permaculture

[Michael Pilarski <friendsofthetrees@yahoo.com>]

http://www.rt.com/news/bolivia-ban-coca-cola-581/

Bolivia to expel Coca-Cola in wake of 2012 Mayan 
'apocalypse'

 01 August, 2012, 17:16 
 



 
A woman stands on a street corner in 
Oruro, a Bolivian mining town in the Andes Mountains 

In a symbolic [?] rejection of US capitalism, Bolivia announced it will expel 
the Coca-Cola Company from the country at the end of the Mayan calendar. This 
will mark the end of capitalism and usher in a new era of equality, the 
Bolivian 
govt says.
“December 21 of 2012 will be the end of egoism and division. December 21 
should be the end of Coca-Cola,” Bolivian foreign minister David 
Choquehuanca decreed, with bombast worthy of a viral marketing campaign.
The coming ‘end’ of the Mayan lunar calendar on December 21 of this 
year has sparked widespread doomsaying of an impending apocalypse. But 
Choquehuanca argued differently, claiming it will be the end of days for 
capitalism, not the planet.

“The planets will align for the first 
time in 26,000 years and this is the end of capitalism and the beginning of 
communitarianism,” said Choquehuanca as quoted by Venezuelan newspaper El 
Periodiquito.
The minister encouraged the people of Bolivia to drink Mocochinche, a 
peach-flavored soft drink, as an alternative to Coca-Cola. Venezuelan 
President 
Hugo Chavez followed suit, encouraging his country to ditch the American 
beverage for fruit juice produced in Venezuela. 
­
McFailure
Last year, Bolivia became the second Latin American country not to have a 
single McDonald’s. The fast food giant finally gave up on Bolivia after being 
unable to turn a profit in the country for over a decade.
Following this failure, the monolithic multinational released a documentary 
titled ‘Why McDonald’s failed in Bolivia.’ Referencing surveys, 
sociologists, nutritionists and historians, the company came to the 
conclusion 
it was not their food that was the issue, but a culturally driven boycott.
Bolivian President Evo Morales has a reputation for controversial policies 
similar to the Coca-Cola ban. Morales pledged last month to legalize the 
consumption of coca leaves, one of the main ingredients of 
cocaine.

“Neither the US nor capitalist countries have a good reason 
to maintain the ban on coca leaf consumption,” said Morales.
The coca leaf was declared an illegal narcotic by the UN in 1961, along with 
cocaine, opium and morphine. The consumption of coca leaves is a 
centuries-old 
tradition in Bolivia, strongly rooted in the beliefs of various indigenous 
groups.

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