Children in China are starving for food like that

In a very interesting novel, Lanark, by Alasdair Gray, with a story of the young Duncan Thaw, growing up in post-war Glasgow, I see this similar line which Chinese parents now use to teach their own children in China, they say, "Children in Africa are starving for food like that!"

The little Duncan always refused shepherd's pie or any other food whose appearance disgusted him: spongy white tripe, soft penis-like sausages, stuffed sheep's hearts with their valves and little arteries. When one of these came before him he poked it uncertainly with his fork and the argument between the mother and son began:-

"I don't want it."

"Why not?"

"It looks queer."

"But you haven't taste it! Taste just a little bit. For my sake."

"No."

"Children in China are starving for food like that."

"Send it to them."

It is very funny that now I may sometime use "starving African children" to force my children to eat whatever I give them, or tell them "when I was little" I always eat whatever my mother gave to us.

This is a book worth reading.
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