April 1, 2007
wsf5
Coked up
‘Don’t drink Coca-Cola – or Pepsi-Cola – products. Encourage local soft-drink makers. Go back to making your own drinks: it’s much safer!’
Farmer Gilbert Rodrigo from Tamil Nadu in India spent the WSF marching around telling people not to drink Coke. His list of complaints is long. ‘Coca-Cola are coming to our communities, occupying land and taking the water. About 10 kilometres of land around each factory can’t then be cultivated because the available groundwater is lost, so about 10,000 farmers are left without jobs. Also, the untreated effluent let out by these industries is drunk by our cattle, and many of them have died.’
Rodrigo continues: ‘They come and start new companies and distribute all over the country, so all the small soft-drink makers die out – for every new international soft-drink brand that employs 5,000 people, about 15,000 soft-drink makers are going out of business. Plus, we did a lab analysis in Delhi and we found that dangerous pesticides have found their way into Coke, so we are demanding a ban. The Indian Parliament has banned it, but ironically only for their own use – they want MPs to be safe but they won’t protect the rest of us!’
Gilbert’s message is simple. ‘Don’t drink Coca-Cola – or Pepsi-Cola – products. Encourage local soft-drink makers. Go back to making your own drinks: it’s much safer!’
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Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
