I checked the picture - it was actually taken in India, not Burma. I have lodged a complaint with the BBC.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin Vlietstra Sent: 11 September 2012 16:54 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:51896] Re: Coca Cola in Burma >From what I have read, the Burmese level of consumer protection is antiquated - the US has the muscle to require local units of measure on imported items, very few other countries have that muscle. For the record, I was in Mali in 1979 and while I was there I bought some peanut butter at a local market. The vendor showed me a scoop and told me that prices were "per scoop". The scoop had no measurements on it. Furthermore, from what I understand, the EU is helping fund a proper system of regulation in the Carribean and with it, metrication will be enhanced. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John M. Steele Sent: 11 September 2012 14:19 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:51895] Re: Coca Cola in Burma Maybe. We really need to see a bottle, not an ad. (The ad would be legal in the US). If the bottle net contents are metric-only, no local supplemental unit, and that complies with Burmese law, then Burma is ahead of the US in metrication. For items regulated by Federal law, metric-only labelling is generally illegal (dual is required) in spite of lip service by Congress that metric is preferred system of weight and measure for trade and commerce. Preferred but insufficient, and preferred is not even required on random-weight packages. Congress' position on metric is a complete joke. I wonder if a metric-only bottle of Coke is legal in Liberia. If so, we stand alone. I am not aware personally of any other country that broadly requires local, supplemental units, although some allow it. Anyone else? (Yes, I am ignoring certain narrow requirements like pints of beer and miles of road.) I wonder if Congress realizes this makes us the laughing-stock of the world. Of course, Congress does several other things with the same effect, but that would be getting into politics, not metrication. We won't go there. I know NIST has a permissive-metric-only (PMO) amendment to the FPLA ready to go (since 2002, in fact). However, with opposition by FMI and a fractured, divided Congress that can't do anything right, I can not forsee a time when it is "ready" to bring to a vote. Changing a word here and there in an attempt to appease FMI is "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," and a decade has been lost. PMO will only happen if one or more parties with more clout than FMI support it vocally (and with political contributions that exceed FMI's??). --- On Tue, 9/11/12, Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> wrote: From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:51894] Coca Cola in Burma To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2012, 8:17 AM The BBC reported that Coke is again selling its product in Burma. The associated picture at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19550067 shows a large advertisement for 200 ml bottles/cans (?) of Coke for Rs 5. Is this an indication that Burma is moving further down the metrication path?
