Autumn Visit

North Korea Autumn Visit

(October 16^th – November 1^st, 2012)

The following is a short report on the most recent visit by the Eugene Bell Foundation to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea).

This autumn’s trip took place from October 16^th – November 1^st. Our delegation was invited by the North Korean Ministry of Public Health. It included Dr. Stephen Linton; his wife, Cecilia Lee Linton; Dr. Justin Seung, medical director and tuberculosis specialist; Fr. Gerard Hammond M.M., Eugene Bell Foundation board member; Fr. Michael Roncin MEP, Fr. Christopher Berard(Lyons Archdiocese) and Mrs. Leslie Horne, Seoul Foreign School teacher.

We picked up our visas at the DPRK Consulate in Beijing

on October 15^th and took the Air Koryo flight to Pyongyang the next day. We were met by a 7 member team composed of officials from the Ministry of Public Health, tuberculosis specialists and technicians. The North Korean team traveled with us during the entire sixteen day visit. As usual, our delegation stayed at the Kobangsan Guest House, a facility located about 20 kilometers northeast of Pyongyang operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On our first day we visited EugeneBell’s warehouse at the Central Medical Depot in Pyongyang. This guarded facility is the main distribution point for medications donated to the Ministry of Public Health. We arranged for transport of medications and supplies to six of the eight multi-drug tuberculosis treatment facilities supported by EugeneBell. Because arranging separate shipment to distant facilities is difficult, we loaded medications and supplies for the two most distant facilities on our own trucks.

EugeneBell has been assigned to North Korea’s two northwestern provinces (North and South Pyongan) where approximately 1/3^rd of the population lives. We have approximately 800 multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients under treatment this autumn. EugeneBell’s program is the only one available in North Korea and reaches only about 5% of the multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients in the North Korea.

We left for the Sunchon MDR Tuberculosis Treatment Center, North Pyongan Province at 4 am the next morning (October 17^th) and did not get back to the Guesthouse until after 10 pm that night. Travel to and from another T.B centers took even longer due to rainy weather and bad road conditions.

At each center we visit the procedure is the same. Our team collects sputum samples and takes X-rays of all registered patients. Sputum samples from prospective patients are tested using the three GeneXperts machines we bring with us. (The Taejon Diocese, Maryknoll and Seoul Foreign School each donated one of these high-tech machines. Within two hours GeneXperts are able to determine whether someone has tuberculosis, and whether their tuberculosis is resistant to the primary drug for treating tuberculosis.) New patients are selected according to the results of these tests. While the other members of our delegation help with collecting sputum, weighing patients, copying medical documents, and taking pictures to confirm patient identities, our medical director consults with the local North Korean physicians to determine which patients have completed treatment. We hold a ‘graduation ceremony’ for all patients who are being discharged. One of our final tasks is to distribute another six-month supply of medication to all old and new patients.

Completing all of these tasks takes at least nine hours and makes for a very long day as we process approximately 100 patients at each center. Because tuberculosis is an airborne disease, all of our work with patients must be done outside as it would be dangerous to be in close contact with highly-infectious patient’s in-doors. This is the primary reason our visits take place in spring and autumn. This visit we only had two rainy days and the weather did not turn cold until our last day, for which we were grateful.

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a difficult disease to treat, particularly in patients who have been ill for as long as most North Korean sufferers. Our cure-rate has risen from about 50% to 60% and we expect results will continue to improve as the program becomes more established. As a consequence, these visits have both happy and sad moments. There are many deaths and some patients do not respond to the medications we bring, despite our best efforts. Someday we hope to have hospices for those who fail treatment but as yet we can do little for them. On the other hand, we are encouraged when we see cured patients discharged to return to their families in good health.

Ambassador Edward Pietrzyk invited me to celebrate Mass at the Polish Embassy on Sunday October 28^th. He sent invitations to other members of the 24 diplomatic missions and members of the international community in Pyongyang. There have been six Masses offered at the Polish Embassy since 2010. Attendance has ranged from 48-62 Catholics and Protestants, including children. After each Mass the Ambassador invites everyone to a luncheon reception. This time the new ambassador for Sweden attended the Mass. Though he is not a Catholic, he invited our delegation to visit his Embassy. His wife is a fervent Catholic.

On The Feast Day of All Saints we said our goodbyes to our North Korean Ministry of Public Health team members. We also thanked the employees at the government guesthouse who go out of their way to make our visits as comfortable as possible by providing meals for us no matter how late we return from our visits to treatment centers.

Although we have just returned, we are already making preparations for our next visit scheduled for April 2013. Eugene Bell’s multi-drug resistant program may expand to North Korea’s east coast next year.

Catholics are an important source of support for the Eugene Bell Foundation’s work in North Korea, both for funding and for personnel. Due to North Korea’s reluctance to allow South Korean citizens to visit undeveloped areas, the Foundation depends on non-Koreans who speak Korean to staff its delegations. Persons with these qualifications who are willing to volunteer their time are not easy to find. I hope more Catholics; particularly members of religious communities in the Republic of Korea, will become involved. This is a unique opportunity to minister to people who suffer from a deadly disease in desperate need of help.

Dealing with Addictive Behavior

Because of excessive drinking, smoking, and the internet, many of our Korean youths are finding it difficult to adapt to society, and are knocking on the doors of counseling services. The ever present smart phone has also created problems for them. The View from the Ark columnist of the Catholic Times, who has been working in mass media for over 30 years, points out that drinking and  smoking increased two-fold over what it was two years ago, and in Seoul, internet addiction is the primary reason for seeking the help of counseling services.

The advances that Korea has made in internet and smart phone accessibility has facilitated the addiction. The greatest number of those using the internet are the youth; consequently, this age group has the most problems. One out of three find it more enjoyable to relate to the internet than with others. Twenty to thirty percent of them find the internet interfering with their work; their studies  and relationship not only suffer but there is the failure to distinguish the real from virtual reality. At present, video games are shut down at midnight, and plans are being worked out to have a cooling-off period of 10 minutes after two hours of games--a strategy not accepted by all.

The smart phone is now more of a problem than the internet. Within two years of its introduction, there were over 20 million users. And like the internet addiction, the young are the ones who have the greatest problem with this addiction.

Those who have studied the issue of addiction say depression is a big reason for these addictive behaviors. Not that the addiction brings about depression but because of depression there is a tendency to become attracted to one or more addictive activities. It has been suggested that sports would be a good activity to overcome the addictive activities and relieve the stress most of the young experience in making it in our competitive society, but their studies do not allow for much leisure time. And family and friends are not  sufficiently involved in the life of the young to help them overcome their addictions.

The columnist says the government, schools, churches, and social organizations are trying to help but emphasizes that once addiction takes hold, it's very difficult to overcome. Doing what is necessary before the addiction takes hold would be the approach with the best chance of success. If help is directed to helping our young deal with their stresses and worries they routinely encounter, there will be less need to keep them away from addictive activities.

In this Year of Faith, it's a good time, says the columnist, to see not so much our own level of faith but also to be more concerned about our families and the young people around us. If we can help our young people accept a proper value system and life-nurturing habits, this approach will go a long way to solving the problem of addiction. 

Facing Problems Maturely

None of us goes through life without irritations and scars. St. Hildegard of Bingen, recently raised to the status of doctor of the Church, is quoted as saying, "To become a person is to have our irritant turned into a pearl." The scars that have been inflicted, when accepted and healed, can make us more mature, more understanding and more peaceful, a person who has turned adversity into an opportunity to grow. Another example, where the crooked is made straight; for a Christian, it's all the work of grace.

A Catholic Times columnist writes that after finishing one of her motivational lectures a father of a third year high school girl asked if she would be able to talk with his daughter, who was depressed and found no meaning in life.  It was impossible to plan an interview but she gave the father her e-mail and telephone number and said that if the daughter was interested, she could contact her.

Shortly after, she did receive a message from the daughter, and since then they have talked on the telephone a number of times. Last year, she was accepted at a college, and communication between them stopped, until recently when she called, wanting to know, "What do I have to do to find confidence?"  Since the columnist prefers having persons with problems find the answers to their own questions, she ask her what was happening in her life. 

She told the columnist that one day, one of her teachers, after a lecture, asked the students to give a three-minute report on what they had just heard. When it was her turn to give the report, her face turned red, her breathing became constricted, and she was unable to answer.  After that, whenever she was asked a question or was asked for comments, she would turn red and be confused.

The columnist now knew it was the classroom that was the problem and told her repeatedly that it was all right. It's the wounded child in us that is responding, she told the girl. When happy and all goes well, the wounded child hides. When we are not well or facing some difficulty, the child appears and troubles us.

Many do not want to face this child and hesitate to probe into the possible causes of the pain they are  feeling. When we have a physical wound, we bandage it to keep it from becoming infected, and the same tends to be true with psychic wounds.   We should face head on what is bothering us; it is a necessary part of the treatment.Most of the irritants and wounds we receive, whether self-inflicted or from others, we are able to handle and are often made  stronger because of them. What is important is that we face them head on, and if necessary with help from others but always, as people of faith, with the knowledge that we are not alone in the effort.

A Catholic World View

We all have different ways of looking at the world, at others and at ourselves. Which means that we look upon the same incidents and see things differently. This is well known to all of us, and a professor of  Scripture in his article in the Catholic Times wants us to reflect on what it means to have a Catholic world view.
 
This world view, formed by our various ways of looking at the world, is then called upon to help us  interpret what we see, and how we judge ourselves. The whole of us, our personality, influences the way we see reality, influencing not only how we see others and our own lives, but what we accept or reject of world history. Our resulting world view largely determines whether we see the world as an optimist or as a pessimist. And it all hinges on what we choose to see.
 
Jesus made much of our ability to see, "The eye is the body's lamp" (Matt.6:22). What does Jesus mean by this? the professor asks. He explains that the ancients in the time of Jesus considered the eye to be like a lamp or a light that enabled one to see and dispel the darkness surrounding us.
 
Jesus also said, "If your eyes are good, your body will be filled with light; if your eyes are bad, your body will be in darkness." The professor wants us to understand that Jesus  is not talking about good or bad eyes but is using a metaphor to make his point clear. We are dealing here with an attitude, with the character of a person. The healthy eye is kind, magnanimous, upright; the unhealthy eye harbors resentment, greed, jealously. The healthy eye will be filled with light and the unhealthy eye will be filled with darkness.
 
The life of a Christian should be a way of seeing the whole of life, says the professor. Seeing life and others through the eyes of faith is an expression we often use. This is nothing else but seeing everything through the eyes of Jesus. Everything that Jesus did was to have God at the center. How do we discover, the professor asks, what Jesus came to give us?

By his words Jesus has taught us how to see the world and how to live in this world. It is not just doing what we have always done, following the ways of the past and of traditional beliefs. He invites us to see things with different eyes. The professor calls this a subversive wisdom, an alternative wisdom that overturns everything we had come to expect from life. This Christian way of seeing life from a new perspective springs from the uniqueness of our faith life. 

The Destruction of the Natural

"Preventing a  stolen future by a counterattack against the destruction of the natural" headlined, in big black type, an article on the education page of the Peace Weekly.  The article went on to state that the endocrine system of the human body, which releases hormones into the organs of our body, is being disrupted by the pollution of the environment, harming the normal function of the body.

At puberty, as we know, estrogen is released in the bodies of females and testosterone in the bodies of males.  We have tried to improve on some of these natural processes, and in the 1970s, synthetic estrogen was made available. After much elation, it was soon realized that there were serious side effects to its uncontrolled use.

Today, we have surrounded ourselves with about 100 thousand man-made chemicals. About forty thousand are used in daily life: ceiling materials, paints, surface coatings on furniture, synthetic clothing material, gasoline, pesticides and herbicides, fertilizers, electrical insulators, disposable products of all kinds, the list is nearly endless.

In 1940 the number of sperm has been gradually decreasing. At the present time, it is estimated we have  have less sperm (well under two thirds less) than in 1940), which makes it close to infertility. The columnist introduces us to the book Our Stolen Future by Dr. Theo Colborn, who talks about the disruption and pollution of our endocrine system and the effect this will have on future generations.

Because of widespread infertility, ovum now sells for 4 to 5 thousand dollars. With this money, a college student can help take care of tuition and living expenses. This shows an insensitivity to life, and a loss of meaning, which the columnist feels is worse than the injustices of slavery.

Using the pretext of curing incurable diseases, they are opening the Pandora box of cloning. The Christian fear of what is involved in this process, and a desire to have this discussed as an ethical problem, has been ignored.

The columnist imagines a time when a DNA-constructed person, and the cyber-spaced person, will conform to the theme of the movie, The Matrix. It is, he believes our possible future, a future controlled by forces outside of ourselves, sometimes called a biocracy or ecocracy. The Church, he says, is still not ready for what is happening.  If we are to be the salt and light of the world, we need to read the sign of the times and be out in front of the changes that will be coming. In 1980s the Buddhist already had a monk responsible for keeping up on ecological problems and printed a book on the subject.

He concludes that there are many Catholics who misunderstand what is involved in dealing with environmental problems. Many think it's sufficient to demonstrate in opposition to projects that are not sensitive to the environment, such as the Four River Project. This is being concerned only about peripheral matters, he says. We have to change the way we see the problems. We have to fight to respond in the way God made us, and help to change the world with the truths of our Christian world view.

What We Do Makes a Difference

Writing in the Kyeongyang magazine, a seminary professor tells us of getting a present from a  parishioner who had just come from a party. He handed the rice cake box with the word 'Blessing' on top to the priest and rushed off.  The priest put the box in the fridge, planning to eat the rice cakes after Mass on Sunday, but when he opened the box he found only a towel inside; he was stunned.

Catholicism has always tried to give direction and purpose to our lives. The teaching has acted as a compass needle, which points out to us that we are the glory of God. When we live in harmony with this teaching, conscious of this dignity, we are giving glory to God. However, when the outside of things is not the same as the inside as we expect, confusion and disharmony usually result. the priest mentions  that when he prepares sesame seed oil, he always pours it into a plastic cider bottle, but the oil is always pure sesame seed oil. When the information on the outside is not the same as the content, we are momentarily stunned, as he was when he opened the rice cake box. His sesame oil is in a plastic soft drink bottle, but he knows it is pure sesame oil.

Life is full of the genuine and the fake. To help discern the difference, we need to distinguish what exists from what doesn't exist not from the outside, but  from the inside of things, the true content that often requires close observation to verify its existence, as shown by his two example.  We have been born as people of God, and if we are to give glory to God we have to live the 'inside' of this life we have been given.

The world is governed, it seems, with a perceived need for living a fast-paced life, though we have a hard time saying why we feel the need to live in such a manner. We don't know where we are going, but still feel we must do all we can to get there quickly. We don't take the time to trouble ourselves with the reason for all this 'hurry-up' activity. Getting there, looking for results above everything else, is what is important, not the process of getting to where we want to go. Our humanity is turned into a commodity, just another consumer item in our society. Materialism surrounds us, and unknowingly we go with the flow.

We have the highest number of suicides among the developed countries, and we continue to think that all is well. We are living in a culture of death and do not realize the harm that is being done. Why are we living this way?  It's a question most of us have stopped asking ourselves when we entered the culture of death.

Education (from the Latin 'educare,' to lead out) can help us answer such questions. In other words, we are to uncover what God has put in us, which is the  primary reason for education. We are to resonate to God's frequency like the vibrations from a tuning folk.  In the encyclical the Gospel of Life,  we are told how this should begin in the family, "It is above all in raising children that the family fulfills its mission to proclaim the Gospel of life. By word and example, in the daily round of relations and choices, and through concrete actions and signs, parents lead their children to authentic freedom, actualized in the sincere gift of self, cultivating in them respect for others, a sense of justice, cordial openness, dialogue, generous service, solidarity and all the other values which help people to live life as a gift (#92).

There are many in the Church today who are conflicted by what the church teaches and the values of our society.  Will things change if I change? they ask incredulously. They don't believe what they do will have any meaning. This way of thinking is prevalent. That is precisely why we have to continue to trust and give ourselves to the work we have been given as disciples. 

The article ends with the words of a cardinal who spoke to a group of Christians, "We must remember the words of Jesus to Peter, 'Master, we have been hard at it all night long and have caught nothing; but if you say so, I will lower the net'"(Luke 5:5). Following Peter's example, we must "lower the net," trust in the power of our faith and learn the law of obedience."