Eat my brands

I've fallen out with one of my favourite brands today. I always try to be an ethical consumer. It's very difficult, because so many major corporations are being naughty all the time, and it's difficult to keep track. I, however, believe that ignorance is not innocence, and we should try to make an effort to ensure we shop ethically, and don't support bad companies and their greediness. There are lots of companies I boycott. I don't enforce my boycotts on other people, we can all make our choices, but I will explain them. If you've followed my log you'll be well aware that I boycott Candarel and Nutrasweet because they produce Asparatame (I got the spelling right this time). This is a chemical used to replace sugar. The problem with it is when it get's above just 30 degress celsius, the heat acts as a catalyst and it becomes formaldehyde, and formaldehyde is highly poisonous even in small amounts. Aspartame is also used in most fizzy pop diet drinks such as diet Coke, whom I also try to boycott. These such companies originally wrote a report describing the dangers of Aspartame before it was approved in America by their food standards agency (FDA). However that all went out of the window once they realised the marketing benefits of having a sweet drink without sugar. Interestingly, Aspartame isn't even an efficient diet product, because whilst the diet drink, say, may have less fat in it, Aspartame creates a thirst for carbohydrates. In their defence the FDA will claim that Aspartame is the most thouroughly tested product ever approved, and that no other product was tested over such a long period. My question is why did they feel the need to test it so thoroughly and for so long? In fact for 16 years they denied approval because of health fears. Furthermore it was approved quiet hurridly after Donald Rumsfeld (currenly leader of the good people at Bush's defense ministry) became CEO of Aspartame producer G D Searle and co. and Ronald Reagon became the President of America. Maybe that's just me being a cynic?
So who else do I hate? Stagecoach after their arrogant CEO donated over half a million pounds to create propaganda to prevent the repeal of section 28, which made it impossible for teachers to acknowledge the existance of homosexuality in schools. Thus allowing thousands of kids to suffer homophobic taunts and bullying every day. And for the CEO, Brian Souter, it was all in the name of religion. Cheers. He was so arrogant he once sacked so many of his train drivers to save money, they didn't have enough left to run the company....dick head! I hate GAP and Nike for, amongst others, producing their clothes in sweatshops, where the staff have to work 70 hours a week, over-time is enforced and staff are fined if they don't work the over-time, and women are fined if they become pregnant, pay is around 6 american cents an hour, and the factories are so dangerous, in the case of Nike, people have burnt to death because they haven't had fire exits. Are the savings passed onto us? Even Wal-Mart isn't all that nice.
So who's my new enemy? Sadly, it's Heineken. I've been thinking about weather or not I'm being a bit harsh, but I think I'm doing the right thing to abandon my love for the product. Did you ever hear of an ITV television programme, Hotel Babylon? It was a programme which was sponsored by Heineken. Well, the story is a memo was leaked which had been written by a Heineken executive to the Hotel Babylon production team. It had stated that the programme hadn't been Heineken-ized enough, and that it didn't approve of the male contestants drinking non macho drinks such as wine. Okay, now that aint all that bad, but it's part of why so many people are starting to hate global corporations, because they invade our lives, and influence our media; how can The Independant Newspaper report the wrong doings of Nestlé when Nestlé are a major sponsor and advertiser? Most inflammatory of all was the executive went on to say that the audience in Hotel Babylon had "too high a proportion of negroes." This is where I had to draw the line, because what does that do to help erode racism? This offended me. Now, Heineken try to deffend themselves by saying they are not responsible for the actions of one member of staff. Perhaps, but I recently heard a story which made me think a little about an individuals accountability in a work place, here it is.
An employee of NCP (the UK's biggest car parking company) was recently found guilty of forging a document to find a driver guilty of parking. She had doctored a photograph of a vehicle, and superimposed a sign, so it appeared to hang on the wall beside the vehicle, which stated that parking wasn't permitted where the vehicle was. The sign was on the wall, but only after the vehicle had long since left. The driver, for some odd reason also had photographic evidence which proved that there in fact was no sign at the time of the 'offence.' So the question is, is this the actions of a viscious vindictive traffic warden, or did whis occur because of the culture and social pressure applied by NCP? Who's the guilty party?
I feel Heineken should have created a culture where racism was a clear no - no and that anyone being racist was well aware that it wouldn't go unpunished. I also discovered that Heineken had once helped support the country formally known as Burma, when it was well known for being a repressive regime.

BOOK FOR SALE:- Extremes, Contradictions in contemporary Japan. G M Thomas. very good condition. All proceeds go to Barnardos.