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.
Korean Catholicism has a history of martyrdom and a church that began without the help of foreign missioners. The laity spread the faith without the help of the clergy until the first priest came from China.
In 1785 began the first persecution, about one year after the establishment of the church in Korea. In the first stage, the punishment was relatively light. Only the owner of the house was punished with exile. The noble class was pressured to give up their belief.
The persecution of 1791 was among the noble class who ignored the government's decree against the Catholic faith. The faithful rejected the ancestral rites and burned the ancestral tablet. These actions were condemned by their families and society as serious violations against filial piety. The Catholics who were involved were sentenced to death immediately. This event led many believers of the noble class to leave the Church. The persecution in 1791 was relatively small but it was a significant event in many aspects.
This was followed with a more aggressive mission attitude opposing the traditional culture which provoked tougher persecutions. They are the persecution of 1801, 1839, 1846 and 1866 which led to the death of about 10,000 martyrs. The loss of one Chinese priest and 12 French of the Paris Mission Society was a big blow to the church, (Taken from the Bishops' Website)
Both Catholic Weeklies had articles on a symposium on 'apostasy, exile and witness' of the first Christians. The research on the numbers of those who gave up their newly found faith in the face of death is not complete—government numbers differ from those of the church.
Apostasy is the word that we use with those who once believed and for various reasons turn away. This situation does not only appear in times of persecution. Peter denied he knew Jesus three times but we can also call it apostasy when we distance ourselves from God by our actions because of personal circumstances, and fail to live as Christians.
At the symposium, speakers pointed out when speaking about the time of persecution we should avoid understanding it as an issue of good and evil— faith and apostasy. Emphasized was to look at the history of the times understanding the situation in which the people lived.
The records show that there were more apostates than martyrs. However, many of them such as the father of St.Andrew Kim repented and this was the case for others. In the persecution of 1801 the rate of apostates among those arrested reached 62 percent. In 1839—48% and in 1866—54%.
Despite their apostasy, many of them were not released but sent into exile. In particular, 400 people were exiled during the 1801 persecution and died in exile. Among the arrested Christians, not only did they apostate for their lives, but also others went along with the authorities to ferret out the Catholics. Three of the informants were listed who brought great harm to the church.
Believers in the time of persecution called the informants Judases. After the freedom of religion was acknowledged. Some of these informants repented of their actions and were even witnesses of the death of the martyrs for the church. The families of those who were killed during the persecution found it very difficult to accept these informers back into the community of faith even after their repentance, a very sad situation.
"I would like to go back to Pyongyang but I don't think they will allow it. In the hotel room and in restaurants they would have heard me bad mouthing the government with their wiretapping devices." Words a lawyer heard from his priest friend and with which he begins his column in the Catholic Times.
Some years ago, several groups, progressives, and conservatives from the South visited the North. One of the group was a priest who had few good words about the North from the time he got on the plane. The first night at the hotel, the priest looking at the ceiling of the room: "they know all that we are saying." The priest gradually seeing the way the North Koreans were kindly treating them he wanted to return; they were no different from us and was enjoying their sincerity. The lawyer told the priest how to make his trip back to Pyongyang easy: "Father, go into the bathroom where they have the listening devices and call out 'Long live Kim Jong Il.'
The lawyer with the guide, who was showing them around, in some light banter told him, if he had been born in the South he would have a different understanding of the North and so would the group if they were born in the North because they have been hearing for decades education on security.
Each of us has a certain way of looking at life, a position in which we interact with others and take sides—our side against the other. Young people against the old, who they see as old fogeys and the old seeing the young as irresponsible without any ethics.
Women against men. Men looking down at women and women seeing men as enemies. Liberals wanting to put the conservatives in prison and vice versa.
When the conservatives were running things, we saw those who did not go along with the government often branded as communists and sent to prison, ignoring 'due process'. Recently on reexamination, many of those who have died and those in prison have been cleared of any wrongdoing.
However, with the progressive government, we have cases justified by wanting to put things right, are in effect going against the law. Instead of due process, we have public opinion doing the judging. The 'MeToo' movement in society is an example. Those who complain about their rights are often stigmatized as assailants even the chance to prove this by 'due process' is taken away from them and their desire for justice is seen as a second attack on their victims and shameless.
In fact, it's never easy to figure out what's right. Jesus said to don't remove the weeds: "Pull up the weeds and you might take the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until the harvest..."(Matthew 13,29-30). Yes, it's not our duty to divide the wheat and the tares, but leave it up to God.
But right now, faced with our reality we must inevitably separate the right from the wrong, and the standard is different depending on where we stand—our viewpoint. That is why the 'process' of judging must be just and fair at all times. 'Due process' is the last stop to protect us, no matter on what side we stand.
South and North, progressive and conservative, rich and poor, old and young, men and women— the difference in position is a sad and grim reality of our society— extremely difficult to narrow the difference: I am the wheat; you are the weeds.
Still, the only way that different people can live together is to attempt to wear the other's shoes for a time. Selfishness and individualism is a great obstacle these days and the need to consider things from another perspective doesn't mean we agree but it should rid ourselves from demonizing the other and allow us to respect the other while disagreeing.
Jesus also taught us the golden rule: "Treat others the way you would have them treat you" (Matt. 7:12). Since we all want different things how about putting it in the negative? Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you.
Human rights abuse towards the disabled exceeds that found in the general public. There is still a blind spot that ignores the human rights of people with disabilities, a sign of a distorted aspect of our society. In the Peace column of the Catholic Peace Weekly the writer, well acquainted with the welfare work in Korea, considers the situation with the disabled.
In the facilities for the disabled, teachers responsible for the rehabilitation of those with mental disabilities were violently abused and even photographed by the teachers. Physical and emotional abuse of persons with disabilities is something that existed in the past and continues to exist but when the caregivers are observed abusing it's easy to understand the public anger.
According to the advocacy organization for persons with disabilities, there were more than 3,600 complaints of abuse for the disabled last year alone. More than 10 cases occur every day. As this situation continues, there is talk that these facilities for the disabled be removed completely from society.
In Korea, the debate over the dismantling began in the mid-2000s, and de-institutionalization is based on the need for humans to live in a minimal regulatory environment and to live normal and independent lives as possible.
In the UK and elsewhere in Europe, since the 1950s, abuse and neglect of people with disabilities have emerged as social problems, necessitating the movement to close these institutions. In Sweden, which is called the welfare state, the government has already closed the facilities for the disabled.
The Swedish government is taking further steps to encourage people with disabilities in the facility to develop their own plans for leaving the facility. The municipalities provide group housing for the disabled, staff support, various services, and cultural leisure activities. It is a result of collaborative effort and cooperation.
It is not that we have to follow the ways the developed countries have gone, however, it is time for the government and the local government to find a policy that is right for people with disabilities. We must support people with disabilities who need medical care or protection, as equal citizens, and as individuals who are guaranteed freedom.
Pope Francis has emphasized the need to always be open to those suffering. We have his example on a trip returning from Mass where he left his car to bless a person who was disabled, showing his sensitivity. He closed his eyes to the disability and criticized the egoistic attitude of society in isolating them. Those who reject the disabled are not living in the real world, without understanding the true meaning of life. He leaves us with much to think about.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare has issued a community care policy. It ensures that people with disabilities who are constrained can live their own lives cared for by the local community. Includes increasing the welfare services for people with disabilities and increasing the rate of mandatory employment for the disabled. We are to view the issue in what the disable need from their point of view and understand and sympathize and make our efforts coincide.
The road to happiness is complex and there are many forks in the road.
Studies and lectures on happiness have something important to say but a
Christian does have some ground rules to follow: the pursuit of the
spiritual instead of the material, not to compare with others and
importance of good relationships is basic. So begins an article in the
Peace Weekly by a college professor.
A common element of
these conclusions is that you don't buy happiness in the market nor does
it come with consumption. The Easterlin paradox, which deals with the
relationship between income and happiness states: as income increases,
happiness increases, but if income goes beyond some point, the
relationship is very small. Put simply, after our basic needs are met
the increase of happiness with greater consumption is minimal.
Can
we in the search for happiness give up comparing with others, renounce
material possessions and consumption? Evolutionary psychologists argue
that humans are genetically structured to be happy in the context of
survival and reproduction. If we are not busy with activities related to
survival and reproduction, it will weaken the motivation to survive and
multiply. Therefore to give up many physical conditions that contribute
to survival and reproduction, such as delicious and nutritious food, a
warm and comfortable home, clothes and ornaments that will make me
attractive to others will not be easy to do.
Consuming is
not a habit to be unconditionally discarded to obtain happiness, but to
manage well. Consumption helps self-esteem, achievement, and control by
helping individuals meet what they really want and to express
themselves. Many studies dealing with happiness emphasize that happiness
is an experience mediated through consumption. Difficult to be happy by
just changing thoughts, without religious beliefs changing thoughts
when cold and hungry is nearly impossible.
Consumers who are
accustomed to consumer societies and market economies today believe that
happiness will increase if consumers consume more. But to the contrary,
excessive consumption can lead to negative emotions: regret,
disappointment, and guilt. If you want to be happy, instead of giving up
on consumption or changing our thinking how about changing what we
consume?
The writer introduces us to professor Elizabeth Dunn
who suggests some consumption methods. First, buy experience. One is
happier when accumulating experiences such as travel or learning
something new than to spend money on material goods. Second, consume
what is proper for yourself, what has meaning for you? We don't purchase
something because others have bought it. Third, buy time. We need to
ask ourselves how will our purchase affect the way I spend my time. If
the impact of what I buy will have little impact on how I spend my time
your money might be better spent. Fourth, pay first and consume later.
Don't go into debt to consume. Finally, consume for others. Often
when we consume for others, spend money for others, we are happier.
