As we engage in discourse with due regard to muffins, I can now tell you that another tasty delight from the USA, namely Coca Cola, has been making a big impression on our local radio waves. A reporter from the BBC took himself off on a trip to Kerala in India to investigate the reports which are coming out of the country about how Coca Cola is treating the local environment. He visited farmers, villagers, Coca Cola Plant Senior Management, and returned to the UK with samples he had personally collected from wells, fields and rivers adjacent to the Kerala Coca Cola Factory.
Coca Cola has sunk very deep wells to extract water for their processing. The local people are struggling to find water. The water that they do find now contains a number of mineral impurities which make it unsuitable to drink. The black industrial waste which Coca Cola produces is taken out of the factory and given to the local farmers as 'fertilizer'. The black waste contains high levels of cadmium which causes kidney and liver damage, and it also contains high levels of lead, which is a toxic substance which causes damage to childrens' nervous systems.
The reporter described the Coca Cola gift of 'fertilizer' to local farmers as "a cynical exploitation to dispose of the company's waste".
He put all of these points to Sunil Gupta, a very senior manager of the plant who promised to send the Coca Cola Report on the effects of their industrial plant on the local areas.
The report has not arrived yet. Mr Gupta refused to drink the water which had just been collected in a bottle from a well outside his factory's compound.
Why oh why is Byron raising yet another issue about American involvement in the rest of the world? I hear you ask!
Please read this posting again and it will be obvious to those who have the eyes to read and the intellect to consider its contents.
I have been to India more than once. I have seen the poverty which is prevelant. I listened to BBC Radio4, describe the exploitation of the natural resources of Kerala by a large multi national, and I felt sick at the thought of what those poor people are having to suffer, just so that big bucks and profit margins are achieved.
It was continually put to Coca Cola's representative that it would be impossible for their company to behave in such a way in the United States. There would be hundreds of lawyers claiming millions of dollars in civil court actions against Coca Cola in America, but because its on the other side of the world and out of the American publics' gaze, the managers are doing whatever they want, and local poor peasants are suffering. The phrase I have to use is 'Double Standards'.

By all means let us enjoy our muffins, especially covered in thick sweet syrup, but just for a moment, today, give a thought to those peasants in Kerala. We've all been annoyed by the situation in Nigeria where a woman faces public stoning for adultery, because we feel that she faces unjust and unethical treatment by powerful people. I don't really think we can say there is much difference here, where people and their developing children, could be poisoned, because powerful people want their way in Kerala, or board rooms.
The programme will be repeated later in the week for those who would take issue with my posting.
"Democracy Isn't Coming To India". (My words)
Byron sends his regards.
"Bipolar is a roller-coaster ride without a seat belt. One day you're flying with the fireworks; for the next month you're being scraped off the trolley" I said that.