Bush Administration's pushing of Coca-Cola in India smacks of economic imperialism (opinion)

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In the run up to the 2004 election, the George W. Bush presidential campaign received more than $380,000 from the Coca-Cola company and its affiliates. That "investment" of influence seems to be paying off nicely for Coca-Cola today as the Bush Administration is going to bat for the American company which is under fire in India for the pesticide content of its products.

Researchers at India's Center for Science and Environment have repeatedly detected alarmingly high levels of residues in Coca-Cola products sold there, and several Indian states have thoughtfully decided to ban the drinks from public institutions such as schools and government offices. The U.S., in response, is now engaged in a campaign of pro-business bullying that can only be called, "economic imperialism."

In this campaign, the goal of U.S. trade authorities under the Bush Administration is to force India to reinstate the selling of Coca-Cola products to its people, regardless of the pesticide content. The basis for this demand is not founded in science, but rather politics: The products are safe because we say they are!

The attitude of the U.S. government seems to be that all nations should blindly accept U.S. products and policies -- everything from Coca-Cola to our own brand of corrupt Democracy -- without question. Those nations who question U.S. imperialism are branded as either terrorists or failed states who are, "harming their own people" by blocking the sale of products like Coca-Cola.

It's a massive distortion of reality, of course. Because in reality, these high-acid, high-sugar soft drinks actually harm people by promoting obesity and diabetes, along with bone density loss, blood sugar disorders and nutritional depletion. Both the Coca-Cola company and the U.S. government have long operated under the absurd illusion that carbonated sugar water drinks are, somehow, America's gift to the rest of the world. But that "gift" has actually given the world something far different: rampant obesity and diabetes that's now beginning to reflect the ever-worsening state of health in the U.S.

Not only is India right to ban Coca-Cola, but every nation would enhance the health of its people by doing the same. By any reasonable scientific measure, carbonated sodas are harmful to human health, and any nation that would force them upon another nation through policies of economic imperialism is guilty of nothing less than exporting obesity and diabetes, along with the enormous health care costs necessary to treat such conditions.

It's the American gift to India: Obesity, diabetes, bone loss and decades of skyrocketing health care costs that will probably bankrupt your national economy. And all the while, pro-business agitators, who have sold their souls to business interests, will claim it's all "good for the economy!"

It does prove one thing, though: U.S. trade authorities have no shame in aggressively promoting the business interests of influential American corporations. Because in their eyes, every other nation in the world is simply a collection of new victims ready to be exploited for corporate profits.

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