Mission accomplished - Coke opens in Afghanistan

[FoxOnTheRun]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-09-10T114139Z_01_SP144391_RTRUKOC_0_US-AFGHAN-COKE.xml

Coca-Cola, with its distinctive red-and-white logo, has come to Kabul in what is at once a sign of economic progress and a symbol of the failure of major businesses to open up in the five years since the fall of the hardline Islamist Taliban.

President Hamid Karzai opened the $25 million bottling plant in the capital's industrial complex of Bagrami, meaning sweet or fragrant, on Sunday.

Karzai's Western-backed government is desperate to kickstart an economy independent of the $3 billion-a-year illegal drugs trade, but has been unable to lure investors to one of the world's five poorest countries, where violence has hit a high since the 2001 war.

Karzai spoke only briefly, and waved off an offer of a glass of Fanta.

.

The average income is about $200 a year. A small bottle of Coke costs about 20 cents in the shops
"Nothing much has been done to develop the economy. There is no investment," academic, writer and former cabinet minister Hamidullah Tarzi told Reuters recently.

"We are living in a sort of artificial economy. This is completely false because there is no production and there is nothing you can call investment."

Any business looking at Afghanistan must invest heavily in security. By some estimates, 10 times as much money is spent on security as development.

[Union Thug]

1. Coca Cola a sign of "progress"?

This world is fucked up beyond all repair. Yay, a McDonalds in Moscow! Yay! Coke in Afghanistan! What tremendous leaps forward!!!

[Dem2theMax]

3. Well, first you have to spell "progress" correctly.

It's PROGRE$$.

See, now it makes sense.


I was watching NASA TV this afternoon and they are showing pics of the earth as the shuttle orbits around it. And all I could think was "poor planet." All the horrible stuff happening here. You said it, fucked up beyond all repair.

[Karenina]

2. Oh goody!

Now they'll suck up the water and poison the aquifers in Afghanistan too. As though the depleted uranium ordnance dropped there were not enough. Gotta make sure every man, woman and child in Afghanistan gets a *corporate death sentence.

A Coke And A Smile

WATER:
1. 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (Likely
applies to half world population)

2. In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak
that it is often mistaken for hunger.

3. Even MILD dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as
much as 3%.

4. One glass of water will shut down midnight hunger pangs
for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a U-Washington study.

5. Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.

6. Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of
water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain
for up to 80% of sufferers.

7. A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy
short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty
focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

8. Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of
colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast
cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop
bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

COKE

1. In many states (in the USA) the highway patrol carries
two gallons of Coke in the truck to remove blood from the
highway after a car accident.

2. You can put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will
be gone in two days.

3. To clean a toilet: Pour a can of Coke into the
toilet bowl and let the "real thing" sit for one hour, then
flush clean. The citric acid in Coke removes stains from
vitreous china.

4. To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the
bumper with a rumpled-up piece of Reynolds Wrap aluminum
foil dipped in Coke.

5. To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a
can of Coke over the terminals to bubble away the
corrosion.

6. To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in
Coke to the rusted bolt for several minutes.

7. To bake a moist ham: Empty a can of Coke into the
baking pan, wrap the ham in aluminum foil, and bake.
Thirty minutes before the ham is finished, remove the foil,
allowing the drippings to mix with the Coke for a
sumptuous brown gravy.

8. To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of coke into
a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and run through a
regular cycle. The Coke will help loosen grease
stains. It will also clean road haze from your windshield.

For Your Info

1. The active ingredient in Coke is phosphoric acid. Its
pH is 2.8. It will dissolve a nail in about 4 days.
Phosphoric acid also leaches calcium from bones and is a
major contributor to the rising increase in osteoporosis.

2. To carry coke syrup (the concentrate) the
commercial truck must use the Hazardous material place
cards reserved for Highly corrosive materials.

3. The distributors of coke have been using it to clean the
engines of their trucks for about 20 years!

Now the question is, would you like a glass of water or Coke?

[FoxOnTheRun]

5. According to the elite, like Rockefeller 80% of us have to go

Like they tried in India

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-08-22T161828Z_01_L22193800_RTRUKOC_0_US-INDIA-COLAS.xml

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's health minister said on Tuesday an environmental group that said soft drinks produced by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo contain high levels of pesticides had failed to prove its claims.

But the group, the Center for Science and Environment (CSE) rejected Anbumani Ramadoss's statement and accused him of pandering to big multinationals at the expense of public health.

[partylessinOhio]

4. Why not give them something they need, not this!

[BrotherBuzz]

6. Time for an updated remake of One, Two, Three.

Comedy movie about Coca-Cola's man in West Berlin, who may be fired if he can't keep his American boss's daughter from marrying a Communist.

James Cagney as C.R. MacNamara - funny movie back in 1961 that would play well as a double billing with The Mouse that Roared in a retro setting. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

[FoxOnTheRun]

7. get a burka and stay away from the man with the beard?

[BrotherBuzz]

11. Dah

Although the bad guys wore beards in the old movie, too. Considering the potential for social criticism and political satire, it could be easily updated and adapted into a hysterical comedy where everyone is lampooned.

[enigma000]

8. The plant will soon make bottled water

So what's wrong with economic development? Soft drinks and bottled water means jobs at the plant and distribution jobs. And tax revenue for the government.

[Union Thug]

12. Yeah, what's wrong with it? It will be much easier for Coke to kill

union leaders in Afghanistan than in Latin America, and maintain those everyday low prices!

In my opinion, progress would be developing a commons based infrastructure and stabilizing the political climate. It certainly is not measured by having the worst of American so-called culture foisted upon the people of Afghanistan.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. All right! So after they kill women for having extramarital sex or reading

they can cool off with a refreshing bottle o' Coke!

[Roland99]

10. Wonder how much control Coca-Cola now wields over Afghan water supplies?