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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsnow who wrote (12533)	6/21/1999 4:48:00 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17770

goldsnow, Thanks for the article. CEO Douglas Ivester flew back to Atlanta yesterday, making the whole local press angry because he didn't even deign to grant them an interview.... Hence, the current diatribes levelled at Coca-Cola's communication policy. Regarding France, she's only riding piggyback on the Belgian wave: the French are just too glad to have a dig at yet another ''Yankee junkfood icon''. Besides, they haven't forgotten their own food scandals: the benzine-poisoned Perrier and, more recently, the scandal involving several renowned vineyards of Bordeaux. Indeed, according to a renegade French wine merchant, several wine growers used to blend their superior vintages with low-grade wines, a practice that is positively forbidden in France (but not in Italy, for instance). This anecdote has badly hit the reputation of France's foremost export. Anyway, as I said earlier, this whole Coca-Colagate is a backlash scheme devised by the Flemish bourgeoisie who is anxious to divert the public's attention off the ''dioxin-chickengate'' --which is estimated at a $1.4 billion bill so far. Keep in mind that on the day the scandal unfolded, the Belgian government held a restricted crisis cabinet gathering a couple of Flemish ministers only: Premier Jean-Luc Dehaene (Christian-Democrat), Minister of Agriculture Pinxten (Christian-Democrat), Deputy Premier and Minister of the Interior Luc Van den Bosch, inter alia. I suspect that the Coca-Colagate, somehow, was masterminded in this restricted cabinet and afterwards relayed by some henchmen of the powerful agribusiness lobby. Hopefully, it should recede in the coming days since US corporations account for roughly 100,000 jobs in Belgium and for about 30% of the country's annual value-added. Today, only four brands are still banned: Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light, Fanta, and Sprite. Regards, Gustave.