Comments on: Okey Dokey Coca Cola?

By: Miko

Miko — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 07:28:27 +0000

Ok let's get this into some sort of perspective, what proportion of the 4,500 tons of garbage is made up from Coca-Cola products? I've no idea but at a rough guess I'd think maybe 0.00001% might be a fair estimate. This isn't the United States, Coca-Cola accounts for an infinitismal amount of the food and beverage market here, yet at the same time the only company which is prepared to at least give something back in the form of their environmental sponsorship is the one company you choose to publicly pillory in two posts on your blog.

When I've been swimming in the beaches of Bali and trying to avoid the countless Indomie wrappers and black plastic bags that once contained some form of Indonesian fast food I have to say I have never encountered a piece of Coca-Cola packaging but I don't recall you devoting as much energy to attacking home grown food manufacturers.

I think your outdated notion of sweet fizzy drinks being some form of " cultural imperialism" gives the game away, trust me in the grand scheme of things Coca-Cola poses less than no threat to Indonesian society, on the contrary it would appear from the evidence you yourself have provided that in fact they're being a damned sight more beneficial to Indonesian society than any of the local food and drink producers.

As Rob says all Ya'udah has to do is install a soda dispenser machine if they're that bothered about their carbon(ated?) footprint, but why do that when it's so much easier to blame the Yankees for all the problems in the world?

By: Jakartass

Jakartass — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 04:25:50 +0000

So why do you stick to Bintang at Ya 'Udah, Miko? Besides, as I say above, I didn't stop Our Kid from having Coke when we were there yesterday.

As for Italian pizza, I much prefer it to the franchised chloresterol-laden stodge available here.

But back to my main point, which is Coca Cola's hypocrisy in 'sponsoring' go green campaigns whilst adding to the 4,500 tons of garbage dumped in the Bekasi landfill every day. (See the post below.)

By: Miko

Miko — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:05:05 +0000

Ah yes, "cultural imperialism", "boycott", those terms take me back to the good ol'days, why not bung in "running dogs" and "lackeys" and it'll feel like 1964 all over again. Why do we only use these terms when related to American products? Japanese manga comics, Brazilian football stars, Italian pizzas, British pop music – all factors in the great internationalisation of our world society – never seem to evince the same frothing at the mouth that is caused by US sandwich makers and fizzy drink producers.

Oddly enough the same people who get so hysterical about such globalism are usually the same sort of people who comment about how much more "vibrant" British society has become since the 1950's with the arrival of so many foreign cultures from around the world. There's obviously "good" and "bad" foreign influences I suppose and it's easier to ignore Islamic radicalism from the Arabian peninsula or rampant Chinese commercial exploitation of Indonesian natural resources and concentrate our vitriol on the real villains of Indonesian life; the makers of carbonated beverages.

There is a country that you can avoid Coca-Cola by the way, Pyongyang is lovely at this time of year too, strangely enough the Coke bashers are never actually very keen to go there.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:22:31 +0000

Gotta say, I cannot ever recall having a coke at Ya Udah…There has gotta be a way to get a coke machine that runs the beverage straight into a glass, right? They use 'em in fast food joints like Mickey Ds…
Not possible to boycott coke altogether?