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ASIA / PACIFIC Page 4 n THE ASIAN REPORTER March 1, 2021 Korean-American K-pop stars promote mental health awareness By Juwon Park The Associated Press S DANGEROUS OCCUPATION. Imradul Ali, 10, top photo, blows up a balloon that he salvaged from a landfill on the outskirts of Gauhati, India. Once school is done for the day, Ali rushes home to change out of his uniform so he can start his job as a scavenger in India’s remote northeast. In the bottom photo, Ali and his mother, Anuwara Begum, 30, right, arrive to look for recyclable material at the landfill. (AP Photos/Anupam Nath) A day in the life of an Indian child scavenger By Anupam Nath The Associated Press G AUHATI, India — Once school is done for the day, 10-year-old Imradul Ali rushes home to change out of his uniform so he can start his job as a scavenger in India’s remote northeast. Armed with a gunny sack, he goes to a landfill in the slums of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state. Here, he hunts through heaps of other people’s garbage, searching for plastic bottles, glass, or anything salvageable he can recycle or sell. Around him, cows graze on the mountains of waste that line the site. Ali comes from a family of scavengers, or “rag pickers” — his father, mother, and elder brother all earn their income through it. He started doing it over a year ago to help his family make more money. The family was hit hard last year by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they couldn’t go to the landfill and sift through garbage for things to sell. They struggled during the months-long lockdown in India, but were able to get food through the help of aid organizations. Ali says he doesn’t want to spend his life doing this, but he doesn’t know what the future holds. “I want to continue going to school and would like to be a rich man,” he said. He earns up to 100 rupees ($1.30) a day, while the rest of his family makes about 250 rupees ($3.30) each. “It’s very difficult to run a family by rag-picking,” said Ali’s mother, Anuwara Begum. Scavenging is filthy and dangerous work. While there is no exact count, aid groups say around 4 million people in India work as scavengers. It is effectively the primary recycling system in the coun- try, but the work is not environmentally friendly. Those who do it have few rights and are exposed to deadly poisons every day. India’s last census in 2011 put the total number of child laborers between the ages of 5 and 14, including scavengers, at around 10 million. Thadeus Kujur, who runs the Snehalaya charitable group, says it’s always sad to see children collecting scraps instead of going to school. His group runs five child- care institutions, taking care of 185 boys and girls, and has helped 20,000 children over seven years. “We carry out motiva- tional programs for poor parents to realize the value of education before putting their children into schools,” he said. According to a new World Bank Group and U.N. Children’s Fund analysis, an estimated one in six children, or 356 million globally, lived in extreme poverty before the pandemic began — and the number is expected to worsen signifi- cantly. Ali’s father wants his son to continue going to school, hoping he will run his own shop or get a coveted government job when he grows up, putting an end to their suf- fering. As for Ali, he wants to drive a car and wishes to own one in the future. “I want good food and clothes,” he said. China considers new actions to lift flagging birthrate Continued from page 2 Experts have been calling for further reforms because of economic concerns and the problem of an aging population. China had a population of 1.34 billion in 2010 with an annual growth rate of 0.57%, down from 1.07% a decade earlier, statistics bureau data show. The latest census was conducted in the second half of last year and the results have not yet been released. A U.N. report says India is projected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by 2027. EOUL, South Korea — K-pop star Eric Nam was having a meeting in New York when he suddenly felt a pain in his chest. “I thought I was going to have to call 911,” he said, recounting the experience from 2019. But instead, he remained sitting and “had to quietly breathe my way” through the meeting, he said. Similarly, Jae-hyung Park, better known as Jae from K-pop band “Day6,” was in a cab returning from a music video shoot in Seoul last year when he experienced what felt like a heart attack. At first, he put it down to stress, saying that for years he had dealt with “out of place” and “weird” feelings. But he realized he couldn’t ignore the symptoms, and in the “calmest voice” asked the driver to take him to a nearby hospital. “I’m ... feeling like I am going to die, I am going to die, I am going to die,” he recounted. Park and Nam said they later found out they had suffered panic attacks. Many recording artists struggle to cope with the trappings of fame. In South Korea, as in many cultures, talking about mental health issues is seen as taboo, causing K-pop stars to grapple with depression and mental illness on their own. Nam and Park have joined other Korean-American K-pop artists in raising awareness about mental health beyond the K-pop community by publicly sharing their personal journeys. Nam moved from his hometown, Atlanta, to Seoul in 2011 and launched his music career after competing on a Korean music television show. A Boston College graduate, Nam said the racism he endured growing up in suburban Georgia left deep scars on him. He explains he was bullied and even spat on by a classmate. “It was one of the most degrading, embarrassing, infuri- ating moments of my life up until that point,” Nam recounts on the first episode of MINDSET, a paid podcast series he’s just RAISING AWARENESS. Pictured is Jae-hyung Park, better known as Jae from K-pop band “Day6.” (Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP, File) launched to promote conversations about mental health and wellness. “And I think still to this day that is a topic that I never feel comfortable speaking out about.” Nam said he also struggled with an identity crisis as a Korean American, being treated as an outsider in both South Korea and the U.S. “It felt like I didn’t belong anywhere,” he told The Associated Press. Park, born and raised in California, said he had difficulty navigating between two vastly different cultures. And the intense competition in the industry also affected his mental health. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world,” Park said of K-pop. Park was offered counselling from his record label, JYP Entertainment, but said he found it difficult to connect with his therapist and eventually took a break from his career last year, when his band went on a hiatus. He took part in Nam’s podcast series as a celebrity speaker. Nam is hoping the shows can address stereotypes and stigmas surrounding mental illness. “I never thought that I would need, I would want to talk to somebody about my mental health,” Nam said. “But once you’re in that position, I just didn’t know really how to deal with it. And so I remember those very isolating kinds of moments that I had had earlier on in my career.” Lives Lost: Parents hoped baby Kobe would play basketball Continued from page 3 “I was very happy then because we were going home. My family will finally see my son, my youngest,” he recalled. The family’s joy turned out to be short-lived. Three days later, Kobe was back at National Children’s Hospital with a swollen belly. His mother accompanied him this time so she could continue breastfeeding. Still quarantined himself, Manjares borrowed a neighbor’s cellphone for video calls with his son and partner during the month they remained at the hospital. A biopsy showed that Kobe suffered from Hirschsprung disease, a rare birth defect that prevents stool from moving through the large intestine. It is usually treated with surgery, but the blockage can lead to a dangerous bacterial infection. That’s what happened with Kobe. His doctors were working to manage the infection so the baby would be stable enough for surgery when Kobe’s condition rapidly deteriorated. The baby died on June 4, less than two months after he was born. The director of the National Children’s Hospital told a local broadcaster the cause of death was sepsis, the overactive im- mune system response to an infection that can cause fatal tissue and organ damage. It’s unclear if COVID-19 exacerbated the progression of the Hirschsprung disease or the complications the baby experienced. Lockdown restrictions prevented Manjares from going to the hospital to see his son’s body and comfort Kobe’s mother. Local officials allowed the couple to hold a two-day wake at their home with neighbors since Kobe’s death wasn’t attributed to COVID-19. The baby died before he could be baptized, but a priest who came to celebrate mass blessed the tiny remains in a white coffin. A family friend who owns a farm in their home province south of Manila allowed them, as well as his father and siblings, to stay on his property because the Manjares’ home in nearby Talisay town was heavily damaged during the eruption of Taal volcano in January. There, Manjares remembers the time he spent with Kobe by viewing some photos of the baby he keeps on his phone. One is a selfie he took with a sleeping Kobe. Another grabbed from a video call shows his son filling the main screen, Manjares smiling from a small second one in the corner. “I can’t forget his face,” he said. Because of her Catholic faith, Noche believes that Kobe is in a better place. The pain of losing a child stays with his mother, who also treasures a few images to keep him in her memory. “Life would have been happier if baby Kobe was still alive,” she said. “How I wished for him to be with us for a bit longer.” Rosario reported from Bangkok, Thailand. Lives Lost is part of an ongoing series of stories remembering people who have died from the coronavirus around the world.