Customer Reviews

Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book really does make you think on how some big businesses actually behave in reality in todays global world. The buzzword, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and associated spin, spun by Coca Cola made me think really hard about a company that I held in high respect, prior to reading this book.

I just hope that Coca Cola learns from the exploits of Mark Thomas, absorbs the feedback and 'does the right thing' for the future of not only its employees but the people and communities, it touches.

Does this book make you not want to drink a Coke? I am not so sure. I have read similiar exposes about Wal-Mart and the fast food industry and this book is not as convincing an indictment. The book seemed more of an indictment of common insidious multi-national practices than an argument that we might actually be better off if the world just drank Pepsi and Big Cola instead of Coke.

The disreputable practices described here such as union busting, worker mistreatment, making Mexican kids fat, and stealing a town's water supply are things that many multi--national companies might well could be accused of.
Practices of American companies in foreign companies are often highly questionable, and sadly it's not exactly a shock or surprise to see that Coca-Cola would be engaging in such practices.

I was interested in what Coke might be doing in America,such as it anti-competitive practices,or attempts to put soft drink machines in schools ,but the book does not cover that subject very well.I do applaud the author's courage and good humour. I also applaud the lady Mexican store owner who had the courage to stock Big Cola in the face of the Coca-Cola intimidation.

I'm a Mark Thomas fan, and I new that I liked him before buying this book. This was my second book of his after reading 'As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade'. This one is very much in a similar vain, ranting but with intellect and proactive actions to back it all up.

Mark Thomas = necessary education.

Belching Out the Devil I guess was supposed to be a Michael Moore type exposure of the world's number one selling product and the fact that the publishers have put on the cover "Provacative, funny and stirring" and "John Pilger with laughs" (whoever he is), meant we're supposed to maybe think this will fascinate and entertain us like Super Size Me did. The book achieves none of these promises though.

Belching Out the Devil could have been a good read if it had been done by a journalist who follows the journalistic code of ethics of remaining impartial, but it's pretty evident from page one Mark Thomas has an axe to grind and didn't go into any of his interviews with various people with an open mind. His ridicule of those who love what Coca Cola has brought to their countries, such as better hygiene standards, employment and so forth isn't too impressive. Granted the reader can see these interviewees were a bit over the top in their love of the company but why not just let them decide that?

Plus since the books called Belching Out the Devil, lets play Devil's advocate for a bit. Mark Thomas brings up problems in Colombia bottlers and they are extremely serious problems such as Union people being murdered but in a country operating under circumstances similar to a civil war other than not to sell Coca Cola to the bottling plants what did he really expect Coca Cola to do? Send some executive up to the criminals and say hey Mr crime lord, that's a nice big gun you're pointing at me, now stop this chidish fighting your doing against your own people. I'm sure that would have solved everything. Maybe Coca Cola should also go and solve the problems in the Middle East while they are at it. Sure they could have stopped selling to the corrupt bottling plants but really, do you think in a corrupt lawless country there's going to be plants prepared to not to take kickbacks from the crime gangs, ignore the intimidation and instead go to war with them? In fanstasy world maybe, but not the real one.

Then we have the offering two bottles of coke to take off the shelves one rival bottle by distributors against in Mexico. Why is not up to a shop what they sell. If they chose to take 2 bottles and stop selling a rival product aren't they just as bad. What's stopping the rival company offering a deal of four of theirs for one coke bottle either? Sure the intimidation of one lady who didn't want to do this is a bad thing and deserves condemning but seriously if I manufacture a product do I have any control over what wholesalers do in their practices? For example if you make hot water systems are you responsible if local plumbers in an area are blackmailing their customers. No you're not. So why is Coca Cola? Mark Thomas never answers these questions.

The book has some interesting observations such as the statue of the company's founder being a lot slimmer than he actually was and the fact Fanta was invented by the Nazis during World War II due to a lack of Coke's ingredients but these are few and far between. Plus with the research skills Thomas has shown in other parts of the book, you don't even know if they are true.

If it's in your library check it out but I wouldn't pay money for this. A better book (fiction though) on Coca Cola which does make fun of the company's practices is Syrup by Maxx Barry. Get that instead!

I will have to be honest & say this is not for Faux News Fans (I will leave it to the reader to guess the network/s). Of course, this would never make Faux news as those anchors would choke on the Damn Truth before speaking it to power. This disclaimer is just to save the naive mainstream news addict's stomachs from belching out the devil should they be so blessedly biased.
Mark Smith is a modern day Mark Twain using pop humor with a delicious twist of wickedness. His writing is a welcome treasure I found by surfing Amazon. It is on the mark, clever, humorous, & biting + plus the way he's sarcastically twisting corporate lies with a malicious glee is just the way I like my martinis/with bite.
The following are some of the business practices of Coca-Cola that Mark puts in his investigatve journalistic crosshairs: communties lack of access to clean water; working with no job security protection, with long hours and no pay; children working in fields for Coke's sugar who are not given a hands up and condemned to poverty; unsafe working conditions; fired for any whiff of union on their clothing or in their minds; unpaid taxes; taking the water from communities that desperately need it for their families - just to survive; & by monopolizing local markets, so that other local competitors are effectively taken out of their own markets.
Get the picture? (If not your vision will be uncorporatized by reading, Belching Out The Devil.)
There a serious business side to Mark's humorous writing style. It was his style that it made it more palatable for me in this, the not so pleasant business of knowing what the corporate media does not want me to know. The problem is that Coke is no longer palatable to me.
There are many stories here of people and places around the globe. My favorite was of Raquel Chavez who took a bold stand against the giant Coca-Cola company and won. Not Money but her Pride... she will always be a sour name for Coke. As the author relates, she was recently visited by a student who was doing a new course on monopoly practices in business and wanted to study her case. For me, as well as anyone who reads this story, you too will find a certain joy that a woman who had fought so hard for her children to go on to higher education, is finding her storty being taught at that university.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!!