Who Does More To Fuck Up The World?

[Vomit Comet]

Take the fun poll.

[vic vinegar]

Maybe I'm biased because USA-style evangelicalism is the closest to home for me but that's who I voted for. Their ability to sway American politics, both at home and abroad, makes them a pretty powerful force.

[Guest Valk0010]

Other, Humanity.

[JadedAtheist]

I see American fundamorontheists as having quite a lot of influence in American politics and thus it would have a worldwide effect but I'm not sure if that has more of a negative affect on people's lives in general than say Catholicism? I think with the later's teaching on sexuality, sin and so forth, we have a worldwide and ongoing problem that affects a great portion of people's lives. It's a mental terror as well as a propagator of sexual diseases like AIDS et cetera.

[Suzy]

As a Xtian I have seen the dangers of Islam fundamentalism, but ironically enough I was blind to the fact how close Xtian fundamentalism can be to that. Now I see that, of course. Still I voted for Islam fundamentalism. Perhaps that's because I'm in Europe and Xtian fundamentalism here is not so present as in the US. My church was a fundie one (Pentacostal, more precisely), but it's a minority here. In fact, by the majority it's regarded as a Xtian "sect" (in the pejorative sense). In the Eastern part of Europe Islam fundamentalism isn't so present yet either, but in the Western part it is - I'm talking about the problem of immigrants, of course, who take their religious fundamentalism with them. I personally think on the long term this is what poses a danger to the development of Europe. I doubt many Europeans will ever go back to Xtian fundamentalism. But Islam fundamentalism will spread through immigrants IMO. So I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of hundreds of years Europe would go in the direction of Islam fundamentalism and the US in the direction of Xtian fundamentalism (oh, they are pretty much already there). And this could be a root of new conflicts between the two continents. Sadly, Enlightenment, scientific development could be the biggest loser in all this on both continents.

[Margee]

They all do - in their own way!

[Deva]

It is the fundamentalist black and white "us and them" "I am right and you are wrong" one- dimensional type of mindset that plagues humanity.

 

A complete unwillingness to examine facts - like people stumbling around in the world with blinders on. A closed mind not open to any ideas that might contradict their own.

 

It is present in all religions, and all fields of endeavor. Academia,science, nontheism/ atheism as well.

 

It is particularly dangerous when combined with nationalism.

[Legion]

I think totalitarianism, in all its spendid religious and political manifestations, has done the most harm. But it wasn't an option.

[BrotherJosh]

Most everyone already made the points I agree with. I voted Evangelical Christianity, though Islamic Fundamentalism is up there in my opinion. I see fundy xtianity as being the graver threat, simply because it influences American politics so much, which in turn effects us here, but more importantly other countries around the world. Xtians want a president who talks to Jeebus and then makes foreign policy decisions.

[Vigile]

Other: Multinational corporations. Pandering to religions is just one of the tricks they keep in their bag.

[Legion]

Coca-Cola is evil.

[par4dcourse]

I personally think it's Legion, but voted for "other" as in religion in general.

[Legion]

I personally think it's Legion, but voted for "other" as in religion in general.

Par

[OpheliaGinger]

As far as any religions go, they all do because they skew reality and foster intellectual laziness, but I think the real enemy is profiteering at any cost.

[RedDogTolstoy]

I would have said the 'Murkan Fundies, but there are 6 Catholics on the US Supreme Court who are hell bent on making non-human corporations rulers of the planet earth.

[Vigile]

http://killercoke.org/

 

Guatemala

 

On February 25, 2010, another human rights abuse lawsuit against Coca-Cola was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York and later moved to federal district court. "This case involves a campaign of violence - including rape, murder, and attempted murder - against trade unionists and their families at the behest of the management of Coca-Cola bottling and processing plants in Guatemala."

 

It should be noted what happened in the '70s and '80s in Guatemala City: According to "Soft Drink, Hard Labor" published by the Latin America Bureau (UK) in 1987, "For nine years the 450 workers at the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Guatemala City fought a battle for their jobs, their trade union and their lives. Three times they occupied the plant — on the last occasion for 13 months. Three General Secretaries of their union were murdered and five other workers killed. Four more were kidnapped and have disappeared. Against all the odds they survived."

 

Read more about Coca-Cola's crimes in Guatemala.

Turkey

 

In Turkey, in 2005, 105 workers at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Istanbul joined a union and were terminated. They organized a lengthy sit-down strike in front of the main offices of Coca-Cola in Turkey. After several weeks of protesting, Coca-Cola workers entered the building to demand their reinstatement. While leaders of the workers were meeting with senior management for the company, the company ordered Turkish riot police to attack the workers who were by all accounts peacefully assembled, many with their spouses and children. Nearly two hundred of them were beaten badly and many required hospitalization. Lawsuits are pending.

 

Read more about Coca-Cola's crimes in Turkey.

China

 

In China: Based on undercover investigations at several Coke plants, Chinese press reported in December 2008 that Coke employees are "involved in the most dangerous, intense and tiresome labor, work the longest hours, but receive the lowest wages and face arrears and even cutbacks in their pay." One investigator claimed that Coke violated Chinese labor laws and reported that workers "often worked 12 hours per day for an entire month without a single day off."

 

In a report, "Violence in Coca-Cola's Labor Subcontracting System in China," it was revealed:

 

"On the 12 August 2009, a labor dispatch company hired by Coca-Cola's designated Hangzhou-based bottling plant was discovered to have threatened two university student-workers who asked for their own and their two other fellow workers' back pay upon their resignation. Xiao Liang, 24, was beaten up by two managers at the labor dispatch company's office, resulting in serious wounds over his left eye, left hand, and right ear. Xiao Xu sent Xiao Liang to the Dongfang Hospital immediately after police arrived on the scene. Xiao Liang was later diagnosed with a ruptured eardrum, resulting in compromised hearing capacity..."

 

Two years earlier, BBC News (5/21/07) reported that Coca-Cola has been accused of benefiting from prison labor in China.

 

Read more about Coca-Cola's crimes in China.

Mexico

 

Mexico, the country with the highest per capita consumption of Coca-Cola, is a huge profit center for Coke to the detriment of the health of millions of children and adults who suffer an inordinate rate of obesity, diabetes and other serious maladies. Dr. Ann Lopez, author and environmental science Professor, Ph.D. at San Jose City College in California, and Director of the Center for Farmworker Families states:

 

"The people of west central Mexico are easy corporate prey for predator Coke. You can't stand anywhere in some of the rural towns and not see a Coke ad. I've seen what Coke is doing in the west central Mexico countryside where I do research: pushing their addictive products on peasant populations who can ill afford them and in which one in 10 may have undiagnosed diabetes."

 

To control the soft drinks market in Mexico, Coca-Cola has shown repeatedly it will break the law. The Angel Alvarado Agüero case, currently in the Mexican courts, describes how this former marketing executive of Coca-Cola was unjustifiably dismissed when he refused to carry out illegal monopolistic marketing practices as directed by the Company. This case also highlights how The Coca-Cola Co. is cheating Mexican workers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in profit sharing and other benefits and shortchanging the Mexican government out of millions of dollars in tax revenues.

 

Investigative reporter Beverly Bell pointed out that "...more than 12 million people do not have access to potable water in Mexico." She explains how then-Mexican President Vicente Fox, who prior to his election in 2000 was president of Coca-Cola in Mexico and Latin America, "...with help from the World Bank-has successfully pursued water privatization, as well as a massive land privatization program, that allowed companies free access to all the resources on the land, including water."

 

Bell wrote in 2006, "Since 2000 [while Fox was president], Coca-Cola has negotiated 27 water concessions from the Mexican government. Nineteen of the concessions are for the extraction of water from aquifers and from 15 different rivers, some of which belong to indigenous peoples. Eight concessions are for the right of Coke to dump its industrial waste into public waters."

 

Read more about Coca-Cola's crimes in Mexico.

El Salvador

 

In addition to abuse of workers, Coke has been involved in the exploitation of children by benefiting from hazardous child labor in sugar cane fields in El Salvador. This was first documented by Human Rights Watch in 2004 and in footage taken in 2007 for a nationally-televised British documentary and highlighted in Mark Thomas's book "Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola," published in 2009 in the U.S.

 

Representatives of the International Labor Organization interviewed company representatives at Colombian Coca-Cola bottling plants in 2008 to ascertain whether they exercised any control of suppliers of raw materials (such as sugar) to ensure that they did not use child labor. The manager at the Coke plant in Cali said that their suppliers should not use child labor, but added "that the enterprise [Coca-Cola] did not yet exercise oversight over this issue."

 

Read more about Coca Cola's crimes in El Salvador.

India

 

Of the 200 countries where Coca-Cola is sold, India reportedly has the fastest-growing market, but the adverse environmental impacts of its operations there have subjected The Coca-Cola Co. and its local bottlers to a firestorm of criticism and protest. There has been a growing outcry against Coca-Cola's production practices throughout India, which are draining out vast amounts of public groundwater and turning farming communities into virtual deserts. Suicide rates among Indian farmers whose livelihoods are being destroyed are growing at an alarming rate. Every day for years there has been some form of protest, from large demonstrations to small vigils, against Coca-Cola's abuses in India.

 

One target of protest has been the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Plachimada, Kerala, which has remained shut down since March 2004 as a result of the community-led campaign in Plachimada challenging Coca-Cola's abuse of water resources.

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke | http://KillerCoke.org

Campaign Supporters Outside

Coca-Cola's New York City Offices.

 

The International Environmental Law Research Centre issued a report in 2007 that stated, in part, "The deterioration of groundwater in quality and quantity and the consequential public health problems and the destruction of the agricultural economy are the main problems identified in Plachimada. The activity of The Coca Cola Company has caused or contributed a great deal to these problems...The availability of good quality water for drinking purposes and agriculture has been affected dangerously due to the activity of the Company. Apart from that, the Company had also polluted the agricultural lands by depositing the hazardous wastes. All these points to the gross violation of the basic human rights, that is, the right to life, right to livelihood and the violation of the pollution control laws."

 

In 2009, the government of Kerala set up the High Power Committee to Assess the Extent of Damages Caused by the Coca-Cola Plant at Plachimada, India, which "recommended that Coca-Cola be held liable for Indian Rupees 216 crore (US$ 48 million) for damages caused as a result of the company's bottling operations in Plachimada."

 

Read more about Coca-Cola's crimes in India.

 

Lest the website gets accused of being slanted, my evil communist professors covered this same material when I was in school.

[Overcame Faith]

I said Roman Catholicism because of their direct influence worldwide. These are the people who go to AIDS stricken Africa and preach against condom use, thus helping to spread AIDS.

[SilentLoner]

Tough call. Islam and xtianity both have helped fuck up their respective parts of the world and continue to do so.

[Brought None]

I'll take the Soylent Green answer...

 

IT'S PEOPLE!

[Xerces]

Too complex a question to give a simple answer. So I voted other. Everyone seems to have some role whether minor or major but it does not mean the better portion cannot correct their mistakes or lessen the severity of what they do to where it doesn't harm anyone.

[florduh]

The Catholic church wins, pants down.

[Guest Valk0010]

I would have said the 'Murkan Fundies, but there are 6 Catholics on the US Supreme Court who are hell bent on making non-human corporations rulers of the planet earth.

preach brother

[older]

Given the choices, I would say historically, it would be Catholicism. This was, after all, the main Christian religion for well over 1500 years. Today, Catholicism edges out fundamentalism only slightly because of the former's influence in the developing world, primarily Africa. The hard line against birth control is leading the planet to a point of unsustainability, and many of our current environmental problems can be traced back to overpopulation. Fundamentalism is close behind, however, due to it's aggressive and often socially and politically disruptive proselytizing. Witness the reactions of people in Afghanistan to any hint of a Christian motivation behind our invasion, and the very real possibility that they are right.

[Galien]

As far as any religions go, they all do because they skew reality and foster intellectual laziness, but I think the real enemy is profiteering at any cost.

 

Hell yeah.

[Legion]

I figured it out. I know who fucks up the world the most.

 

People with power who believe their power exempts them from being bound by virtue, these people truly fuck up the world.