I'm on a train at the moment, on my way to Wales to visit my Grandma in hospital. On a happier note, I will be back in time to see Saint Etienne performing at Rise in Finsbury Park tomorrow.
Just seen on BBC News that Starbucks has been forced out of the Forbidden City, under pressure for "trampling on Chinese culture". Apparently the shop had been there for six or seven years, and a couple of years ago had even removed the name from the front. (I didn't notice it being there when I was there a couple of years ago... but, then again, I don't drink coffee, so wasn't looking).
So, someone *can* put a halt to Starbucks' creep (or march) to world domination. Well, I guess it's probably more just a temporary blip.
But will it give some hope to those who hate Starbucks here, are we going to see some concerted campaigns arguing they are trampling on our culture? It could be a useful practice run before tackling Tescos, I suppose.
Alternatively, let market forces, i.e. local consumers, decide...
Anyway, talking of China, I'm going to get back to my book on Mao now (which I still haven't finished), once I've got some work out of the way.
2 comments:
Is this such a good thing?
At least Starbucks exists because people buy its products and presumably must like them.
This is a victory for nationalist sentiment (backed by the Chinese Communist Party of course).
'People power' is not de-facto good. It can so easily give rise to ugly nationalism and the forcing of views on others - would you support homosexuality being made illegal if 'people power' backed that move?
I didn't think that I was saying closing down Starbucks was a good thing, per se -
e.g. "Alternatively, let market forces, i.e. local consumers, decide..."
But I could have made that clearer.
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