(Day 181) Seoul Nambu Correctional Facility-day 86 D-70

sit-ups	chair-lifts
100	0
Breakfast, lunch & dinner = January 3

We got new inmate workers today. Now I have to retrain them. So-- no breakfast and no rice with my meals. And this time none of them speak English which puts me at an even bigger disadvantage because I'll have to use Korean. They'll discover how much I really understand. That’s bad. It’s so much easier to plead ignorance when being commanded to do something I don't care to do. I'm also no longer able to get the New York Times from Kevin. That's probably the thing I'll miss the most.

After the news on TV, they broadcast a show about poor Africans who live in huts, wash their clothes in and drink dirty water and do whatever menial tasks they can to make a few cents a day to buy a loaf of bread for their clan of 9 kids. It’s sad and filmed to portray that sadness, to tug on the heartstrings. In the corner of the screen is a toll free number and every so often throughout the show the number is shown at the bottom of the screen with a message in Korean. I'm pretty sure that it is an appeal to call and donate money. Why doesn't the cameraman give them any money? Surely he can afford to give him a few more cents for another loaf of bread. Is there a behind-the-scenes party going on we don't know about after they finished shooting for the day?

 I have nothing against these types of shows. More people with money should do more to help those less fortunate. However, this TV channel is exclusive to the Korean prison system so I'm wondering what's the point? All of the people in my particular prison are here for some kind of fraud or indirect non-violent crimes like theft or drugs. This means they're greedy and unlikely to give up any money they have and second of all, no one has or is allowed to make any phone calls to make a donation if they were so inclined. I had to get special permission a month in advance just to call my daughter on Christmas day. The last thing I'm going to do, if given the opportunity to make a phone call, is squander it on some poor kids in Africa. Sorry little malnourished black boy, I have my own shit to worry about. At least you're not in jail, kid.