turning on the water works

It has recently been recently been reported that Coca-Cola is investing in water initiatives in Africa to expand supply. It's easy to be cynical about these altruistic moves. After all, they make billions of dollars, they can certainly afford to throw out a few million here and there if it makes them look good. A 15-nation study in Europe has shown that many people feel the same cynicism against corporations who don't seem genuine when they make these performances.

In general, I like to give corporations the benefit of the doubt as much as possible. I never believed that corporations were people, even though they reap all the benefits of being treated as an individual without any of the drawbacks. (See the excellent documentary The Corporation for this argument.) Whether a board of managers sit together in a room and say "We don't really care about people but let's pretend we do by making all these gestures" is not something I want to speculate. Mainly, I don't want to give the impression that corporations can't do anything good.

Of course, this doesn't excuse Coca-Cola or any other corporation for the ills they have committed. Certainly if all corporations made these gestures and others followed, our society would be a better place regardless of their sincerity.