North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 3, 2008 Page: 4 of 10
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Page 4 Thursday. Aprii 3.2008
0
Arts & Life
Rachel Slade
Arts & Life Editor
nt_a rtsa nd I ife@yahoo.com
Mouthwatering
the food snobs visit chinatown
caff tomorrow in the scene.
Coca-Cola allegations stir controversy on campus
By Brittany Hibbs
Contributing Writer
Typing "Coca-Cola" in the
search option on Facebook
brings up more than 500 groups
in several languages involving
the soda recognized as "The
Real Thing" by people across
the globe.
While most groups are meant
for fun, the choices include three
created by NT students calling
for NT to cancel its contract with
Coca-Cola and informing others
about the alleged corruptions
committed by one of the biggest
corporations in existence.
The allegations
"I first heard about it in high
school when a friend of mine
came over and refused to drink a
Coke at my house," said Ritchard
Ludlow, a Denton junior who
created the "Coca-Cola tastes like
delicious evil at UNT" group.
That's when his friend told
him about accusations against
Coca-Cola.
The creators ofkillercoke.org
are devoted to spreading aware-
ness of accusations against Coca-
Cola and advocating change,
especially through student
activism.
Accusations include reports of
depleting village groundwater for
factory use in India, employing
child labor in bottling plants and
incidents of kidnapping, torture
and murder of union workers
and organizers by paramilitary
forces in Colombia.
The Web site also alleges
that about nine union leaders
at Coca-Cola's bottling plants
have been murdered in Colombia
since 1990.
Coke's response
Coca-Cola released an offi-
cial statement in response to the
Colombia allegations stating the
corporation respects the rights of
all its employees, including those
who belong to unions, according
to www.cokefacts.com.
A recent evaluation done by Cal
Safety Compliance Corporation,
an organization that conducts
corporate social accountability
audits, found that Coca-Cola
bottling factories in Colombia
had no human rights violations,
according to the Web site.
Coke said in the statement
that it values being a stakeholder
working to "strengthen the coun-
try's political infrastructure, end
violent internal struggles and
restore peace and stability for
the Colombian people."
Traveling protester
Mike Sutton, owner of
Voyager's Dream at 1306 W.
Hickory St., has visited Colombia
on three separate occasions.
The second trip, made in 2006,
was to participate in a boycott
against Coca-Cola. It was during
his first trip that Sutton was told
about the alleged human rights
violations.
"We met with different kinds
of union workers, and I had no
idea about this," Sutton said.
"And they made it a point to
us that they were under death
threats just because they were
talking to us."
Sutton said after he returned
home, he discovered that a few
union workers he'd spoken with
had died.
"They risked that so that we
would come back and spread
awareness," he said, "they
wanted me to take want I learned
down there and bring it back
locally."
Union workers, organizers and
student protesters are consid-
ered a threat to the Colombian
government, Sutton said.
When he visited Colombia,
nonunion workers in the bottling
plants were paid nine cents per
hour, and union workers were
paid only four cents, he said.
Sutton blames Coca-Cola for
ignoring the issues.
"All they want is for Coca-Cola
to come talk to them; it's a pretty
simple thing," Sutton said. "If
Coke spent half the money they
do trying to squelch the threat of
people finding out what they do
Photo illustration by Khai Ha / Intern
Several NT students are calling for the univeristy to cancel its contract with Coca-Cola after it was accused of human rights violations by union workers in Colombia.
and pay their workers, everyone
could be happy."
Sutton said students are
the best instruments to effect
change.
"They tend to know what's
right from wrong," he said.
Petitioning NT
Ludlow said one way to make
a change is by boycotting Coke's
products, something he encour-
ages NT students and members
of his group to do.
"Ethically at least partial
boycotting is important," Ludlow
said. "Dodging it as often as you
can is important, especially if
you're a student."
Ludlow said he also plans to
draw up petitions to ban the
selling of Coke products at NT
and wants to make them avail-
able for students to sign by
setting up a table in one of the
free speech zones on campus.
Kansas City junior Michael
judge created his "Ask President
Bataille about Killer Coke"
Facebook group after trying
to speak with NT President
Gretchen Bataille about the issue
last fall in her "Really, Let's Talk"
forum.
He said he created the group
after a few failed attempts to ask
Bataille to consider having the
issue investigated and sending
various documents about the
accusations.
"More than a few people care
about this," Judge said. "I know
that I, as well as others, would
appreciate a choice to purchase
products other than Coca-Cola
products."
Judge said he is in the plan-
ning stages of a protest against
the selling of Coca-Cola products
on campus.
Ludlow also spoke with
Bataille at the last "Really, Let's
Talk" on March 26, where he
brought up the issue of looking
into banning Coke including
its Dasani water, Minute Maid,
Powerade and Odwalla prod-
ucts.
NT's response
Bataille said she has submitted
the issue to NT's Sustainability
Council for review and will be
expecting recommendations
from the council about whether
or not it would be beneficial to
sever NT's contract with Coca-
Cola, which expires in 2014.
"The bottom line is we're
looking at all the facts," Bataille
said.
If NT successfully banned
Coke products from campus,
it wouldn't be the first school
to do so.
Ten others, including New York
University and the University
of Michigan have canceled
their business relations with
Coca-Cola for ethical reasons,
according to an article in The
New York Times.
Sutton said that with effort,
banning the selling of Coke prod-
ucts at NT is possible.
"Can it be done? Sure. But
first, people have to be aware,"
he said. "But it has to be a big
protest, a large one and it has to
be consistent. This is an issue
students can do."
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Photo by Roberto Rodriguez /Staff Photographer
Longview junior Alex Worthington (left) and Amarillo senior Annell Brodeur practice a scene from "Landscape of the
Body" Wednesday night in the University Theater.
Play focuses on hooking
By Melissa Crowe
Intern
NT's production of "Landscape
of the Body" a patchwork of
scenes, themes and genres,
opens 8 p.m. Friday at the Radio,
TV, Film and Performing Arts
Building.
The non-linear, dream-like
play runs the risk of confusing
its audience with frequent flash-
backs and changes in time.
Playwright John Guare seems
to have hooked the pieces of the
story together like a patchwork
quilt with his poetic, stream-of-
conscience style, guest director
Susan Sargeant said.
Guare is also known for writing
"The House of Blue Leaves," "Two
Gentlemen in Verona" and "Six
Degrees of Separation."
"It is a mosaic tapestry, all
sewn together," she said. "It's a
heavy language play — that's
why I fell in love with it. The 1970s
really reverberate for me."
With elements of film noir,
murder mystery, music, black
humor and drama, the play
somehow manages to still
weave in moments of laughter,
sadness and, at times, is even
heart wrenching, she said.
The characters look for
connections and relationships
with each other, something to
"hook" them.
"Characters are hooked on
love, a dream, even hooks that
take you to the wrong places,"
Sargeant said.
Narrated by Rosalie, played
by Garland senior Summer
Banks, the play focuses on life
in Greenwich Village during the
70s.
Rosalie's sister, Betty, is on a
journey of every shape and size,
said actress Annell Brodeur, an
Amarillo senior.
In her efforts to avoid being
hooked while still attempting to
make connections with people,
she gets pulled into directions
and situations usually not to her
favor.
"There's this whole thing
about people hooking you and
not getting hooked by traveling
alone," Brodeur said. "But there's
an importance about getting
hooked to people."
Beforeaterriblebikingaccident
that kills her, Rosalie was hooked
to substances, love, people and
her porn star career.
"She has a very addictive
personality," Banks said.
Now deceased, Rosalie wants
her sister to have a good, fulfil ling
life.
"She's like a porn star guardian
angel," Banks said.
Longview junior Alex
Worthington plays Capt. Marvin
Holahan, a policeman bogged
down by the corruption of the
New York Police Department,
who falls in love with a woman
he's attempting to pin for
murder.
Guare wrote the play in 1977
while living in Greenwich Village.
Lie was influenced heavily by two
murders of the time: the trial of
Alice Crimmins, who was prose-
cutedfor murderingher children,
and the "Bag Murders," involving
young men who left their sex
victims decapitated.
"It's a good look into what
New York was like in the '70s,"
Worthington said. "Most people
have a glorified image of New
York, but it was a very dark
place."
People of all ages
relate to this surprisingly
cathartic play, Sergeant said.
"I think all of us have been
through those cycles," she said.
"'I'm 20 and I have all these
classes. I'm 30 and I haven't
accomplished this, this and this
yet. I'm 40 and I only have 10
more good years left. I'm 50 and
I just don't care anymore.'"
Audience members will walk
away from the theater thinking
about the play, Sergeant said,
and wake up with it still on their
minds.
"It is not just an 'oh, that
was fun' play,"' Sergeant said.
"This requires the audience to
go through something. To me,
that's the mark of a great play
and a great playwright."
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North Texas Daily (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 3, 2008, newspaper, April 3, 2008; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth145568/m1/4/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.