diabetes. Levels of late-onset diabetes have been rising steadily in the West over the past century.

Coca Cola, one of the world’s largest corporations, worth about ninety five billion dollars, owes much of its success to the massive marketing and advertising used to promote the product. It became a corporation early in the twentieth century and immediately began an aggressive advertising campaign throughout the US. The corporation used some advertising techniques of dubious morality, including funding the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry and suppressing a World Health Organisation Report on healthy eating. The report stated that soft drink consumption contributed to obesity. But possibly the policy which caused the most public outrage was that of paying schools to sell Coca Cola in vending machines. The corporation realised that if they could sell Coca Cola to children, by the time they finished school they would become confirmed Coca Cola drinkers and would continue to buy the drink for the rest of their lives. This strategy was so successful that Coca Cola rapidly became the most popular drink in the US.

Long before the US market had become saturated, the corporation decided to target the next place with money to spend on drinks, i.e. Europe, where they now sell thirty percent of their product. Vending machines in schools soon became common place, despite opposition from concerned parents and teachers. Under-funded state schools found it difficult to refuse the money offered by Coca Cola.

The imposition of permanent advertising in schools, in the form of vending machines, certainly justifies a boycott, and indeed some schools have organised them, in protest against the Corporation’s monopoly of products sold in school vending machines. Groups at Universities in the US and the UK are also running boycotts in protest against Coke’s human rights abuses. Berkeley, New York University, Harvard, Yale, Rutgers, Macalister and University College Dublin all have ongoing boycotts.

Coca Cola has a history of human rights abuse. “It is a fact that the soft drinks giant from Atlanta, Georgia collaborated with the Nazi-regime throughout its reign from 1933 – 1945 and sold countless millions of bottled beverages to Hitler’s Germany.” From Coca-Cola Goes to War, Jones E and Ritzman F.

While the corporation, back in the USA, was promoting Coca Cola as a morale booster for the US troops, their German representative, Max Keith was sponsoring Nazi events, including the 1936 Olympics and situating advertisements close to Nazi leaders at rallies. Sales of Coke in Germany went from zero in 1929 to 4 million cases in 1939. Coke became the most popular drink in Germany and in 1944 the company sold 2 million cases. When the Nazis began their invasions of Italy, France, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium and Norway Walter Oppenhof, Coca Cola’s German company lawyer, and Max Keith were employed by the Nazis’ Office of Enemy Property. They travelled with Nazi troops and were responsible for setting up Nazi Coca-Cola factories in expropriated soft drinks plants in countries occupied by the Nazis. They staffed these factories with kidnapped civilians. (See: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/AM483_95/projects/coke/coke.html ).

But Coca Cola’s association with fascist regimes is not confined to world war history.

In the 1970s workers at Coca Cola bottling factories in Guatemala were killed, in the 1980s Coke supported the Apartheid system in South Africa and in the 1990s they supported the brutal Abacha regime in Nigeria.

Currently SINAL TRAINAL, the Colombian workers’ union is promoting a world wide boycott in order to raise awareness of the intimidation, torture, kidnapping, illegal detention and murder of workers in the Coca Cola bottling plants in Colombia.

On the other side of the world, in several South Indian states, including Kerala and Tamil Nadu, boycotts have been running for years, despite police repression, in protest against Coca Cola’s excessive water consumption, pollution of local wells and destruction of agriculture. The Corporation’s bottling factories have been pumping water from boreholes at such a rate that they have dried up the underground aquifers. They have also been distributing the sludge produced by the factory as fertilizer. It is true that this sludge does contain substances which fertilize the soil, but Exeter University analysed it for the Kerala Pollution Control Board and found that it contained dangerously high levels of toxic metals, including cadmium. These toxic metals leach into the ground water and are taken up by crops and therefore ingested by the local population. After the BBC aired a programme about this, Coca Cola was forced to stop dumping their toxic waste on the local population, but nothing was done to clean up the already polluted environment. The protest and boycott in India continue.

The Coca Cola Corporation owns four of the world’s most popular five soft drinks: Coca Cola, diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite.

Over the past five years, Coca Cola Corporation has realised that, as water resources dwindle worldwide, even more money can be made from selling bottled water. Their sales of water are growing exponentially. Brands include Bonaqua, Dasani (US) Kinley (India), Mount Franklin (Australia) Malvern (UK) and Ciel (Mexico), but soft drinks still account for 85% of their market (at the moment). They plan to expand massively in the bottled water market but most of their advertising will go into promotion of soft drinks. Soon Coca Cola, Pepsi and Nestle will be the three main corporations selling bottled water, an iniquitous market, often depriving people of their local source of spring water, and selling it back to them at unaffordable prices.

Max Keiser, investment activist, and Zak Goldsmith, editor of the Ecologist, have formed a partnership to target Coca Cola by bringing down the value of its shares. Keiser has developed a system for measuring a corporation’s vulnerability to a boycott. He calls it the Karmabanque (KbQ) Index. The KbQ index 2004 tracks the share price of high-performing but socially and environmentally irresponsible corporations, assuming their shares had been sold short on the 1 January 2004. A short sale is a bet that a trader makes that a company’s share price will fall. The further the company’s share price falls, the more money the trader makes. Selling short stocks hurts corporations because it deflates their share price. The KbQ rating determines where a company appears in the index, and combines the amount of dissent directed at a company and its boycott vulnerability ratio (BVR). A company’s BVR indicates how susceptible its stock price is to a consumer boycott. In order to work out a corporation’s vulnerability, its market capitalization should be divided by trailing annual sales. Currently, ExxonMobil’s BVR is close to $1, whereas Coca-Cola’s is closer to $5. In other words the Coca Cola Corporation is five times more vulnerable to a boycott than ExxonMobil.

Coca Cola’s appalling human rights record, combined with its high boycott vulnerability ratio make it the ideal target for a boycott. This is why Max Keiser and Zak Goldsmith have decided to launch a hedge fund, which will be used to buy Coca Cola shares. They will then sell the shares for less than they bought them for, which will bring down their value on the international stock market. They are relying on the continuing boycott of Coca Cola products to bring the share price down still further. They will then buy the shares at a lower price than they sold them for and sell them again for even less. All profits from this venture will be donated to the victims of Coca Cola in countries such as India and Colombia.

Max Keiser and Zak Goldsmith say that for every 1,000 new boycotters, they will increase the size of the hedge fund by £5000. Goldsmith’s Ecologist Magazine will publicize the boycott and audit, track and publish the results. Keiser recommends that pressure groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth should decide what to boycott according to their Boycott Vulnerability Ratio.

There has been a history of Coca Cola boycotts in many parts of the world. But this is the first time that an investor has become actively involved in a world wide Coca Cola boycott. Max Keiser and Zak Goldsmith deserve our support. There is every reason to hope that they will succeed in bringing down the market value of Coca Cola, but for that they need more people and organisations to join the boycott.

Five years ago, you may remember, Coca-Cola caused a furore in the British media after admitting selling purified tap water for a premium price under the name Dasani (refresh your memories – if you can pardon the pun – here). They argued that although tap water was pure, Dasani was purer, because there were “different levels of purity”. 

Unfortunately, the Brits didn’t believe them, and the company stopped selling Dasani over here.

But now, they’ve had a new wizard wheeze.

Why not launch a range of drinks under the healthy-sounding name Project Life, to encourage children to drink milk?

Yes, sounds great, doesn’t it? Kids need their calcium, milk is good for them, etc etc.

Only with the drinks being created by Coca-Cola, purveyors of fizzy, tooth-rotting drinks, it’s not just milk.

Oh no.

According to an article by Maurice Chittenden in today’s  Sunday Times (read the online version of the article here), the drink contains:

“skimmed milk mixed with sparkling water, flavoured with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar.”

In fact, each bottle of the drink – which will be sold under the name Vio – contains 26g of sugar.

Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Why give your child a healthy, natural drink, when you can add crap to it and contribute further to the obesity crisis?

Interestingly, a flavour tester commented that:

“it’s big on milk flavour”

- which is reassuring, seeing as it’s supposed to be a milk drink.

And the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers was rather excited about the prospect of Coke filling our children up with this sickly sweet concoction, saying:

“Anything that helps to sell milk is great…”

But it added that it would be even better if Coke gave British dairy farmers “the odd shilling” out of it. 

We’d add two points to that.

Firstly, it would be better to just sell milk. Not milk-based sugary drinks for £1.50 a pop.

Secondly, thank goodness the drink is currently only on sale in America. If it comes over here, we’re launching a Dasani-style protest.

If you were wondering, 40% of bottled water is tap water, or maybe worse.

Want the facts?

• Up to 40% of bottled water is basically TAP WATER that corporations, such as PEPSI, COKE, and NESTLE, sell for huge profits.
• COKE’s DASANI – plain, ol’ TAP WATER guys!
• PEPSI’s AQUAFINA – Yep, TAP WATER too!
• NESTLE’s PURE LIFE – Once again, TAP WATER?!

I know I know, you HAVE to be kidding, right?

NO! WE ARE NOT!!!! www.ThinkOutsidetheBottle.org wants us to CHALLENGE CORPORATE CONTROL of WATER.

Why?? Because if we don’t act soon the quality of our public water will suffer due to corporate control. Do you want to be able to still drink that same water from your sink???? THEN KEEP READING!

—->

Corporate Accountability International had a table set up outside Whole Foods in Boston, Massachusetts today. Being the health conscious folks that we are at Food & Truth, ran over to find out more about their cause. We learned that PEPSI COKE AND NESTLE are three of the many CORPORATIONS FOOLING US, SCAMMING US, yet again, for another EASY, QUICK BUCK, with your hard-earned cash. Next time you go to buy a bottled water, remember that it’s tap water, aka water from your very sink. Sad, yes it is. What happened to the good ol’ days when my grandmother could pull over on the side of the road and got the water that ran down from the mountains while on our way to the beach? Those days are long gone.

COKE NESTLE AND PEPSI cleverly market their product to undermine people’s confidence in the very same public tap water that they use. In reality, tap water is better regulated than bottled water! Plus our public water systems DISCLOSE the quality of water while MOST BOTTLERS REFUSE TO DO THE SAME!

Some bottlers run roughshod over communities’ concerns and the environment when they extract water and build bottling plants to get local spring and ground water.

WE NEED TO CHALLENGE THE BOTTLED WATER INDUSTRY AND GALVANIZE SUPPORT FOR THE PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS.

Did you know COKE, NESTLE, AND PEPSI do not reveal their sources and sites of the water used for bottling?! YOU are paying $2.00 or more for bottled water at various vendors, and you don’t know where your water comes from?

WE NEED TO DEMAND that these corporations:

• reveal the sources and sites for the water used for bottling
• publicly report breaches in bottled water quality, comparable to reports by public water systems
• STOP THREATENING LOCAL CONTROL OF WATER WHEN SITING AND OPERATING BOTTLED WATER PLANTS!!!!!!!

STOP TRYING TO FORCE US TO BUY OUR OWN NATURAL WATER WE’RE ENTITLED TO CORPORATE AMERICA!!!!!!!

Over the course of the last year or so, I wrote a book called Bottled Spunk – Its all about branding, and how it impacts, how it works and how to create your own. I haven’t yet got around to looking for a publisher, so I thought I would publish the introduction on here to see whether there was any form of market for it and to see what people’s initial reaction was.

If I get some good comments. then I’ll either publish the full text on here or go out and look for someone to help me take it to market. It’s 20,000 words and in truth has taken me about 20 years of research to get to this draft. So here goes..

1. Bottled spunk anyone?
In February 2004, worried by the success of their Rival Pepsi’s purified water product called Aquafina, Coca Cola felt they were being left out of the fast growing and extremely profitable bottled water market. So, after a great deal of studying the market, hundreds of thousands of pounds poured into research they launched Dasani Water to the UK, expecting a similar success to that which greeted its US introduction.

With this successful launch under their belt, they took the decision to recycle the marketing campaigns that had worked so well on the other side of the Atlantic. But in an incredible oversight on the language front, they directed their eager public to their US website. On the front of this was a bikini clad lady, next to a bottle of Dasani water, shaking her wet hair with the slogan ‘Can’t live without spunk’

Can't live without Spunk? Hmmmm, I think I can!

The concept of ‘bottled spunk’ for the advertising and for any mainstream consumer website may not have absolutely universal appeal.

Testing potential issues with a brand name throughout the world is the work of experts, checking a slogan such as this would seem to be a fairly simple exercise – particularly with the might, budgets and brains of Coca Cola behind you. All this work and they failed to spot that in the US, spunk has a rather different meaning – and possibly taste!

Now they may have survived one mistake, but even after that rather shaky start, things still got worse.

A few weeks into the launch, The Grocer magazine happened to note that the water was taken from a commercial water supply in Sidcup, Kent that had been filtered. In effect it was nothing more than tap water. The claims were that because of their secret filtration process and adding of vitamins and minerals, it was particularly pure – even if it wasn’t actually spring water.

The proximity to Peckham could not be missed by the tabloids and they cited the similarity to the Peckham Spring Water that Dell Boy attempted to make famous in one episode of Only Fools and Horses.

Perhaps they could have survived two big mistakes?

But then, to make matters worse again, trading standards got involved to investigate their claims of purity and discovered traces of bromate – a potential carcinogenic that had been banned in some countries.

All the glossy packaging and advertising budgets in the world cannot hide a lie these days. The truth will out.

Our tap water in the UK is 99.96% clean and is the best in any developed nation in the world, according to latest OFWAT figures and costs 0.2 pence per litre. Theirs cost over £1, tasted the same, but could actually be more detrimental to your wellbeing.

When the press outed them, Coca Cola were forced to recall over 500,000 bottles and remove the product from sale only 38 days after they launched. They were left with lots of egg on their face, a redundant factory and a £7m waste of advertising money.

Worse than this, the story ran throughout most of mainland Europe, so planned launches to the lucrative markets of Germany and Spain were both shelved before they ever even began.

If it had been one thing, they still stood a chance, two and it was going to be more tricky, but with mistakes piling up around them, they were left with an impossible situation that only left them with retreat as an option.

Coca Cola are one of the most exceptional brand owners in the world and still made these mistakes by underestimating the global power of brands and the world we now live in where information is instant and worldwide. It is what economists describe as an almost perfect market. It is changing everything we do with brands and you need to work within the opportunities and restrictions it presents.

All of these mistakes could (and would) have been prevented by applying some of the simple rules that we lay down in this book.

What we’re going to show here, is how simple it is to begin to build an exceptional brand for yourself.

We’re going to show you what does and doesn’t make up a brand.

Then give you some simple examples and a step by step procedure to follow to create your own.

We’ll introduce you to the golden rules of what you can and can’t do with a brand and show you where some have taken their brands to the brink, only to save them at the last minute.

And show what some of the best (and worst) examples in the world can teach us about the strange and mysterious art of branding.