U.$. Prisoners eat better than most of the world

Dinner today was a small beef patty, two packs of mustard, a medium-sized bread roll, three slices of cucumber, a serving of squash and a serving of macaroni salad -- what the Arkansas Department of Corrections calls a "full-course meal." There was not enough meat to fill the bread, I don't like squash, cucumbers or macaroni salad, but that was it until 4 a.m. when they come around to serve us our inadequate breakfast.

Because I am used to having a full stomach, my dinner upset me. I felt the urge to complain but quelled it at a sudden moment of clarity. The food I left on my tray was thrown away, and people died today from hunger. The food I threw away because I didn't like it might have saved a life or two. The food all the other prisoners here left behind could have fed a whole village or three. Every day we throw away food, and every day tens of thousands of people die for lack of food.

I am in no position to complain. While we Africans in America are poor by white standards, we are rich compared to plenty. America and Europe pillage the world just so they can live extravagantly, and they have blood on their hands. Rich people's dogs eat better than whole tribes in Africa.

-- an Arkansas prisoner, 16 January 2006

MIM responds: U.$. prisoners have plenty reason to complain. They live under the most imprisoning political system on the planet, one that imprisons Black people at higher rates even than Apartheid South Africa. The fact that they still have as much as or more food than the world majority is a great argument for internationalism. People who want to know why MIM is not doing XYZ charity/reform project right now need only look to the international situation to understand why we focus on bigger goals.

Notes:
1. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/worldhunger.html
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/faq/witbd.html