From a discussion Pepsi vs Coke om JMG I posted the following

I detest Coke... here’s why. In the early 80's I was a math teacher in Guatemala. For some reason the dictatorship allowed the film Gandhi to play. Mind you this was the time of death squads, and bombings. If you even mentioned the word... union... you, your family, and most probably your neighbors would be disappeared...after a bit of torture, most often your body was dumped in the Pacific or a live volcano. The minimum wage was something like 65 cents a day... the Coca Cola bottling franchise for most of Central America was in Guatemala City. Due to the dire circumstances of water at the time, and the "happy" propaganda that Coke spews... you were often forced to drink coke, as the water was unsafe to drink. They workers were paid 10 cents less a day than was required. The film taught them that they could protest peacefully, so the workers brought in their entire families, locked the doors and began to clean and paint and restore the factory to gleaming cleanliness and waited. Over a period of months a number of us began writing letters, first to the ambassador, then the coke company in the states, then our senators… as was the case at the time, there was an almost complete blackout of what was going on in Central America. When the news began to leak out,,, they capitulated and agreed to pay minimum wage…. It took a few months, and people endangered their lives sneaking food in to factory. I can’t stand that happy Santa or Polar bear Coke crap at Xmas time… this taught me to really think about where shit I buy comes from… To this day, I’d rather go a week with out bananas before buying a Chiquita, and I refuse Coke always…

In Amparo, Sao Paulo there is an obscure little botique cola sold... my family, knowing that I refuse to drink anything for m the USA while abroad (guarana is by far superior anyway) bought a couple of liters of this once... fabulous. I like the Cuba over the USA motif...

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