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Belching Out The Devil: Global Adventures With Coca-Cola (2008)

by Mark Thomas(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0091922933 (ISBN13: 9780091922931)

languge

English

genre

Food & Cookbooks

publisher

Ebury Press

review 1: You think you're holding a simple can of Coca-Cola in your hand. To hear the workers of TCCC (The Coca-Cola Company)stories, though, is to enter the deceitful, unscrupoulous world of a multinational company focused solely on their profit margin or so it seems likely. Mark Thomas does a beautiful job of sharing his research about the company while deftly weaving satire and humor into a engaging and appalling story of human rights issues. Be forewarned there is some cursing used as emphasis every now and again. What I really appreciate, though, are the well-cited references that Mr. Thomas provides to back up and support all of his assertions and when, on ocassion, the references are lacking there is an asterisk to point out "This is an urban myth" or the like.I think Mr. Th... moreomnas sums up TTTC well in one sentence-- "The Company's ability to take credit for positive news is monumental. In fact it is inversely proportional ot their ability to distance themselves from the negative"(pg.223). For instance workers in Coloumbia have been killed for joining a union while working at Coca Cola plants. Coke says the bottlers are independent, so they're not responsible. Coke is just the concentrate and the brand name--that's all they claim to be socially and corporately responsible for. If you like riddles, then this might be the book for you. You'll certainly find yourself perplexed and puzzled more than once while reading "Belching Out the Devil." Afterall I think it takes a puzzle master to figure out why "someone at Coke in India decided it would be a good idea to oppen a water-intensive industry [Coke's main ingredient is water--you might want to consider that the next time you're buying your bottle of Coke]in a drought prone area" (pg. 205). In fact, the area TCCC opened its plant, Kaladera, India is located in an area that "has been in drought for 50 of the past 106 years--47% of the time (Original source author interview with Profressor Rathore-secondary source, pg. 205)." If you figure that riddle out, let me know!Overall it was an intriguing read. Thoughtful, funny (laugh out loud a few times, funny), and sad. If I was a Coke drinker I would no longer be. Guess that means no more Sprite either . . .Thanks, Mark, for travelling the world to talk to those who encounter the real story of Coke. It's definitely not about warm-fuzzy Cola drinking polar bears.
review 2: I've always been an admirer of Mister Thomas' work, since the days of his television show, The Mark Thomas Project, so was really looking forward to reading this.I wasn't disappointed. Corporations are heartless and bad, we all know that, but Coca Cola are something else. I'm not going to say any more than that in this review as I haven't got as good a lawyer as Mark Thomas. But, if you're after a well researched & documented expose about the Coca Cola company, then this it. less

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