Comments on: The Price Of Bananas
Steve Kroft On How Colombian Paramilitaries Landed A U.S. Corporation In Hot Water
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- Since 1997, The USA has sent 603.4 million to Colombia for military and police assistance and 751.3 million to Colombia for economic and social assistance.
This financial aid to the Colombian government has been extremely effective in stopping the terrorists of FARC and the para-military forces. The city of Medellin, once known as the murder capital of the world, now has fewer homicides than Washington, D.C.
What is most puzzling is that Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership is against the trade agreement with Colombia. Pelosi has said she is concerned about the treatment of Colombian workers and labor union leftists say they are troubled by the assassination of trade unionists even though the killings have dropped dramatically in recent years. All this does is give Hugo Chavez a big boost, hurts our relationship with Colombia and damages our reputation throughout Latin America. - Reply to this comment
- Isn''t Chiquita just a successor to United Fruit Co, the old monopoly that''s enslaved millions and killed tens of thousands across Latin America to maintain their power?
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- Maybe they should extradite all the people connected with the Olympics? The non freedom rights in china is no cause to celebrate the Olympics there? If you do well as guess your as guilty as Chiquita Brands!
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- The best thing that could ever happen to the USA would be to change the culture from our media driven "Consumer driven economy" to a savings driven economy. The result would reduce personal debt, strengthen the dollar, reduce stress to the environment, reduce influence of corporations, and allow Americans to enjoy a generally more satisfying lifestyle with a reduced dependence on things and increased exposure to friendships and experiences.
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- Check out www.affectedmovie.com My name is Jason Glaser and my production company Catawampus Films is tackling this and other related issues in our upcoming film ''''The Affected''''. We''''re working with Stephen Kinzer, Noam Chomsky and the very people who have been affected by practices like this one and others that are far worse.
The history of United Fruit Company''''s (name later changed to Chiquita) actions in Latin America are fairly damning. This ''''extortion'''' payment shows once again the collusion between U.S. multinationals, the US government (why wasn''''t there a trial? Why is paying a fine good enough?) and much of the ''''free'''' press. Take a look at where Chiquita''''s old CEO ended up, that''''s right, head of Sun-Times media group.
On our site you find links to podcasts, books and films that discuss related issues by respected authors, journalists, and filmmakers.
If you''''re interested in looking for solutions and sick of just pointing the finger check out our site...we''''re sick of the blame game too.
There is something fundamentally wrong when the production of food, which is meant to nourish, kills and poisons those that produce and consume it! - Reply to this comment
- Jason Glaser--your trailer doesn''t work, I would like to see it sometime when it''s working.
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- Because most of what we buy in this country IS imported, we are all guilty of supporting terrorists and Slave Labor (sweat shops).
Apparently the story about Nike wasn''t enough for most of us, we see it, we want it, we buy it.
The only people who can stop it is us--I for one, will not purchase imported produce.
What ever happened to growing our own and canning? It was good enough for most of our parents--we can sit here and moan and complain--but that isn''t going to fix anything!
They have hurt us in our pocketbooks, we can hurt them in theirs--it just takes a little more work. - Reply to this comment
- Without the incentive of money and greed US corporations are nothing. They would sell out a country, or anything or anyone for another dollar. The problem is they underhandedly lead the policies of our government especially under the Bush led GOP. The article forgot to mention the predecessor of Chiquita, United Fruit Co. which was notorius for years as an instigator unethical policies in that area.
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- The 60 minutes story about Chiquita Brands, you forgot to mention the history of corruption over 100 years.
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- To Mark Bloom,
The hopes you have are found in our film. Before we deal with present day issues like the Nemagon cases or these issues in Colombia we are taking the viewer through a history of United Fruit Company (Chiquita) so people understand the depth of their meddling both in our own domestic politics but also in those of sovereign nations.
We''re even looking into the Cincinnati Enquirer story. - Reply to this comment
- Wow, they can keep there bannanas, Iam wondering about delmonte and dole as well.
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- Bananas don''t kill...
Given the enormous power of Chiquita Brand, and its ability to shut down the Cincinnati Enquirer, including the burial of all research and notes from the Enquirer''s expose, I can understand why Steve Kroft and CBS would want to tread lightly on this story.
Still it is sad that Kroft provided no historical context of Chiquita/United Fruit abysmal record in the region, from massacres to worker intimidation. United Fruit was even able to persuade Eisenhower to overthrow a democratic government in Guatemala, inaugurating nearly a half century of terror.
Kroft allowed Chiquita to portray itself as the poor victim of extortion, defending its workers. (That would be a historical first.) He never looked into current allegations of human rights abuses by Chiquita.
I suppose CBS was intimidated by Chiquita''s vast legal army. Still it would be nice to air the full story on Chiquita. - Reply to this comment
- Check out www.affectedmovie.com My name is Jason Glaser and my production company Catawampus Films is tackling this and other related issues in our upcoming film ''The Affected''. We''re working with Stephen Kinzer, Noam Chomsky and the very people who have been affected by practices like this one and others that are far worse.
The history of United Fruit Company''s (name later changed to Chiquita) actions in Latin America are fairly damning. This ''extortion'' payment shows once again the collusion between U.S. multinationals, the US government (why wasn''t there a trial? Why is paying a fine good enough?) and much of the ''free'' press. Take a look at where Chiquita''s old CEO ended up, that''s right, head of Sun-Times media group.
On our site you find links to podcasts, books and films that discuss related issues by respected authors, journalists, and filmmakers.
If you''re interested in looking for solutions and sick of just pointing the finger check out our site...we''re sick of the blame game too.
There is something fundamentally wrong when the production of food, which is meant to nourish, kills and poisons those that produce and consume it! - Reply to this comment
- walt 1944 has seriously false logic. no matter hoe it is cut, gwb & McCain are moderates.
but lets get down to bananas. its been found that chavez has been supporting the FARC, and ecuador too. Chavez needs to be brought to justice and morales in ecuador. The monroe doctrine provides for non foriegn involvement in the americas. socialism is a european phenom. chavez needs to be brought in, tried and shot, any socialist must face the same end. socialism & dictatorships are all european political phenoms, as is feudalism.
Had GWB been the leader this nation needs, imanutjob & chavez would have made it 200 miles out of JFK airport after the UN mtg. That is leadership America sorely lakes. We need a Polk in the white house. - Reply to this comment
- THe Translation of Gloria Cuartes, the mayaor of Partado, contained gross mistatements. As part of her interview, she began to describe a scene in which a 12 year-old child was beheaded.
At oone point, the English translation of her interview stated the following: "100 hundred girls and boys were with me," when in fact, what she said in Spanish was the following, " I saw how the animals ate the bodies of the people."
I am very concerned with the inaccurate translation. I fear it may have been changed because her eyewitness account of what happened may have been too disturbing for viewers. If this was the reason why, it disturbs me to know that a story was not aired in a truthful and accurate manner. I hope 60 minutes and the producer, Andy Court, will issue a correction and an explanaition.
Jose Rene
Hartford, CT - Reply to this comment
- Check out the www.affectedmovie.com My name is Jason Glaser and my production company Catawampus Films is tackling this and other related issues in our upcoming film ''The Affected''. We''re working with Stephen Kinzer, Noam Chomsky and the very people who have been affected by practices like this one and others that are far worse by those who produce and transport our food.
The history of United Fruit Company''s (name later changed to Chiquita) actions in Latin America are fairly damning. This ''extortion'' payment shows once again the collusion between U.S. multinationals, the US government (why wasn''t there a trial? Why is paying a fine good enough?) and much of the ''free'' press. Take a look at where Chiquita''s old CEO ended up, that''s right, head of Sun-Times media group.
On our site you find links to podcasts, books and films that discuss related issues by respected authors, journalists, and filmmakers.
If you''re interested in looking for solutions and sick of just pointing the finger check out our site...we''re sick of the blame game too.
There is something fundamentally wrong when the production of food, which is meant to nourish, kills and poisons those that produce and consume it! - Reply to this comment
- A company has got to do what it has to do to make a dollar and if buying protection does that, than it is their choice to that I guess. They should have contacted us first .....
- Reply to this comment
- Check out the www.affectedmovie.com My name is Jason Glaser and my production company Catawampus Films is tackling this and other related issues in our upcoming film ''The Affected''. We''re working with Stephen Kinzer, Noam Chomsky and the very people who have been affected by practices like this one and others that are far worse.
On our site, www.affectedmovie.com you can see a list of books by very respectable writers that discuss this and other related issues.
The history of United Fruit Company''s (name later changed to Chiquita) actions in Latin America are fairly damning. This ''extortion'' payment shows once again the collusion between U.S. multinationals, the US government (why wasn''t there a trial? Why is paying a fine good enough?) and much of the ''free'' press. Take a look at where Chiquita''s old CEO ended up, that''s right, head of Sun-Times media group.
If you''re interested in looking for solutions and sick of just pointing the finger check out our site...we''re sick of the blame game too. - Reply to this comment
- Check out molasses for potassium. You can add it to many things.
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- typos, sorry.
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