GIC Events
[Review] Coca is Life: The Story of the Coca Leaf
- Name
- GIC
- Date
- 2015-01-26
- Views
- 1060 회
Speaker: Emma Hillian
Writers: Eunbit Ko
Co-Writer: Ricky Taylor
Date: January 24th, 2015
Emma Hillion who was the speaker of today’s GIC talk, her first experience with coca leaf was when she was 21 in Bolivia. During her 3 weeks stay, she suffered from altitude sickness due to Bolivia’s elevation, to treat this her friends gave her some coca tea. After drinking the tea, she found that her symptoms had been relieved.
Due to coca leaf being the primary ingredient, in the production of cocaine, it has banned in Korea as well as many other countries. But in Bolivia “It is at the very center of the culture.” It can also be used as cooking ingredient and it is used to make cake, Agwa (an alcoholic beverage) and even Coca-cola. Unfortunately, the coca leaf is mainly used in the production of cocaine this leads to it’s negative stigma. “There should be many other market for coca other than cocaine”
From her talk I now know many advantages about coca leaves. Fortunately, in 2013, the UN allowed Bolivia to produce the coca leaf legally allowing Bolivia to regain a cornerstone of her culture.
photo : http://goo.gl/pNTmWT
video : http://goo.gl/WkDy98
