Salisbury Steak and Coal Fired Plants

Dictated by Betty Krawczyk from Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, BC.

This is too much to be borne I think, as I stare down at the little dry tough hamburger patty on my plate in the dining hall at Alouette Correctional Centre for Women, with a few frozen vegetables and half a bowl of watery soup this dinner offering is listed on the evening menu as a salisbury steak dinner. Salisbury steak? A scant hamburger patty, so tough, women bend plastic knives striving to cut the loathsome little things into bite size pieces. Salisbury steak? This is such a blatant egregious lie it insults every prisoner in here. I really can't understand how this privatized food service (Compass) gets by with it. Or maybe I do.

The Campbell government has obviously contracted out prison food to the lowest possible bidder. One, I understand, that feeds us prisoners on $1.60 per day. That's $1.60 for all three meals. And then again I understand, the manager gets a bonus for coming under budget. So how does one come under budget on $1.60 per day per prisoner? By serving a dry, freezer burned hamburger patty and calling it a salisbury steak. Ha!

But why am I surprised? This is the way Gordon Campbell and his government operate on all things. People worried about the environment? Call in Arnold Schwarzenegger. The glamourous Hollywood hype will obscure the fact that Campbell didn't consult Dr. David Suzuki or others who actually know something about the environment. But by calling a dry, freezer burned hamburger patty a salisbury steak, Gordon Campbell can continue to sponsor coal fired plants, destroy our public forests which serve magnificently as carbon sinks, and continue to exterminate urban green spaces like Eagleridge Bluffs.

Calling this "green policy" is like calling a pitiful little hamburger patty a salisbury steak.

Saints preserve us!

BLOOD, SEX, CARS and CHRISTY CLARK

As the Province newspaper is about blood, sex, cars, sports, it is not where one looks for balanced news reporting, usually. But the only newspaper that makes its way into the isolated gates of Alouette Prison for Women where I am presently residing, is, you guessed it, the Province. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment!
But wait, there is after all the amusement factor. For instance, it's fun to watch Christy Clark morph into a friend of all women (her editorial on the need for quotas in order to get woment into politics) and children (her sudden realization that working women need daycare from one of an elitist proponent of two tiered schools and health care systems), but her latest morph into an environmental champion (April 8th) is quite stunning.
Will Miss Clark now actually advise Mr. Campbell that he must change his thinking on climate change? That by removing the last of the safeguards that facilitates the destruction of the last of our old growth forest, he is accelerating climate change? That by destroying the forests he is also destroying our most valuable carbon sinks? That his plans for coal fired plants will increase carbon emissions?
Surely Christy Clark will point out to our Premier that his "Greenest Games Ever" slogan is a cruel joke that killed the life support systems of Eagleridge Bluffs along with courageous Squamish elder Harriet Nahanee. Yes, I will sleep more soundly in my cell tonight, knowing Christy Clark has stepped up to the environmental preservation plate, and that her New Consciousness will be showcased by the Province for the next election.
Betty Krawczyk