Mark Thomas – Belching out the Devil
October 19, 2008 – 10:12 am | by Peekay
I think it’s best to start this review out with an admission of possible bias. I’ve known Mark Thomas for what must be over a decade now. From being involved in an affiliated mailing list, to running an unofficially official Mark Thomas website, and getting involved in pranks, it’s been an interesting, fun and enriching friendship.
The above does not however mean I will be suspending my critical faculties for this review because as Mark says in this book “[a]ll of us have psychological ticks, and mine is that I find enemies easier to work with than friends.”
“Belching Out The Devil: Global adventures with Coca Cola” is the best piece of work that Thomas has done so far. Spanning a number of years of research, travel, investigation and doing the PR dance with Coca Cola, the book picks out the real stories behind the making of a sugary drink.
Thomas travels to India where he meets the farmers and families struggling for drinking water since Coca Cola bottling plants started working in the region; to Columbia where the company’s attempts to distance themselves from the persecution of unionised workers is picked apart; and Mexico where he finds that Coca Colas is used in religious ceremonies where belches are seen as releasing the evil spirits – hence the book’s title.
Mark has a very easy style of writing that comes directly from his experience of stand-up, where every word counts and the beat and feel of the words is nearly as important as their meaning. This is also combined with rigourous research and a very thoughtful approach as to the differing needs of the communities he is writing about.
If there is one thing that I felt was lacking in the investigation was to deal with some of the governments who were complicit in allowing a powerful multi-national more power and concessions than they deserve, in many cases leading to the abuses listed in the book.
All in all an important book that deserves a wide audience, because as Thomas admits, the most important thing is for people to hear these stories.
