Well there are several myths about Coca ColC, hence the section on Snopes devoted to Coke. I really couldn’t find any organizations devoted to any of these myths centered around Coke products. The organizations I found that were anti-CocaCola were focused on cokes immoral actions in other countries. For example, KillerCoke focuses on Coke’s involvement in the Sinaltrainal lawsuit that was dismissed later. It linked CocaCola with one of their factories somehow involving the kidnapping and murder of employees by Columbian paramilitaries who were acting on Coke’s behalf. This was not on the Snopes website but this organization is focused around Coke’s involvement and lack of morals.

http://www.killercoke.org/who.htm

I am focusing once again on PETA. So in class I spoke about KFC kills…Well I went on Peta’a website and realized that it one of Peta’s programs. It includes Mars Candy Kills, Donna Karan Bunny Butcher, Iams Cruelty, Petsmart Cruelty, etc. These companies are all offenders of some way.

http://www.marscandykills.com/

http://www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com/

http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/donna_karan_fur

http://www.petsmartcruelty.com/

The problem I am going to focus on for this post is human trafficking. Since this is one of the reasons I picked this organization and also because there are too many programs they have for me to cover in one posting.

“Human trafficking is a multi-dimensional threat: it deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it is a global health risk, and it fuels the growth of organized crime.” -”Facts About Human Trafficking” US State Department

Human trafficking is a worldwide problem, it is the 2nd largest criminal industry in the world. It is considered the modern day slavery. It effects everyone, in America up to 300,000 people (200,000 children*) are at risk for being human trafficking . Human trafficking includes: sex exploitation (sex slaves, forced prostitution, child sex exploitation, cover up Asian “massage” parlors) and forced labor. It is estimated that 17,500 people are trafficked into the US each year.*  An average of 600-800,000 people are estimated to be trafficked worldwide.*

Sources:

Facts About Human Trafficking-http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/33109.htm

Polaris Project- http://www.polarisproject.org

So I took a look at the 990 form for the IPS for 2006. I thought it the amount that “higher ups” were recieving were reasonable. Basically it lists:

President- $87, 916

Exec. Director- $73, 101

Development Director- $58, 565

Finance Director- $53, 164

These are pretty reasonable in the Washington, DC Metro Area. I’m not sure how many people are employed at IPS but they bring in around $3,339,399 in revenue and about $3,230,297 of it is from donation. So a total of under 1.5 mil goes to the salary of the officers, board members, employees, wages, and temps.

My organization, the Institute for Policy Studies has many programs addressing different issues. They should be supported because their issues deal with current issues that people are concerned with. I am not talking about everyone but individuals who are concerned about the welfare of Americans and also those outside of our bubble. IPS main ideals and programs focus around three categories: Peace, Justice, and Environment. If these aren’t issues that most are concerned with then I don’t know what to say… Some of their programs include those that focus on the inequality of our society dealing with health care,  enviromental issues (energy, climate) and changing our foriegn policy, drug policy, nuclear policy, etc.

Also, IPS is one of the few think tanks that does not recieve funding from the government, stating that would almost defeat the purpose of promoting change.

The issue I will mostly focus on when I write my paper on IPS is the issue of justice. Lately, I have been becoming more and more interested in the topic of human trafficking. Over the summer, I did a lot of research on human trafficking and the linkings it has to most countries. Also the fact that it is not just foriegn countries involved in this act, that Americans and people who a lot of times looked down on are being forced into these dangerous lifestyles. Ex. prostitutes, day labors, asian massage parlor workers, etc.

The nonprofit I don’t care for is Peta: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals . I personally love animals, I’ve had plenty of pets but I also realize that people have the right to choose. Even though there are mistreat animals (which I feel is wrong) you cannot go and compare it to child abuse, rape, and slavery. The main factor in these issues is that they deal with people. Humans are above animals point blank (in my eyes). They fall below us on the food chain unless your a canibal…

What really bothers me about them is the fact that there is so much illegal actions going behind the scenes that they don’t admit that they are involved in it but also do not disapprove of the ALF, American Liberation Front results only that Peta a nonviolence organization. In some parts I agree with a need for ethical treatment of animals, I think a lot of time the cruelty of animals is unnecessary and can be avoided. But when it comes to medication or things that can be harmful to humans, I’d rather the animal go first decreasing the risk of an human’s life. But I personally don’t believe in saying no to the killing of animals, if the animals going to be used for food, clothing, shelter, or the advancement of science then I am all for it (mostly). I don’t agree with the killing animals for sport. People should have a choice about whether or not they want to wear animal-made clothing, eat meat, or whatever without having to worry about someone throwing paint on you or attacking you. To put a human’s life, other than your own, in danger over an animal seems a bit much for me. 

Another thing, I don’t care for is their tactics. They do not link themselves with ALf but i don’t care for ALF’s commiting terroists acts against people, labs, and businesses. I also dont like the throwing of paint onto someone’s fur coat, it’s that person’s choice. And lastly I don’t like those pamphlets with dead animal pictures in it…

The non-profit I am planning to write about is the IPS, The Institute of Policy Studies. This non-profit is a think tank whose main focus is to support peace, enviroment, and justice. A think tank is a organization which focuses on developing research on public issues. Unlike a lot of other think tanks IPS does not accept any donation/funding from the government.  “Since it is difficult to “speak truth to power” if one takes funds from that “power,” IPS does not accept any government money. ”

What really drew me to this organization is their abundance of programs they are involved in. I have really gotten into the issue of human trafficking since the summer began so I wanted to focus my paper on the Polaris Project or Center for Missing and Exploited children but they haven’t been around long enough. So I stumbled across the IPS website and checked their programs and noticed the program titled, Break the Chain. This program focuses on decreasing the effects of human trafficking, labor exploitation, and modern day slavery. The IPS currently has 12 projects going on.

http://www.ips-dc.org/

For this week, I read de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. I found this reading to be the most understandable and straight-forward out of the three readings we had for this week.

In this reading, I found this one paragraph to be very interesting. It basically talks about how even as children we start to become jaded when it comes to trusting authority. We form these small societies in which there are certain rules that must be upheld and if you don’t comply then you will be punished. But the thing that really interested me is the connection that even as children, instead of letting someone else handle the punishment, they deliver it themselves. This can be linked to our lack of trust for authority. The first thing I think about is children at a playground, if they don’t like something about another child, they isolate them. The isolation could be in the form of teasing, disregard, or even violence. When the issue gets too bad then a lot of times the already established authority figure is acknowledged but a lot of times things are handled by the individuals themselves. This continues on throughout their life. The book gives a good example of how people form their own small set of authority figures before even thinking about getting the already established authority involved.