[Opinion] Starving Children

There was a time when children endlessly drank cold water from a well. They drank it not to quench their thirst but to forget their hunger. At that time, many children would be happy and had to feel happy with only a single meal the entire day. This is not a story of long time ago, but instead is the story of the 1960s and 70s. Poet Hwang Kum-chan left a poem on his experience of the “barley hump” (the most difficult time of the year for the farmers).

“Many people went crying because it is endlessly high. / - went over starving. / … / Korea’s barely hump, / Destiny’s 9,000 meters above sea-level that cannot but be crossed / the boy laid on the meadow. / the sky is a grain of barley, / right now, I cannot see anything in front of me.”

Economists have various reasons for Korea’s rise to the 11th largest economy in the world, just 30 years after such misery. Some point to an outstanding elite group, while others say that the majority of Koreans are diligent or due to foreign aid. Nevertheless, anyone over 40 years old in this land knows this by instinct: Korea had parents who considered starving their children as the greatest sin of all, and tightened their belts to raise Korea’s economy.

Koreans think that starving children is now a vanished problem since the country even joined the rich countries’ club, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). In reality, however, children are still starving. 265,000 students out of the 300,000 students (from elementary to high school in Seoul) who were provided with meals in school, now have to find their own lunch during summer vacation, and it is very likely that a large number of them will go without meals. All of this is going on, not in times when there is nothing to eat but grass roots and tree bark, but in an age where disposed food-garbage amounts to one trillion won.

It is said that out of 300,000 students, the 35,000 students who fall below the absolute poverty class will be able find free lunches in nearby restaurants or welfare centers with government-issued coupons. Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether they will have a decent meal with a 2,000 won coupon, or be properly treated as customers. In fact, some children say that they would rather starve than to eat shamefully at the corner of a restaurant. If the government has the budget to spend on national plans, which results are very uncertain, it should save the children from starvation and pain. Surely, the government does not want to make countless parents become sinners who starve their children.

Chun Kwang-Am, Editor Writer, iam@donga.com