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If There Is an Emergency Involving the Farm Machine, Call 119
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Sim, Sang-bok, president of the farm machine engineer council
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By Park, Sun-young, reporter, park-sy@knu.ac.kr
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등록일: 2007-04-01 오전 12:00:00
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▲ Sim Sang-bok
ⓒ photo by The KNU Times |
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“Even though I tour North Gyeongsang province counties to do on-site voluntary service without rest on weekends, I am always relieved of my fatigue by the farmers’ appreciative words.”
Sim, Sang-bok (52), the president of The Farm Machine Engineer Council, repaired about 2,500 farm machines in North Gyeongsang province last year. At first, Sim worked at motor car company as a repairman. But he was accidentally offered a repairman position in Cheonsong nonghyup 26 years ago, and has been following this trade ever since.
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Sim volunteers at ‘The farm machines 119 repair voluntary service group in 2007’, which he now heads. The North Gyeongsang province nonghyup (the national agricultural cooperative federation) hosted to ‘The farm machines 119 repair voluntary service group in 2007’ on February 24, 2007 in Cheongsong.
Beginning February 10th in Jeonju city, Sim and the volunteer group have already toured around North Gyeonsang province; Cheongsong county on 2/24 and Gyeongju city on 2/25. He is one step closer to fulfilling his goal of repairing about 3,000 farm machines this year, since he has already repaired about 1,000 farm machines.
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▲ Mr. Sim is repairing a farm machine
ⓒ photo by The KNU Times |
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“Old-aged farmers are having difficulty in repairing farm machines because they have to take the machines to the maintenance shop in person. To mitigate this inconvenience, we make a business trip of the North Gyeonsang province on weekends and repair farm machines. Also when farmers suffer from drought and storms, we offer them a helping hand.” Sim answered in response to a question about what motivated him to start voluntary service.
Sim also invented a machine, a frost prevention fan, for orchard farmers last year. Before this, an expensive imported machine was mainly used by orchard farmers. The new one invented by Sim is cheaper and more practical. He hopes it will be of great service to orchard farmers.
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▲ Machine tools in repair shop
ⓒ photo by The KNU Times |
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Sim talked about the difficulty of volunteering and about his anxiety for the future of rural communities. “I am concerned about the small number of young repairmen in the rural communities. These days, few young people work for the farm machine repair shop and want to do arduous jobs like repairing farm machines. After I retire from the farm machine repair shop, I worry about the future. The present repairmen are working in poor surroundings and are treated poorly compared to other employees in nonghyup. So the government must improve the repairmen’s working conditions and offer a wage increase. I also hope the government will provide repairman with the farm machine parts we need for the volunteering service, since we have trouble in obtaining a wide range of parts. I am always sorry to tell farmers that repairs are delayed because some parts are out of stock.”
Sim added a few words about volunteer work in conclusion. “I have never thought that volunteer work on weekends is hard work. If I were to pursue an easy life, however, I could not possibly do volunteer work.” Today, many people seek only an easy life for themselves. I hope that Sim’s remarks about volunteer work will encourage people to reflect on their selfish search for self-satisfaction and ponder upon the meaning of life more deeply.
[No.320]
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 Review |
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 Book cafe |
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 Language Usage |
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 Reader's Letters |
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