POVERTY
THE REAL SITUATION
IN INDIA AND CHINA
 
In Asia poverty still co-exists with economic development. A UN document, the Human Development Report 2003, clearly shows that booming Asia is not defeating poverty. In India and China a large amount of the population lives in meager conditions without having access to essential services Between 1990 and 2001, 34.7% of Indians lived on less than $1 a day, and 79.9% on less than $2. Analogously, 16.1% of Chinese lived on less than $1 and 47.3% on less than $2. Between 1998 and 2000, 24% of Indians and 9% of Chinese was underfed. Between 1995 and 2001 10% of Chinese children and 47%of Indian children (under the age of 5) was underweight. In 2000, 25% of Chinese population (of which 34% was from the countryside) had no drinkable water.
Slum dwellers in India
     
In India 16% of the population (of which 21% lived in the countryside) had the same problem. 60% of Chinese people and 72% of Indians had no access to any kind of health program. In 2001 in China 31 newborn babies out of 1000 died; in the same year in India 67 infants out of 1000 died; 39 out of 1000 children under the age of 5 died in China and 93 in India. According to some UN analysts, the economical growth is not the only thing that must be considered in measuring the development of an area. It is more urgent to look at the real situation and the poverty of people.
Women carrying loads of cement on a construction site Members of the new middle class
THE CALL From Soldier to Missionary
   
Fr. Gus — his full name is Fr. Augustine Jong Oh Kim — is one of our Korean MSC priests. He was born in Gumi City, Korea, and joined the MSC through religious profession in 1989. His elder brother, Fr. Joseph Kim hadjoined the MSC earlier, in 1987, and is now MSC Superior in Korea.

Fr. Gus Kim did his Seminary studies in Manila, and was ordained on June 7, 1995. After his initial pastoral experience in Korea, Fr Gus went to Texas, USA, where he did special Pastoral studies. After working as hospital chaplain at Chung- Ang Hospital in Inchon for some years he is now doing further medical studies in Manila.

This is his story:
 
‘My vocation started during my military service years. When I was a first lieutenant in the Korean Army, I was a battalion staff. There I worked with a battalion commander who reprimanded me a lot during the meetings. It made me feel so bad. But I could not express my feelings towards him. Instead I wrote about all my anger towards the commander in my diary almost every night. It was a very difficult period for me. My only pleasure at that time was going to Church every Sunday.
I also read the Bible every day, even with tears sometimes, and prayed to God for help. I found a lot of consolation in those activities. One day when I was praying and thinking about years past, I realised that my life was not meant to be a soldier, but to serve the sick and the old in isolated places as a lay brother. Later when I spoke about this to the Parish priest whom I used to visit, he told me “Lieutenant Kim, why don’t you become a priest?” When I heard this, I was so happy as if I had gotten a new life. It sounded to me as a voice of great hope and a new vision.
After this incident I decided to resign — after the eight year long military service, as the Captain of Korean Army for the last two years, I resigned from military life. And I entered the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. My formation for the priesthood for almost eight years was completed in the Philippines, and I was ordained in Korea on June 7th, 1995 as a religious priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. I was called from being a soldier to being a missionary. My military service was the garden of my vocation, and the battalion commander whom I got angry with can be gratefully recognised as the one who forced the seed to grow. Lastly the Parish priest, who meanwhile passed away, the formators and MSC confreres,my family and friends were the the ones who nurtured my vocation and were theinstruments of God.’
 
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