How the Big Mac and the Colonel Do Imperialism

The McDonald’s Corporation is the largest “single brand” fast food chain on the planet with over 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries and territories. McDonald’s serves more than 47,000,000 customers daily and brings in annual revenues exceeding $22 billion. With multiple brands, and more than 37,000 restaurants in 110 countries and territories, Yum! Brands is the largest restaurant company in the world. Their brands include KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Long John Silvers. Both Yum! Brands and McDonald’s Corporation have systematically injected themselves into the cultures of countries ranging from Algeria to New Zealand. Why are these companies so successful at expanding internationally?

The most obvious reason is that these companies quickly and efficiently produce mass quantities of food at relatively inexpensive prices. Is it the novelty of Western food and culture combined with low price and convenience that entice foreign consumers? These are significant reasons for the success of McDonald’s and Yum! Brands, but a closer look at these companies operations globally, but specifically in China, add to the recipe. In 2009, Yum! Brands opened four new restaurants outside of the United States everyday. With close to 3,000 KFC restaurants already in mainland China, Yum! Brands continues to open a new restaurant at a rate close to one a day. McDonald’s isn’t expanding nearly as quickly, and operates about 800 restaurants in China. No one can scoff at a $22 billion a year company, but it’s clear that McDonald’s could pick up their game in China. Come on Ronald, step up. Yum! Brands is rapidly stealing more of the Chinese market share than the Hamburglar.

Perhaps, the sleeping dragon has woken up with an intense hunger for the Colonel’s secret recipe. More likely though, it isn’t the Colonel’s original recipe Chinese consumers are after. In fact, the significant growth of Yum! Brands and McDonald’s around the world is a result of the localization of their business models. In India, instead of the Big Mac, McDonald’s sells the Maharaja Mac made with lamb or chicken since Hindus don’t eat beef. Then there’s beer for the Germans, McLobster rolls for Canadians, rice and beans for the Costa Ricans, and shrimp nuggets for those seafood lovers in Japan. Yum! Brands has modified the KFC menu in China as well. Besides buckets of fried chicken, customers can order vegetables, bamboo shoots and rice porridge. French fries and coleslaw just don’t cut it for the Chinese.

These corporations understand building an empire. While countries invade other countries resulting in high deficits and turmoil, corporations seek profits. Private entities, fast food companies specifically, accept the locals and adapt to meet the tastes of their market. Yum! Brands and the McDonald’s Corporation don’t push their American menus in foreign markets. Is it out of respect for cultures rooted in hundreds and thousands of years of history? No. Clearly, localized menus increase the viability and profits of their restaurants. American executives of both chains likely prefer French fries to bamboo shoots, but building an empire requires substitutions where necessary. When in Rome do as the Romans do. When in China, sell rice burgers and soup.

Bloody Metal

Kristian Foden-Vencil , reporting for NPR, covered the issue of “conflict minerals” in a recent story titled “Monitoring Conflict Minerals: Who's Accountable?” “Blood diamond,” a more familiar term, refers to diamonds mined in war zones to fund militant operations. The term’s recognition increased significantly with the release of the movie “Blood Diamond” in 2006. But does the blood of millions only drip from engagement rings and other fine jewelry? No. Consumer electronics including computers, televisions, and cell phones contain numerous rare elements that can be traced back to muddy holes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where villagers work under the careful watch of armed guards. Elements like gold, tin, tantalum, wolframite, and cassiterite are mined by forced labor, smuggled out of the country, sold to smelting plants, and become integral parts of electronics including products like the iPhone. Apple isn’t the only company capitalizing on the exploitation of the Congolese people and the conveniently inconvenient and unfeasible task of auditing their supply chain. Computer chip manufacturers like Intel also benefit from the violence and corruption in the DROC.

The history of the Democratic Republic of Congo is very important to understand when discussing the current state. The early people of the DROC region were pygmies. They subsisted on agriculture, live stock domestication, as well as hunting and gathering. Migrations of other African groups diversified the region. The people developed iron working and had the great fortune of rich mineral deposits of metals like gold and copper. They prospered greatly from trading these metals.

Enter the Europeans. The 1870s brought European explorers to the region. Once those explorers discovered the rich mineral deposits, history took a turn for the worst. European powers divvied up the region. The Belgian King Leopold II, claiming his interest in the region was one of benevolence, took 905,000 square miles as his property and began to extract its resources. He named it the Congo Free State and a railroad was built to transport his stolen wealth. The Congolese people were certainly not free. They were forced to extract rubber. Because Leopold’s serfs were being stolen by Arab slave traders, he formed the Force Publique (FP). The FP was comprised of white officers and black soldiers from various African regions. They doubled as overseers and consistently tortured, mutilated, raped, and murdered the Congolese workers. Many of the workers who survived the FP died from disease.

Leopold’s reputation also suffered. As an individual, one cannot expect to exploit and murder thousands of people and get a free pass. Only governments are allowed to do that. So, the Belgian government took control of the Congo in 1908. It became the Belgian Congo.

Belgium profited from the Congo until 1960. The Congolese suffered far less under the Belgian government, but still faced racial discrimination and segregation.

In 1960, the Congo gained independence. The Congolese nationalist Patrice Lumumba was elected as Prime Minister. The Parliament elected Joseph Kasavubu as President. Joseph Mobutu became the leader of the army. Kasavubu fired Lumumba. Lumumba argued that Kasavubu could not fire him. In the midst of their bickering, the United States and Belgium financed a coup by Joseph Mobutu and his army. They killed Lumumba. The country suffered chaos and instability for 5 years. Several transitional governments formed and dissolved over that period of time. Then Mobutu stole power in 1965.

Backed by the United States, he killed his opponents and became very rich exploiting his own country. .He renamed the country the Republic of Zaire in 1971. Mobutu’s eyes where everywhere—quite literally. His likeness was printed on currency, hung in every public building, and even put on t-shirts. He embezzled billions of dollars from the country as the roads eroded and his people suffered. Yet this same man was invited to the White House to meet Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. But why would the United States support a leader who watched his people starve and die of preventable diseases while he funneled public funds into his own Swiss bank account? Mobutu kept costs down. Rare metals are much cheaper when the laborers see none of the profits.

Hutu forces from Rwanda sought set up camp in Zaire in 1996. The Tutsis had taken power in Rwanda. The Hutu militants and Zaire forces joined together against the Tutsis. Rwanda and Uganda led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, allied to become the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre (AFDL) and to take over control of the DROC. They successfully overthrew Mobutu in 1997. Kabila took power and asked everyone to leave while he ran the DROC. The Rwandans didn’t appreciate that and formed the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD) to fight against the former leader of the AFDL. The Ugandans wanted in on the action so they formed the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC). They were led by Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo who would later become a vice-president of the DROC from 2003-2006. Kabila was eventually assassinated by his body guards and his son Joseph took over and remains in power today. Military forces from the DROC, Rwanda, and Uganda continue to clash and threaten DROC civilians.

The resulting death-toll is unconfirmed but estimated to be as high as 5,400,000. The Congolese people continue to die from preventable diseases and murder, and 200,000 women have been raped.

The rare metals continue to come out of the DROC. These elements pay for the militant operations. The suffering Congolese people die without medicine to save them from preventable disease. And yet, technology giants like Intel continue to fund the horrors of life in the Congo.

Can legislation stop the suffering? Congress is working on a bill to embargo these conflict minerals. And students and faculty from Stanford University are urging companies to audit their supply chains. Unfortunately, they don’t cover the real issues on network news channels. People don’t know that parts of their cell phone were likely mined to buy bullets and weapons. They don’t realize that profits increase because of the turmoil.

Can we continue to ignore the blood? Will we continue to fund murder, rape, and the complete exploitation of the Congolese people?