On May 24, more than 500 youths protested simultaneously in various places throughout the country. "We can't exercise because of the fine dust"— Mathematics is important but we have a right to be educated about climate change"— "Please don't gamble with our future"— signs held high in demonstrations. So begins an article in the Catholic Peace Weekly by a member of the Bishops' Committee on the Environment.
Greta Thunberg, a Swedish schoolgirl, who at age 15, began protesting outside the Swedish parliament for immediate action to combat climate change and will boycott classes until she sees efforts to bring change.
In a lecture held in Stockholm last November, Thunberg said, "Why should I study when the future may disappear? You say you love your children, but you are stealing their future." She emphasized the urgency and importance of developing climate change measures.
The main contents of the demonstrations conducted by the Korean youths following Greta's lead are to put environmental education into the curriculum. Which reminds us of the fact that unlike other countries, Korea lacks basic efforts for dealing with climate change.
The educational climate of Korea is focused on entrance examinations to college; lack of education for survival is a painful point. Unlike adults who feel discomfort because of climate change but do nothing, the young people are demanding we do something with the continued abnormal temperatures, fine dust, etc., youths are demanding we face the problem and urge resolution.
According to the Climate Change Countermeasures Index (CCPI) 2019, Korea is ranked 57th out of 60 countries in terms of the climate change response index and has the stigma of 4th place among carbon dioxide emission countries of OECD.
This generation is borrowing the use of the planet from future generations, and conscious only on how to use and develop the earth? 27 years ago, at Rio's UN Climate Change Conference, despite the serious warnings of climate change and dangers ahead, is it not only the young people who are conscious of the problems ahead?
We know there is something wrong with our planet, but don't know it has anything to do with me. It's a Chinese problem, a foreign matter, the earth is a strange place, and it doesn't register that the problems are caused by me. It's convenient after all to use delivery services for ordered goods, power plants need to operate, environmentally harmful substances are produced, disposable items such as packaging materials and containers are used, waste generated. How much awareness do adults perceive our actions and habits cause pollution and that these things are interconnected and cause climate change? Yes, it will bring about a new world order which we find difficult to accept.
Unlike adults who think admission to college, Korean language study, English and Mathematics are what's important, young people want the right to receive climate change education. Young people's values and environmental sensitivity from childhood can lead to action. Adults desire for comfort and abundance is it destroying the future of the children they love?
She ends the column with these words of Thomas Friedman:"Destroying the tropical forest is like burning the masterpieces of the Louvre to make dinner."
A professor in research and teaching writes in the Kyeongyang magazine about fake science. He goes back to his years as a child of five and remembers a trip he made from Pusan to Masan on a steam engine. Everything was new to him. He had all kinds of thoughts on how the train was moving along the tracks with not one of his thoughts correctly understanding the situation and seeing everything with the eyes of a young child. Understandable, but is this not the situation in society with many seeing reality with the eyes of a 5-year-old?
YouTube is a vehicle in which all can make their views known to the whole world; much of it helpful, much harmful, for watching untruth does great harm to our ability to judge matters of life when seen as true.
Not long ago he was talking to his colleagues about a YouTube group asserting that talk of a round earth was a lie and publishing this on YouTube. The professor a curious person, knew it was a waste of time, but curiosity was so strong he went to the video and quickly went through the video at a quick pace. Despite knowing all the facts and all the voyages in space they maintained the earth was flat. What is more of a surprise is to see the followers that the YouTube presentation received, and the many positive comments?
When he was a child he remembers reading an article where a priest using a forked branch from a tree to look for underground water, wrote about learning this from a French foreign missioner. In the summer months, we have long dry spells this was an effort to alleviate the problem.
This method, dowsing, was in use in Europe. The person using the forked branch and responding to the surrounding environment searched for underground water. Since the farmers saw this being done they were awestruck and the method continued to spread. The writer tells the readers that in Korea anywhere you dig the chances of finding water are good. Although in Korea dowsing has been shown not to be scientifically based, it continues.
A similar bogus 'quantum resonance system' using the same reasoning is sold with a high price tag. They add a fancy scientific name and even though they don't understand they are impressed with the scientific name.
A priest in one of the parishes in which the professor lived in a sermon said the stars do not give their light but reflect the light of the sun. He was mixing up the stars with the moon which reflects the light of the sun and extending it to the stars which like the sun with nuclear fusion give off their own light.
In the past, the planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn were considered stars but since they are giving off reflected light they are called planets. The professor was concerned that when the children heard the sermon and knew what they had been taught in school would have less concern for their faith.
Our ancestors for the most part, understood the earth to be flat and the sun and moon to move around the earth and this was the thinking of the many writers of the Scripture. But the Scriptures are not teaching science but a way of life and adapting the teaching to the thinking of the readers of that time.
Jesus tells us to be children but this is in a spiritual sense. St. Paul tells us the relationship our faith should have with reason. "Surely I should pray not only with the spirit but with the mind as well" (I Cor. 14:15). "I would rather say five words that mean something than ten thousand words in a tongue. Brothers, you are not to be childish in your outlook. You can be babies as far as wickedness is concerned, but mentally you must be adult" (ICor.14: 19-20).
Jesus was not happy with those who were looking for miracles. Are we looking today for things that are not reasonable and desiring to see miracles? It is well to remember that God works also in nature and through our reason.
In the parish bulletin this past week we had a list of 19 activities that will help us to return to a healthy relationship with our environment. They will lead to a simple, and minimal lifestyle for the brave of heart.
1. Use with restraint vinyl bags and plastic containers
2. Carry along a bottle of water
3. Planned shopping—carry along a bag
4. Don't use disposables
5. Knowing and practicing on how to sort the trash
6. Restraint on using home delivery services and request little packaging
7. Reduce the amount of meat and dairy products used
8. Increase the eating of vegetables
9. Eat food in season and buy locally
10. Restraint on ordering food to eat
11. Eat all the food on your plate
12. Prepare only the amount of food you need
13. Put the Frigidaire in order regularly
14. Refrain from buying bottled water
15. Taking a shower put the water waiting for the hot water to come in a pail to use on plants
16. Save the water you use in washing dishes, brushing teeth and washing
17. Walk short distances
18. Use public transportation
19. Wise use of electricity
In the US presidential election (2016), the world was shocked by the fact that fake news was viewed on the Internet more than real news. Experts in the world at that time said the number of clicks would be directly linked to money, and that fake news would never disappear because of the "confirmation bias", people are looking for news that suits their tastes. They also predicted that this would only expand with the expansion of digital capitalism. So begins the column In the Eyes of the Believer in the Catholic Times by a media expert.
The English Oxford dictionary calls this the 'post-truth' era. Pope Francis continues to point out the evils surrounding "fake news," calling for countermeasures since fake news undermines community spirit and democracy.
Over the next few years, the problems will be magnified. The digital media platform has taken its place in people's everyday life and continues rapidly to develop and 'false truth' will also spread. Fake news is a malicious variant of hate content that is harming human society.
In March, 51 people were killed in a shooting incident in Christchurch, New Zealand. At that time, the perpetrator shocked the world by broadcasting the crime scenes through the Facebook streaming service.
Extreme and violent hate speech is mainly about race, nationality, religion, and sexual identity. In India, where societal and cultural conflicts are serious, fake news and hate speech is spread in social media, assaults, and murders continue. It is no exaggeration to say that the general election in India, which took place on April 11th with the participation of 900 million voters (10% of the world's population) for six weeks, was a war against hate speech.
In Europe, anti-refugees and anti-EU right-wing extremists are raising their voices, and racial expressions of aversion are common. In Germany, foreign hate crimes and anti-Semitic crimes are increasing.
In Korea, we have the same problems. The number of requests for the correction of harmful information (hate speech, discrimination, abuse, and profanity) has increased from 1,982 in 2015 to 3,900 in 2018. When you enter YouTube, there is a lot of extreme hate speech about Yemen refugees, Chinese compatriots, social underdogs, and sexual minorities.
In this regard, YouTube is more dangerous. This is because it is tailored to 'taste and beliefs' rather than objective facts. Nowadays, media users are showing great use for YouTube, and Koreans are especially enthusiastic. In this respect, our country can not say hate and crime are not related.
The legal restrictions on the expression of hate speech don't come easy because they can violate the 'freedom of expression' ( almost sacrosanct in the United States). However, Germany, which knows the results of hate speech has enacted the Network Implementation Act and is implementing it strongly. Singapore and Australia, and a growing number of other countries are responding. In Korea, which has been dealing with defamation changes in the penal code, there are more opinions on cracking down on fake news, repulsive expression and the regulating of digital platform companies.
Above all, media literacy (education) is essential. Fake news became more and more urgent as it became a malicious variant of hate news. Like the old battle against illiteracy, media literacy education must be carried out by the government, as well as by various institutions and organizations. Reading the signs of the times we all need to confront hatred in the media. The church, which has no related programs yet, should also get involved in the work.
Until now, the world has achieved remarkable results in solving poverty. The poorest people living below $1.9 per day in 1999 accounted for 36% of the world's population. It dropped to 16% in 2010, 10% in 2015, and to 9% in 2016 and predicted to fall to 3% in 2030. Since 1990, about 1.1 billion people have moved out of poverty. Especially in East Asia, the Pacific, Europe, and Central Asia, the number of the poorest has already fallen below 3%. But is the problem so simple? So asks a professional in development finances in the Catholic Peace Weekly.
When we include education, infrastructure, health and security we increase poverty by 1.5 times. Many are the difficulties in reducing the percentage of poorest people from 9% to 3%. Many of the countries suffer from disputes, civil wars, and disasters. Consequently, in no position to do business with a development bank or other organization. And yet we can't neglect 6% of the world's population
Currently, more than half of the poorest are in sub-Saharan Africa. Development in this area is slow and the number of the poor is increasing as the population grows. According to this trend, nine out of the ten world's poorest people in 2030 will be in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these are young people under the age of 18, and most likely will not receive a proper education.
Poverty is not a problem for developing countries alone. Looking over the last 30 years the inequality in the OECD countries presently is the most severe. The top 10 percent hold half of the total wealth and the bottom 40% share is only 3%. The real income of the top 10% is 9.5 times that of the bottom 10%, compared to the 7 times in the 1980s. In these countries, children in the lower 10% of households are expected to take 150 years to earn an average income.
The situation, however, is not hopeless. It's not impossible to solve poverty in this world within a generation. First, while developing new business models through cutting-edge technological innovation, financial instruments that have not yet been tried in the developing world market should be used to improve the lives of the world's poorest 40%. In addition, development agencies need new approaches, different from the past. In particular, it is necessary to invest heavily in human beings. Between 2000 and 2011, 24% of developing economies grew in health status. Investments that include health and education become critical issues in the digital age.
The writer mentions that many still confuse the Millennium Development Goal—8 goals, with the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015 for the year 2030. SDG has 17 goals. It's a political declaration that the world governments want to achieve by 2030. Government policies have international significance: companies, private organizations, and individuals can participate directly in global development and see great change.
Pope St. Paul VI in his 1967 Encyclical Populorum Progressio concluded that the new name for peace was development. The writer hopes that the years ahead with technical and financial support for the poorest people in place she hopes that what St. Paul VI found in Africa and South America before becoming pope will have changed.
Writing in Eyes of the Believer column of the Catholic Weekly a pastor reminds the readers that two of the representative indicators of Korean popular culture are the dramas and pop songs and selects the BTS (Bangtan Boys, Bulletproof Boy Scouts) and one of the popular dramas on TV: 'Fiery Priest', which recently ended. Bangtan K-Pop group has grown into one of the most famous of the superstars now on the world stage.
On the 'Love Yourself' World Tour, they were the first pop group to address the United Nations: "true love begins by loving myself" a message enthusiastically supported by young people. They are asking the young people to share their vision and be of one heart with those who are experiencing conflicts, anxieties, pain, oppression and living in uncertain and unfair circumstances; hoping their words will be a cause of healing and consolation. We share their ideals that become completed by the love of God and neighbor.
SBS TV drama 'The Fiery Priest' is an exciting hero drama, and it has recently ended with top ranking for its time spot. In the process of punishing evil and revealing the truth, the main character, the hot blood priest, is an active member of the National Intelligence Service, special team. In the drama, the background is Catholicism—priests, nuns, and church, but used only as a prop to develop the contents.
On the positive side, the drama has impact on giving a Catholic image for non-Catholic believers, and it is an opportunity for Catholics to see an image of Catholicism, however, to eliminate evil and establish justice by dependence on violence is not the Christian way.
Evangelical values pursued and practiced lead not to oppressive power and violence, but rely on the power of nonviolent resistance and love. Recently, dramas based on religion, and works based on Catholic themes have been mostly positive. There have been a number of dramas appearing on cable with positive images of the church: reflected in the fight against evil, a tempered life, self-discipline, and the conscientious clergy who live with the people in the world. There is always the real danger of using the church with distorted images of Catholicism.
Popular culture is a mixed bag, producing meaning with various behaviors and ideologies. Therefore, popular culture can provide new information, promote socialization, and play a positive role in entertainment and pleasure. On the other hand, it can play a negative and harmful role because it maximizes human desires such as money, power, and honor, and produces unethical and immoral content as a result. The church needs 'cultural evangelism' that recognizes the duality of popular culture, using the positive side, and filtering out the harmful side.
Traditionally, the church has taken a negative attitude regarding popular culture as low, decadent, and harmful to its faith: attempting to transform the culture of death into a culture of life. Consequently, a weak will to actively utilize the positive aspect of popular culture in mission or pastoral care.
Indeed, popular culture and Christianity have in common a desire to seek meaningful life experiences. Communication between popular culture and Christianity can begin from experience and meaning in life. The spirituality of popular culture can play a role in helping to experience God, and Christian spirituality found in meaning experienced through popular culture.
In conclusion, the writer would like to see a more effective use of the popular culture to revitalize the stagnant youth ministry within the church by using culture to make our teaching more contemporary and to meet the young people where they are.
What does one do if one finds a fly struggling in the cold noodle bowl just ordered in a restaurant? The Peace column in the Catholic Peace Weekly asks the readers. For many, obvious, you call the waiter to take it back. If the waiter says: take the spoon and remove the fly, why do you want to change the whole bowl? The chances are pretty high that the restaurant would be rather noisy.
The waiter was not wrong. Since the fly was struggling to get out it just happened, so the whole bowl can be seen as not contaminated. Nevertheless, we think it is reasonable to give it back to the waiter. The human mind has an instinct to avoid contamination. For example, most people find rotten food disgusting and instinctively push it aside since it can pollute both emotionally and physically.
Nowadays, politicians are manipulating the human mind in the above fashion and making politics a mess. Granted that politics requires the use of power and strength to achieve goals but does it require crude words and non-human-like behavior to achieve these goals. Recently the rude words uttered by one of the politicians was top news on portal sites, each viewer taking sides. Many take the news to the social media and amplify the conflict and hatred in their own way. The conservatives are old fools and the progressive are leftwing reds. Each sees the other as a fly in their noodles and wants to get rid of it.
The politician seeing the many 'thumbs up' response on the social network must have been pleased. He was in the big times. It spread to the other media outlets and YouTube and he must have been happy with himself with all the clicks.
Looking over the political climate which helps to rally confrontation and hatred one is saddened. Instead of criticizing this sad state of affairs, the media jumps in and helps to stir it up. The writer doesn't know how much coexistence and integration is worth to them. Ideology in society that has gone to the extremes is a responsibility of the media and the netizens who go along with it.
Did you just comment in the digital world today with unkind and rude words? If so, it is the seed of division. Have you ever poured ideological biased content—personal opinion— without deep thought into the internet? The devil is always there to encourage confrontation and to engage in violence. In fact, Korean society has not been able to get out of the 'demon trap' and two of the examples: Gwangju Uprising (5:18) the truth, and the 'environment-friendly' policy debate.
"A community is much stronger if it is cohesive and supportive, if it is animated by feelings of trust, and pursues common objectives. The community as a network of solidarity requires mutual listening and dialogue, based on the responsible use of language." These words are in the message for World Communication Day, Ascension Sunday 2019.
"What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops."(Matthew 10, 27). Public institutions should be tools for encounter and reconciliation, not of division but facilitators of peace.
