Seniors World Chronicle

WORLD: The coin polisher and duckmaster make sure you have a memorable stay

2009-11-22T15:33:00.018+05:30

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LOS ANGELES, California / Los Angeles Times / In The News Travel / November 22, 2009

The coin polisher and duckmaster are here to make sure you have a memorable stay.

By Judy Mandell

There's more to providing hotel services than sometimes meets the eye. Here are some of the more unusual behind-the-scenes hotel jobs.

Coin polishers

Rob Holsen is the official "coin washer" at San Francisco's Westin St. Francis Hotel. In 1935, general manager Dan London noticed that women attending weekly fashion shows at the hotel were soiling their white gloves on the change they used to pay for lunch, so he decided that all coins used at the St. Francis would be washed.

"In recent years, when I was a cashier at the hotel, we were required to segregate 'dirty money' from clean," Holsen says. "Anyone who was observed giving dirty money to guests was admonished according to the St. Francis Clean Money Policy. The 'dirty money' was returned to the general cashier for washing and reissue."

Although credit cards have replaced cash and cellphones have replaced pay phones, coins still circulate. "We continue the tradition of coin washing because it represents a tradition of elegance of times past," he says. Click for CBS video report

Duckmaster

At the Peabody hotel in Memphis, Tenn., five mallard ducks live in a penthouse on the roof. At 11 a.m. each day, they march to the lobby, where they splash in the fountain until 5 p.m., when the ceremony reverses. Duckmaster Jason Sensat feeds, cares for and trains the ducks.

"Many think this is a fun and glamorous job, and quite often it is with media interviews, travel and celebrity honorary Duckmasters -- but it's also a dirty job, as cleaning up after the flock is part of the job too," Sensat says. Photo courtesy: lonelyplanet.com

Nuclear mixologist

Daniel Puglisi, food and beverage manager at the Hotel Victor in Miami Beach, is the hotel's resident "nuclear mixologist."

What is nuclear mixology? It's really cool and truly an art form. "Mixologists" drop the temperature of alcohol to minus-237.2 degrees Fahrenheit (the temperature at which alcohol freezes), which creates visually theatrical cocktails, spicing up the classics.

"What got me interested in molecular or nuclear mixology was the current state of the bar and nightclub industry," Puglisi says. "I became so tired of hearing the 'Vodka Red Bull' or 'Vodka Cranberry' that I just wanted to take the classics and turn them inside out and upside down. I want to show people there are other possibilities out there than the classic cocktails we're drinking now."

One of Puglisi's recent creations is a take on the mojito. "What I do differently is combine all of the classic ingredients and purée them into a mint and lime juice. I then use liquid nitrogen to freeze the solution in ice cube trays. To construct the cocktail you use the mojito "ice cubes" and top them with rum and club soda. The drink tastes like the best mojito you have ever had but looks more like a spaced-out green martini."

Mud manager

Mud manager Mike Rowe collects and cleanses volcanic ash and maintains the mud baths at Dr. Wilkinson's Hot Springs Resort in Calistoga, Calif. He combines pure volcanic ash and mineralized hot springs water with Canadian peat to make its unique mud treatment.

Photo:
Volcanic ash-peat and Napa Valley Lavender

Maitre d'fromage

At the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., Carolyn Stromberg, the full-time artisan cheese expert at its Old Hickory Steakhouse, oversees an inventory of fine cheeses worth more than $8,000. She procures all cheeses, ages them in the restaurant's temperature- and humidity-controlled "cheese cave" and serves them to guests.

"I try to find cheeses that are difficult to find so our guests can try something new," Stromberg says. "I set up the actual cart, which I then bring table-side to our guests so I can describe the night's offerings and figure out what our guests will truly enjoy."

Elephant camp coordinator

"Elephant camp coordinator isn't a job title seen in many classified ads," says Taweesak Keereekaew, who cares for the elephants at the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle, Chiang Rai, Thailand.

It isn't the job he initially set out to do. Keereekaew, who grew up on a rice farm an hour and a half north of Chiang Rai, was intent on a different life. "I loved English, so I wanted to study to become a tour guide," he says. "That was my plan."

After nearly 15 years working in local hotels, Keereekaew achieved his goal and became a freelance tour guide. During the five years he spent showing visitors Chiang Rai's natural and cultural wonders, it was the weekly elephant safaris he looked forward to most.

"Then a friend told me about the job at Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle. It was a big change, but too good an opportunity to turn down."

Keereekaew's day starts at 7 a.m., preparing bananas for the baby elephants' breakfast. Training begins at 9 a.m. (using elephants rescued from the now-banned logging industry), followed by a trek to the elephant pond to bathe the gentle giants. And that's all before lunch.

"The guests here get a true hands-on experience," Keereekaew says. "It's proper . . . training: riding bareback, giving commands, feeding, bathing, learning all the rules. When you see the elephants every day, you get to know their individual ways. They have good memories and remember you. If you treat them well, they will love you forever."

Urban beekeeper

David Garcelon, executive chef at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, is the hotel's beekeeper. Three rooftop hives are a natural extension of the decade-old rooftop herb garden. "Our bee colonies deliver irresistible honey for our guests and, at the same time, assist with promoting our ecological commitment to bee culture," Garcelon says.

Mermaid

The Silverton Casino Lodge in Las Vegas has a 117,000-gallon aquarium in which, on Thursdays through Sundays, two mermaids take turns swimming and interacting with guests.

Heather Carrasco, one of the mermaids, is a former Olympic gold medalist synchronized swimmer.

Aleza Freeman/Vegas.com

Fairy godmother

The Barnsley Gardens Resort in Adairsville, Ga., is home to a fairy godmother who, at a guest's request, can cast a "Love Spell" with candles or rose petals, Champagne and a luxurious bubble bath.

Some of her most popular spells involve candles throughout the room, parasols, Champagne, an abundance of red décor, and geisha outfits for you and your special someone or pitchers of margaritas, sombreros, cardboard mariachi band cutouts, and streamers of all colors to create a fun, vibrant atmosphere for the Fiesta No Siesta spell. [rc]

travel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

Photos & Illustrations added by
Seniors World Chronicle

USA: The emergency room bill is enough to make you sick

2009-11-22T15:02:00.008+05:30

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LOS ANGELES, California / Los Angeles Times / Health Care / November 22, 2009

A doctor is flummoxed by the costs when he becomes the patient.

By Steve Lopez

Are you ready to play "How much was that visit to the ER?"

OK, so a weekend athlete is playing soccer with his pals in Santa Monica, tries to make a stop and butts heads with an opposing player.

Our warrior goes down in a heap, stands up, touches his head and realizes he's bleeding.

It's immediately clear that although the injury doesn't appear to be serious, our boy is going to need some stitches on his forehead, just under the hairline.

So Lance Budris, who happens to be a doctor, is out of the game and on his way to get patched up.

"I thought about calling a friend to stitch it up," said Budris, an anesthesiologist.

But it was Sunday morning, and he didn't want to bother a colleague on a day off for so minor a mishap. Instead, he had a friend drive him to a Westside hospital, where he walked into the emergency room in his soccer gear, holding a bloody towel to his head.

After a short wait, a nurse took his vitals, an ER tech washed the gash with a saline solution and he got a tetanus shot because he couldn't remember when he'd had his last one.

Then the doctor came in, draped the area and sutured the wound, a two-layer job that required 29 stitches. Budris was on his way roughly two hours after arriving at the hospital.

Photo courtesy: emergency-solutions.com

That was in July.

The bill arrived last month.

Go ahead, take a wild guess before you read the next paragraph. Are you ready?

Two bills, one for ER costs and one for the doctor's fee, totaled nearly $5,000.

Dr. Budris was floored.

As a physician, he's well aware that emergency room treatment is very expensive. But knowing the true cost of the limited supplies and labor required to treat such a minor wound, he found the experience more than a little disturbing.

For one thing, he could barely understand the bill sent him by the hospital, which he asked me not to name. I agreed after checking around and finding that the charges were not out of whack with other ERs. Budris' story isn't about one hospital.

Instead, it's a snapshot of a healthcare system gone mad, in which doctors are discouraged, hospitals go out of business and costs are inflated in a shell game between health insurance companies and medical service providers, while the patients who pay their bills get shafted.

But back to Budris' bill. It listed something called "M/S SUPPLY GENERAL," which came to $1,247. Then there was another $2,425 for "EMERGENCY ROOM GENERAL."

"I'm a doctor and I can't tell you what all of that means," said Budris when we met for coffee and went over the bill together.

Then there was $360 for "PREVENTIVE CARE VACCINE," the tetanus booster.

Budris knows exactly what the true cost was there, because he buys boosters for his own practice.

At $27 each.

The bill's explanation for insurance adjustments was virtually incomprehensible, which of course should surprise no one. Bottom line? Budris' Blue Shield PPO paid $2,200 -- or perhaps $2,409, it's hard to say -- and, after what looks like an unexplained additional "adjustment," he was left with a $1,066.43 bill, plus the additional $600 physician fee.

Budris called the hospital to complain about the whole shebang and ask for an explanation, as well as an adjustment, and he later got a remarkably incomprehensible letter of explanation informing him that although his request for a "patient liability reduction has been partially denied," his cost was being reduced to $659.04.

"Here it is," Budris said at the coffee shop. "This is our national debate right now."

He has a hard time understanding why there are forces in Washington and elsewhere resisting the overhaul of a system that is built for profit rather than health, costs vastly more per person than systems in other industrialized nations and still shuns "great segments of society."

Budris said he thought about his own billing practices and asked himself, "Am I a hypocrite?" He's not gouging patients, he said, but he's a player in a system where gouging is part of the game.

Budris wonders why there isn't a list of services and prices when you walk into a hospital. If you go to a restaurant, a law office or an auto repair shop, you're told in advance what you can expect to pay.

But when it comes to medical services, you don't know the prices or the rules of the game, and you always feel a little bit like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

"The hospital says to the insurance company, 'OK, this is our number.' And the insurance company says, 'No, we don't pay that number. We pay this number.' "

And the cost of that game, which involves lots of paper shuffling, is all added on to the cost of healthcare.

Emergency rooms are extremely expensive to run and many of them lose money, said Dr. Marshall Morgan, chief of emergency medicine at the UCLA Medical Center. They have a large number of uninsured patients they are obligated to treat, and patients with insurance end up paying for more than the true cost of their own care.

"The bottom line is that hospital charges I see have little relationship to anything I can perceive as reality," said Morgan.

He said the current healthcare system has given health insurance companies "more money than God," with Big Pharma doing quite nicely, "and I'm not bad off myself." But we pay far more than we get back in healthcare, he said, and although he would like to see a national single-payer system that removes profit from the equation, he isn't betting on one.

"The insurance companies have huge amounts of money, and like everyone else," he said, "they buy and sell our Congress people."

Dr. Budris asked physician friends what they thought his ER bill was for his 2-inch laceration. They gave knowing smiles and guessed in the $5,000 range, or up to 10 times what the true cost of service might have been.

Lots of people are party to a dishonest and inefficient system, said Budris. He doesn't single out insurance companies, even though his wife, a critical care nurse, was dropped by her insurance company.

It claimed she had concealed an illness; the Budrises argued the condition was previously undiagnosed.

It's one crazy fight after another. [rc]

Steve Lopez
E-Mail: steve.lopez@latimes.com

Photo of Steve Lopez courtesy: patterico.com

Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

UK: British Asians worry more about caring for their parents in old age

2009-11-22T14:35:00.005+05:30

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LONDON, England / Central Office of Information / Department of Health / Press Release dated November 3, 2009. Received on November 22, 2009

British Asians are amongst those who are most worried about how they will care for elderly parents in old age, a new Big Care Debate poll has found. As the Government’s consultation on the future funding for long-term care enters its final week, the survey shows a third of British Asians have concerns compared with a fifth of the wider population.

The survey reveals that England’s Asian population are:
· nearly twice as likely to be comfortable looking after their older parents,
· close to five times more likely to expect to look after their grandchildren while their children work, and
· three times more likely to be up for extreme sports, but they are less enthusiastic about bingo.

The Big Care Debate is giving everyone the opportunity to have their say and shape the future of care and support services.

This debate affects everyone. In 20 years time a quarter of the entire adult population in England will be over 65 and the number of people over 85 will have doubled. Half of all men and two in three women will end up needing care, and if someone has more than £23,000 in savings, they will need to meet all the costs themselves.

Under the current system, the average cost of care and support is £30,000, but for someone with dementia it could be as high as £200,000. The Government wants to change this.

Minister for Care Services Phil Hope, said:
“British Asian families have a strong tradition of caring for their own and keeping older people close to the family. Social care services could do more to support this culture and stop people seeing homes and savings from a lifetime’s hard work be whittled away.

“I believe we can build a better system for the future, a National Care Service that supports all our aspirations. To make this happen I need to know what British Asian people want and to learn about what you do well so the whole country can benefit. This is a real opportunity to secure the future of your family and build a better society, please get involved in the Big Care Debate.”

It only takes a few minutes to join in the Big Care Debate at www.careandsupport.direct.gov.uk. This is the last chance before it closes on Friday, November 13.

The Afiya Trust is working to make sure BME people get the chance to have their voices heard in this debate. Chief Executive, Patrick Vernon, said:

“Any process that enables British Asians to be supported in caring for their older relatives, such as the Big Care Debate is to be welcomed. Through our work with BME communities and social care practitioners nationally, it is essential to have access to accurate information about relevant services, housing options and how they need to be financed so they don’t fall through the net.”

The Afiya trust is inviting comments to its own consultation on the green paper with an online survey at www.afiyatrust.org.uk

Survey conducted by Opinion Matters for the Department of Health.

The table below gives relevant figures:

Question
Have you thought about what you would do if one of both of your parents became unable to look after themselves?
Asian or British Asian respondents
34.5% said Yes, I’m very worried about it.
Overall response
19.2% said Yes, I’m very worried about

Question
Would you be comfortable looking after one or both of your parents in their old age or one or both of you in-laws? This means things like taking them to the toilet, washing or dressing them.
Asian or British Asian respondents
71.6% said Yes
Overall response
39.1% said Yes

Question
When you reach the age of 70, which of a given range of options do you think you’ll be doing?
Asian or British Asian respondents
28.4% expected to be looking after grandchildren when children were at work
Overall response
6.4% expected to be looking after grandchildren
when children were at work

Question
When you hit the age of 70, given the opportunity do you think you’ll do any of a given range of options?
Asian or British Asian respondents
17% would take part in extreme sports
25% would play bingo
Overall response
4.8% would take part in extreme sports
36.3% would play bingo

[rc]

Source: News Distribution Service
Department of Health, UK

JAPAN: Cases of elderly abuse by kin up 12%, shows survey

2009-11-22T08:20:00.006+05:30

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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Life in Japan / November 22, 2009

Authorities confirmed 14,889 cases of abuse committed by relatives against people aged 65 or older in fiscal 2008, up 12.2 percent from a year before, a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry survey showed Friday.

The number of victims totaled 15,293, of which 6,897 were suffering from dementia requiring nursing care. Some 78 percent of victims were women, the ministry said.

According to the survey, 40.2 percent of the abusers were the victims' sons, followed by their husbands at 17.3 percent, daughters at 15.1 percent and daughters-in-law at 8.5 percent.

"Hey, Great Grandma" by Sachiko Masushima. Grand Prize Winner of Respect for the Aged Photography Contest, September 2009.
Illustrative photo by courtesy of Nippon Foundation.

As for types of abuse, 63.6 percent of cases involved physical abuse, followed by psychological abuse including verbal attacks at 38.0 percent, negligence at 27.0 percent and financial abuse, such as taking the victims' money, at 25.7 percent.

A ministry official assumed that the number of cases has increased partly due to "raised awareness" about reporting elderly abuse cases to local governments.

The survey, started in fiscal 2006, was taken on 1,800 municipalities and all 47 prefectures based on a law aiming at preventing elderly abuse.

It also revealed that the number of cases in which victims were abused by employees of nursing-care facilities also grew to 70 in fiscal 2008, up 12.9 percent from the previous year.

The number of victims who died after being abused by family members was down to 24, three less than the figure reported in fiscal 2007.

Of the 24 who died, 10 were murdered, five died from neglect, two were killed in murder-suicides, another two died from abuse and five died from other causes.

Meanwhile, the total number of reports of abuse received by local authorities or calls seeking consultations on elderly abuse by relatives increased to 21,692 in fiscal 2008, up 8.6 percent from the previous year. [rc]

Kyodo News
(C) The Japan Times Ltd

USA: Former Air Force Nurse Pronounced Innocent of Mercy Killings

2009-11-21T21:10:00.002+05:30

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SAN ANTONIO, Texas / San Antonio Express-News / November 21, 2009

By Scott Huddleston - Express-News

In a few fleeting seconds, a military judge ended a nearly 16-month ordeal for Capt. Michael Fontana, an Air Force nurse on trial for murder.

“Captain Fontana, this court finds you, of all charges and specifications, not guilty,” Col. William Burd announced Saturday at Lackland AFB.

According to testimony in a five-day court-martial, Air Force investigators had questioned witnesses about “mercy killings” by an “angel of death” in the summer of 2008 at Wilford Hall Medical Center, the Air Force's largest hospital.

Capt. Michael Fontana

Fontana was accused of giving deadly doses of morphine or fentanyl, a painkiller, to three elderly patients on end-of-life care in the hospital's medical intensive care unit.

The death of Dorothy Gray, a stroke victim, was ruled a homicide by the Bexar County medical examiner's office. Fontana, 36, of San Antonio, was removed from the unit and assigned to the hospital's medical library after Gray died on Aug. 5, 2008.

But his defense team and expert witnesses challenged allegations that the pain-killing drugs caused the patients' deaths. They criticized doctors' medication orders as unclear, and questioned the decision by the staff, in consultation with family members, to remove Gray from a ventilator, without giving her time to recover.

After the verdict, Fontana said he never dishonored “my God, my country, my family or my patients' families.”

“Through all these events, I would've never changed the care I gave for those patients,” he said.

Fontana said he wants to stay in nursing, and will meet with his command staff Monday to discuss his future with the Air Force.

In a release, Wilford Hall's 59th Medical Wing said it will conduct a clinical care evaluation to determine Fontana's “competency to continue to serve as a nurse” in the service. The review had been put on hold while the criminal case was pending.

“Based on the high standard of proof required in a court-martial, we have great confidence in our military justice system and we believe a fair verdict was reached today,” the release stated.

Fontana's civilian lawyers, Carol Birch and Elizabeth Higginbotham, said the wing commander, Maj. Gen. Tom Travis, should have continued the internal evaluation of records and medical evidence, rather than putting their client though a lengthy criminal process.

“He should have asked, and he should have reviewed it,” Birch said.

Travis had no comment beyond the release, which stated that “our medical professionals had reason to believe that criminal conduct had occurred.”

Fontana hugged his parents and girlfriend in the courtroom, and spoke of the encouragement they'd given him. Paramedics in Austin who he used to work with and colleagues at Wilford Hall also stood behind him, he said.

“My parents have been monumental figures in my support,” Fontana said.

Government prosecutors had accused Fontana of killing Gray, 74, with two large doses of morphine. Another deceased patient, Ordie Despain, 87, died the same day. The third patient, Silvestre Orosco, 83, died on June 1, 2008. The charges alleged that Fontana killed Despain and Orosco with injections of fentanyl.

But the defense team said the case was weak, and based mostly on autopsy reports on Gray, toxicology reports on Orosco and circumstantial evidence in all three deaths.

Birch and Higginbotham said they hoped the case would prompt Wilford Hall to adopt strong peer-review standards. But they were worried about the effect the stigma of being accused of murder will have on their client's future.

“These charges can't help but have an impact on his career,” Birch said. [rc]

Portions © 2009 San Antonio Express-News.

INDIA: Air India announces fare discount for senior citizens

2009-11-21T07:28:00.001+05:30

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Kerala / The Hindu / National News / November 21, 2009

Air India has announced 20 per cent discount in fare for senior citizens of 65 years of age and above who travel in First and Executive classes on the airline’s international flights.

The discount will be available only on the tickets purchased from Air India reservation offices across the country.

The discount will be applicable on the basic fare of the market fare. The offer will be valid for outbound travel commencing on or before March 31, 2010.

The discount is valid on both AI and IC designated international flights, according to the airline. However, it is not available on code share flights.

The airline has announced 50 per cent discount in fare for senior citizens travelling in Economy Class on the domestic sector. [rc]

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu.

AUSTRALIA: When the baby boomers turn 70

2009-11-21T05:42:00.001+05:30

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SYDNEY, NSW / The Australian / Opinion / November 21, 2009

By George Megalogenis

George Megalogenis is The Australian's resident nit-picker. He spent 11 years in the Canberra press gallery between 1988 and 1999 before returning to Melbourne as a senior writer.

THE past is the present in so many areas of Australia's economy and society. Mining has resumed its role as our sugar daddy, property prices are on the march again in all capital cities, and the recent spike in fertility is officially a baby boom.
The quarry, the quarter-acre block, and baby carriages as far as the eye can see: these forces dominated the nation in the 1950s and 60s, when Australia was last a one-party state.

If only it were so simple. There are three critical differences to this long boom that will make the next decade one of our most challenging outside a world war.

First China's, and soon India's, demand for our resources contains the paradox of abundant restraint. To feed the mining beast, other domestic businesses, most notably in manufacturing and tourism, will be pushed aside. And households will be expected to re-learn the art of saving so our banks don't need to keep running overseas for money to lend back home.

Second, our cities are reaching the physical limits of their growth so all those young families can't be pushed to the outer suburbs like they had been in the previous golden age. Australians will have to get used to living closer together.

Third, the nation is ageing faster than either side of politics seems ready to acknowledge.

The future is already here in one respect. In August, the healthcare and social assistance sector replaced the retail sector as the nation's No. 1 employer.

Mark this as the first tangible sign that our body clock has greyed, with more people employed to look after us than to greet us at a shopping mall or local store.

We are, to be precise, an older nation having children later. The second baby boom is being driven by 30-somethings. The fertility rate for women in their early 30s is the highest since 1961; for those in their late 30s it is the highest since 1948. Last year, they helped deliver the largest number of registered births in our history.

Women in their 20s are also having babies sooner. Typically, the younger the mother, the longer she stays out of the workforce after childbirth because she is more likely to have a second child. For a nation running out of workers, the choice that today's 20-something mothers make will force governments to again rethink their employment and family policies into the next decade.

Deregulation and demography are reshuffling the cards to reveal a two-toned Australia that defies the standard categories of young and old, of blue collar and pink collar, of slow state and fast state.

By 2016, when the first children of the post-war baby boom turn 70, Australia will divide almost evenly between producing things and looking after people, between the physical economy of mines and farms and factories, and the caring economy of health and education.

There will still be room for shopping and eating out. But another Kath & Kim decade like the one about to close, when households borrowed to consume and governments collected taxes so they could give it back to households to fund even more consumption, is surely out of the question.

The babies of this boom have to be raised and educated, while the elderly of the original baby boom have to be cared for. There is no escaping the increasing costs.

To complicate the equation, the money to pay for the caring economy can't come from the mining boom, because the quarry will need to be set aside from the federal budget to avoid another fiscal shock like the one we are living through now.

If the global financial crisis has clarified anything, it is that government budgets are suddenly more vulnerable, and volatile. The windfall revenue that is collected when mining profits are surging can vanish into a black hole a year later.

On paper, the global financial crisis can be written off as just one very bad year that almost ended our longest growth cycle. But the consequences for the federal budget of that one year of international madness is a run of record and near-record deficits. The budget repair work will stretch until 2016, when the Rudd government or its successor will be committed to restoring surplus. A surplus, incidentally, that will be tested almost as soon as it is booked because the cost of the ageing population will really start to bite at this point.

This is why the next seven years will make or break Australia. By 2016, we will know if we have the political and communal smarts to juggle the demands of the young and the old.

The public is often overlooked in these debates, but the calls they make in their everyday lives can often lead governments to new solutions.

For instance, the urge for industry protection to save jobs, which politicians picked up in their polling throughout the 80s and 90s, is now almost gone. Researcher Rebecca Huntley says Buy Australia campaigns were popular after the last recession because consumers equated local products with saving the jobs of their neighbours.

"However, that has definitely changed over the last decade and a half," Huntley, head of research at Ipsos Mackay, tells Inquirer.

"While today's consumer still mouths words of support for buying Australian, they quickly move on to all the many justifications about why they don't in some product categories. Food still seems an area people are prepared to make an effort, but I would argue that's driven as much, if not more, by concerns about safety and quality as it is about a desire to protect Australian jobs."

If this insight is taken seriously by politicians, then the next decade should see the winding back of business assistance as a critical part of the budget repair job.

To anyone who entered the workforce after the early 90s recession, the idea of a job for life seems absurd. So too is the idea that an individual business should be propped up when entire industries are being swamped by new technologies.

Call it a globalised mind. The young assume change as part of the bargain. It is the boomer on the edge of retirement who still wants their employment patch preserved.

The media may be quick to report the mass sackings of this or that manufacturer, but it never has its cameras and microphones at the ready when one of those workers is rehired.

The recent closure of the Mitsubishi car plant in Adelaide is a case in point. Last month, 361 of the 900-strong workforce that was laid off held a reunion barbecue on the old Tonley Park site.

Most had stories to tell of new jobs, although a significant minority weren't doing so well.

Of the 361, 72.6 per cent, or 262, had been re-employed, with 156 in full-time positions, 69 casual, 29 part-time and eight working for themselves.

The casuals and the part-timers split roughly 50-50 between those who were happy with their hours and those who wanted more work. Of the rest, 61 were unemployed, 22 in study, 11 retired and three in other categories.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union conducted an even larger survey in March, in the depths of the GFC. Back then, the re-employment rate was 53 per cent, compared with last month's 72.6 per cent. What is fascinating is the data was collected at all. Until recently, the AMWU -- in fact, most unions -- would not have thought to track lost members. But unions, like consumers, are learning to live with globalisation.

It is the smallest figure, the eight who were self-employed, that says the most about new Australia. It remains one of the least understood quirks of deregulation, but reform makes jobs more secure, which, in turn, reduces the incentive to work for yourself. Both sides of politics like to see deregulated Australia as entrepreneurial Australia. The reverse happens to be the case. The proportion of workers who are self-employed has been falling since the early 90s and the figure is now at its lowest level since 1975.

More telling, trade union members outnumber the self-employed for the first time since 2003. But don't misread this as a revival of trade unionism. It just means the entrepreneur class has been losing ground faster than the unions.

In 2004, when the former Howard government was at the peak of its political and cultural powers, 1.91 million Australians were self-employed, while another 1.84 million belonged to trade unions.

Four years on, the figures are 1.74 million versus 1.76 million in favour of organised labour. The mining boom has made working for an employer more appealing than running your own business, or getting a union to negotiate on your behalf.

But the mining boom will, by dint of the investment dollars it will require, inevitably choke off other parts of the economy. Manufacturing is the prime target.

"In the long run a mining boom employs nobody," Australian National University economist Bob Gregory says. "But in the short term it employs a hell of a lot of people who are building things that aren't that complicated: houses, roads, a bit of plumbing. A lot of that spills into the domestic industries. So I think that's one of the reasons why manufacturing is holding up at the moment."

Gregory warns that the longer the resources boom runs, the two-way street between China and India on the one hand, and Australia on the other, leads to the destruction of Australian industry.

"ANU has just built 80 units for students and it built them out of cargo containers," he tells Inquirer. "The cargo containers were made in China. So all of a sudden we are importing housing from China, where previously houses and apartments were completely built here." But don't mistake decline for death.

Gregory, while a pessimist, agrees Australia will continue to make things and whatever is lost from here on won't be as painful as what the sector endured in the early 90s.

Twenty years ago, manufacturing was still the nation's No. 1 employer with 15 per cent of all jobs; it is now third placed with 9.4 per cent. But the construction sector has lifted its share from 7.9 per cent to 9.1 per cent.

With building the new black in public policy, from school halls to urban infrastructure, expect the blue-collar male to be gainfully employed well into the next decade.

The best way to think of Australia in 2016 is to follow the trend that has been apparent for the past generation.

The physical economy of farming, mining, manufacturing and construction has been steadily losing ground to the caring economy of health and education.

In August 1989, the physical economy was double the size of the caring economy, with 29.7 per cent of the workforce compared with 14.8 per cent (see graph). In August this year, the gap of 14.9 points in favour of the physical economy had been reduced to just 4.6 points: 23.4 per cent versus 18.8 per cent.

Between the two sits the consumption economy of retail, wholesale trade, accommodation and food services. The surprise is how little has changed in real terms during the past 20 years. In 1989, the consumption economy employed 22.1 per cent of all workers; in 2009 it was 21.5 per cent. The message here for governments that see shopping, dining and tourism as the national saviour is: think again.

The real action will be in the caring economy, where the two baby booms collide. The original boomers will expect to be pampered in retirement. The parents of the new baby boom will expect their share of the handout cake as well. Government will be forced to choose between the two groups if the budget is to be in surplus by 2016. It is more difficult than it seems, because the politics will depend on which side of the fence one sits. The Coalition would aim for the grey vote; Labor would want to look after the youth vote.

A second tension is within the budget itself, between direct handouts and government-provided services. Does a government tweak the age pension and mature-age tax offsets, or boost funding for hospitals and aged-care centres? Does it maintain the family tax and childcare benefits at the expense of extra funding for schools and childcare centres.

Governments can do both, of course, bribe and provide. But they can't continue to do so in the same proportions as before. The community expects services to improve. Every poll taken about the issues that trouble voters finds health and education in the top two positions. But will people be willing to accept a cut in their take-home pay from government to allow government to deliver better services? Politicians may take the coward's option of hoping that the next round of proceeds from the mining boom will pay for 21st-century services.

But the job of getting the budget back into surplus will, one way or another, compel a squeeze on the handout society.

In the 60s, households got by with just 5 per cent of their income coming from government. Each prime minister since Gough Whitlam has ratcheted up the dependency. The figure broke 10 per cent of household income for first time in 1992, under Paul Keating, and hit a non-recession record of 12 per cent in 2004, under John Howard. The latest figure was 13.6 per cent, in the June quarter. It was, to be fair, inflated by the Rudd government's cash stimulus and will come down in the next quarter.

But to achieve surplus in 2016, Labor or its successor would have to break the pattern of the past four decades by reducing handouts in real terms. Only then could Australia say it has recreated the best of the 50s and 60s, when households saved and welfare was set aside for the needy.

The open question for 2016 is which pampered voters suffer the heaviest cut: today's parents or tomorrow's retirees? [rc]

Copyright 2009 News Limited.

NEW ZEALAND: Ageing Santa gets $100,000 facelift for Christmas

2009-11-20T23:59:00.002+05:30

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand / Reuters / November 20, 2009

A Santa in New Zealand with a droopy eye has received a NZ$100,000 ($74,000) face-lift in the run-up to Christmas so that his aging face does not scare children. The 20-meter (66 feet) tall fiberglass Santa has been among the festive decorations in Auckland since 1960 but in recent years began to struggle with one of his eyes that was made to wink and a mechanical figure that moved in a welcoming gesture.

Bandages cover the face of a 20-metre (66ft) tall statue of Santa Claus in downtown Auckland November 19, 2009. The 49-year-old statue, which is placed on the busy corner every year, has undergone a NZ$100,000 ($74,000) makeover which will be revealed on Sunday. Reuters/Fairfax NZ/John Selkirk

"There was a concern the guy did look a little creepy. It was the finger and the Sad Sack, winking, droopy eye," Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney told local media.

The Santa, that stands on a street corner in the city center, has undergone extensive facial work over the past four months at a cost of over NZ$100,000.

His face remains bandaged ahead of a public unveiling on Sunday but his mechanical figure has been replaced with a static digit. [rc]

© Thomson Reuters 2009

USA: It's never too late to be the man you've always wanted to be, says mentor

2009-11-20T18:35:00.005+05:30

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AVON, Colorado / Vail Daily / Man-to-Man / November 20, 2009

Man is 65, in great health, married for over 40 years, successful in business and miserable

Vail Man-to-Man:

Never too late to do what you want

By Wayne Levine

Q: I am 65 years old, in great health, married for over 40 years, successful in business and miserable. It has taken me a long time to admit it. Though I have been faithful to my wife, our marriage has had little passion for longer than I can remember. My wife is a nervous wreck and her anxieties have kept her from enjoying life with me. As a direct result, I spend most of my time either catering to her anxieties, or finding reasons to stay away from her.

You might think that the time I have alone would be enjoyable. It is not. I feel guilty, no matter what I am doing, even exercising. She is always on my mind. I have always tried to be compassionate. Now I am beginning to sense my resentment. After all these years, one tends to be resigned to one's circumstances, dismal as they may be. I want more. I want to be happy. I hope it is not too late.

A: It's never too late to be the man you've always wanted to be. With your good health, you still have many years ahead of you. The question is, will they be happy years, or just another couple of decades trapped in the same self-imposed prison? That's right. This is your doing.

Regardless of your wife's emotional challenges, she is not responsible for your current state of affairs or state of mind. But because you have held her responsible all these years, you have never been able or willing to consider your options. We call this being the problem rather than the solution. So let's start working on the solution.

If you've been blaming her for keeping you from doing the things you want to do, your best course of action is to simply start doing what you want to do. But for a guy who has been imprisoned by his emotional co-dependency with his wife (meaning, what she feels, you feel or react to in debilitating way) this independent action will prove challenging.

First, you'll have to make a commitment. Whatever it is you've been wanting to do (sailing, rock climbing, joining a square dancing group, or taking a trip by yourself,) make the commitment, put it on your calendar and don't ask for permission. Now try to breathe.

You may not fully enjoy the process or even the activity right away. But the only way to build this new muscle is to get into action. Eventually, you'll find your groove and begin to enjoy this newly found freedom to pursue your interests.

Now back to your marriage. You may just be beginning to sense your own resentment, but I guarantee that you are positively full of resentment. And if you weren't such a good little boy — even at age 65 — you'd be screaming out your anger for all the world to hear. In fact, if it had been acceptable for you to acknowledge your resentment and anger years ago, you might have been motivated to make changes then.

I wonder what would happen if you were to silence that little boy, begin to run the sex and romance in your marriage, learn to express without defending your feelings, and be the rock for her so she can talk to you without you taking things personally and feeling as if you need to fix everything.

I suspect you'd see a world of difference in your wife, in your marriage, and in your own ability to enjoy yourself. Give it try. All you have to lose is the potential of enjoying the rest of your life. [rc]

Wayne M. Levine, M.A., is a life coach and mentor for men, women, couples and families.
E-Mail: MantoMan@BetterMen.org
www.BetterMen.org

Source: Swift Communications, Inc.

USA: Breast Exam Guidelines Test Obama Cost-Cutting

2009-11-20T18:00:00.002+05:30

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NEW YORK, NY / Bloomberg News / November 20, 2009

By Pat Wechsler, Alex Nussbaum and Nicole Gaouette

A medical debate over breast-cancer screening that has turned political may set the tone for a battle over President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul that will resonate for years.

The furor over a federal panel’s recommendation against mammograms for most women in their 40s shows the obstacles the U.S. may face trimming costs in a $2.5 trillion health system, even when research suggests the cuts may be appropriate, said Uwe Reinhardt, a Princeton University economist.

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a town hall style meeting with university students in Shanghai, on Nov. 16, 2009.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

With a health-care overhaul nearing a Senate vote, Republicans said the recommendations by the panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, for fewer mammograms proved Obama’s agenda will lead to rationed care. Democrats, fearful of antagonizing a key voting group in women, said the U.S. won’t change federal reimbursements to support guidelines that most women shouldn’t get regular mammograms until age 50.

The panel’s suggestions provided “the perfect place to throw a bomb into the health-care debate,” said Representative Lynn Woolsey, a Democrat of California and co-leader of the 82- member Congressional Progressive Caucus, in an interview. “We’re not going to ration anything. We’re going to give people choices based on science.”

‘Worst-Case Scenario’

The new guidelines would reduce annual mammograms by more than half under a “worst-case scenario,” said Junaid Husain, a Boston-based analyst at Soleil Securities, in a note to investors Nov. 17. Senator Sam Brownback, a Republican of Kansas, said the task force’s recommendations represent the start of an Obama administration plan to ration health care to pay for its overhaul.

“There are other ways to reduce costs,” Brownback said in an interview. Data show that 17 percent of breast-cancer deaths occur in women from ages 40 to 50, he said. Those statistics mean the panel “is effectively saying 17 percent wasn’t high enough to warrant spending the money to save lives.”

Democrats active in supporting the health-care overhaul legislation sought to distance themselves from the panel’s advice. Woolsey said resources will have to be used more efficiently, “but we’re not going to start with women.”

Medical economists said the U.S. will have to prepare itself for these kinds of decisions if it wants to cut health- care costs. Health-care legislation calls for comparative effectiveness research, as a way to determine whether treatments and procedures aren’t being overused.

Political Science

The new guidelines for mammograms are based on the same kind of science that told the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that Merck & Co.’s painkiller Vioxx posed more dangers than benefits. The Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, company withdrew Vioxx in 2004 after studies showed it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

“You wouldn’t want to see every drug approved,” Reinhardt said in an interview. “The FDA makes judgments on what is effective. If the science kills it then you shouldn’t have to get into the politics.”

Americans want low costs, access to all procedures and technological advances without regard to income, all of which can’t co-exist, said Reinhardt, one of 23 economists who urged Obama in a letter Nov. 17 to make sure Congress includes “additional funding for research into what tests and treatments work and which ones do not.”

‘Russian Roulette’

“In this case, the doctors are saying the risks are too high of getting mammograms every year, so why should we use taxpayer money to play Russian roulette,” Reinhardt said.

The breast cancer test suggestions were followed today by guidelines released by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on cervical cancer. That group said women should begin cervical cancer screenings at age 21 rather than an earlier age, and most women younger than 30 can get the exam every two years instead of annually.

The cervical cancer guidelines were not immediately challenged by the American Cancer Society, women’s groups and other doctors, as the mammogram suggestions were.

Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. health and human services secretary, said Nov. 18 the recommendations of the task force, which operates under the umbrella of her department, “won’t determine what services are covered by the federal government” and she would be “very surprised if any private insurance company” changed its coverage decisions. The recommendations “have caused a great deal of worry and confusion among women,” she said in her statement.

AARP Support

Sebelius’s department also administers Medicare, the government insurance program for the elderly, which pays about $94 for a mammogram. Obama, praising the House-passed version of health-care legislation on Nov. 7, cited the Washington-based AARP, the advocacy group for retirees, as one of the vital supporters to his cause.

Insurers led by UnitedHealth Group Inc., the top company by sales, said they are maintaining present policies, which generally cover annual breast screening for women older than 40 if ordered by a doctor.

WellPoint Inc., of Indianapolis, Indiana, Aetna Inc., of Hartford, Connecticut, and Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp. joined UnitedHealth in saying they rely on more than the task force’s recommendations in deciding coverage.

‘Close Look’

“What’s happening here is exactly what should be happening: a close look at what the evidence supports and a reminder that this is a decision women need to talk about with their doctors,” said Tyler Mason, a spokesman for Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth.

This week’s debate has devolved into “a whole lot of hype” about women losing coverage, Mason said by telephone. “I don’t know of one health plan nationwide that’s doing anything with their guidelines as a result of this.”

Insurers generally follow the lead of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a nonprofit alliance of 21 schools that study the disease, Mason said. The Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based group said in a statement Nov. 16 it would continue to recommend annual mammograms for women starting at age 40.

If insurers are going to cut coverage, they aren’t likely to admit it in the current political environment, as lawmakers consider new restrictions on the industry, said Therese B. Bevers, chairwoman of the network’s panel on breast-screening guidelines and medical director of the Cancer Prevention Center at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Insurers may find the lower costs of policies without mammograms irresistible, as will small businesses struggling with soaring premiums, Bevers said by telephone. “That’s a huge factor for them,” she said.

Known for Conservatism

The task force is known for its conservatism in recommending procedures, and its statistical analysis may have missed the calculus women make in their own minds, Bevers said.

“If you ask the women in my clinic, most of them would tell you they’d be willing to undergo an unnecessary biopsy so some other woman, not even them, may not die of breast cancer,” she said.

The task force was formed in 1984 to give advice on screening, counseling and preventive medicines based on an impartial assessment of scientific evidence. The panel has been supported by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality since 1998.

Sixteen academic and practicing doctors make up the group, according to the panel’s Web site. They have published guidelines on more than 100 topics and are reviewing 11 more, including cervical cancer screening, preventive medicine for osteoporosis and skin cancer counseling.

2002 Recommendation

The recommendation that 40-year-old women should get mammograms to detect breast cancer was first issued by the task force in 2002 with a grade of ‘B,’ meaning there was “at least fair evidence” that it “improves important health outcomes.”

Health-care policy analyst Henry Aaron said the timing couldn’t be worse.

“This was a scientific recommendation, but at the same time dealing with women’s breasts provokes real sensitivity,” said Aaron, who works at the Brookings Institution, a Washington foundation that does policy research. “I know I heard an earful from my wife at the breakfast table this morning.” [rc]

Alex Nussbaum in New York
E-Mail: anussbaum1@bloomberg.net

Pat Wechsler in New York
E-Mail: pwechsler@bloomberg.net

Nicole Gaouette in Washington
E-Mail: ngaouette@bloomberg.net

Copyright Bloomberg LLC

TIBET: Remote villages get telephone access

2009-11-20T14:52:00.003+05:30

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BEIJING, China / People's Daily / November 20, 2009

Over the past one year, China Telecom has helped 4,271 villages get connected by telephone service in Tibet.

China Telecom has completed the task with installing telephones for 3,176 villages and China Mobile helps 1,095 villages get telephone access.

Due to the unique geographical environment in Tibet, constructing phone services in villages is arduous.

In 2009, China Mobile and China Telecom have installed telephones for 320 administrative villages in Tibet. [rc]

Qamba, an elderly Tibetan in Dagze County calls his families. (Xinhua Photo)

Elsewhere, elderly residents of the Barkor street area of Lhasa, appear happy with their lives, reports China Tibet Information Center.

Tibetan grandmother watches family portrait.

Dechen, an elderly Tibetan feels happy living in Barkor street, listening to the peddling and watching the flow of visitors every day.

She said: "With improvement of people's living standard, the spiritual needs of the elderly Tibetans are changing. Most elderly get up around 5 in the morning, and start to walk around Lingkor and have Tibetan breakfast tea. Some Tibetans would like to get together to celebrate the Lingka Woods Festival and travel to Buddhism holy lands for pilgrimage in hinterland of Tibet. We enjoy our life today, which we did dare not imagine in the past."

Source: China Tibet Information Center

UK: Care in old age: we won’t pay, the State can’t

2009-11-20T11:45:00.004+05:30

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LONDON, England / The Times / November 20, 2009

Eton is cheaper than the average nursing home. To pay the fees either we sell the house or bequeath our children the bill

By Antonia Senior

We all have different visions of retirement. Mine involves a hammock, an intravenous Pimm’s drip and the complete works of Trollope. Yours may embrace Saga cruises, extreme sports, gardening or just the simple pleasure of telling your boss where to stick his job.

Rarely do we let reality creep in. A long, slow slide towards the grave, funded by an inadequate pension, punctuated by illness, until at last we are deposited in a home with beige walls and a chirpy, misleading name. If you are very, very lucky, the Elysian Fields Retirement Home will be a genial, clean place.

Click here for source of photo

It is a prospect few can bear to contemplate. We spend our adult lives striving to be self-sufficient, strong, immune from fate. Yet with dotage comes vulnerability, a tangible diminishing of dignity.

We are terrified of old age, but we will have to live with it for longer. In 1925 a man who made it to 65 could expect to live a further 12 years. By the early 1990s a man who made it to 65 could expect another 14.2 years. Now it is an extra 17.4. The numbers are rising fast. Women’s life expectancy at 65 has risen from 17.9 to 20 years since the 1990s. Two in three women and one in two men will need some form of care during their retirement.

Care is expensive and demeaning. Small wonder that Gordon Brown thinks we’ll all vote for him if he can magically make it better. A shame then, that the announcement of free personal care at home in the Queen’s Speech was flawed, badly costed and transparently rushed. It contradicted a recently published Green Paper, and carried the whiff of desperation.

There is, however, some excuse for Mr Brown’s failure to tackle the problem of paying for long-term care. There is a big, ancient, whiskered, incontinent elephant in the room. We cannot afford to look after our growing army of the elderly. Our ambition for a caring, inclusive welfare system is not matched by our tax receipts. By 2050 the number of 80-year-olds is forecast to double. As a nation we are broke and ageing, a toxic combination.

A 65-year-old can expect to pay an average of £30,000 for care before death. About 20 per cent of pensioners will need care costing less than £1,000, but 20 per cent will pay more than £50,000. A stay in a residential home with nursing care costs an average of £35,000 a year. It’s £6,049 a year cheaper to send Junior to Eton than Granny to Elysian Fields.

So, who pays? At present, the answer is a confusing mishmash of state benefits and local authorities. Distinctions are drawn between nursing care and residential care. This allows local authorities the wiggle room to create their own rules, and results in a postcode lottery. If you have to go into a care home, and your capital exceeds £23,000, you pay for the care yourself. If your home is empty, it can be included as part of our savings. The system is complex and loathed.

A different question is one that politicians run scared of. Who should pay? Most of us think the answer is easy: the State. I pays my taxes, I takes my dues. A survey by Saga found that 58 per cent of the over-50s believe the State should pay. People rage at the notion that their house is up for grabs in the present system. A working life is spent paying off the mortgage, and when the deeds finally arrive, they are held in trust for Elysian Fields Inc. Your beautiful house will be forcibly sold so you can sit staring at the wall, waiting for death.

The private sector has tried, and largely failed, to address the problem. Long-term care insurance (LTCI), which allows customers to insure against the cost of care by paying a lump sum or regular premiums, remains a tiny market. In 2008 there were only 15,277 regular premium policies in force. The problem is that LTCI is prohibitively expensive. The liabilities are large. Potential customers do not consider buying it until they suspect that they will need it; this shrinks the risk pool. Insurance is only cheap when the premiums of the many subsidise the big claims of the few.

Such problems will also hamper any plans for a partnership between the State and insurers. Both Labour and the Tories are looking at voluntary insurance schemes. In the Government’s Green Paper, the cost of a scheme was given as £20,000. Under the Tory scheme, £8,000 paid at retirement would guarantee the costs of care.

Leaving aside the experts’ doubts over these figures, it is useless to rely on a voluntary system, and a compulsory scheme would be electoral suicide. At 65, most of us are hale, hearty and completely in denial. Dream retirement cruise to Hawaii or insurance against care costs? Aloha!

We don’t want to pay; the State can’t pay — not if we want such fripperies as schools and hospitals as well. It is time that we all accepted the bleak facts. What is the point in accumulating capital, in the shape of a house or a fat bank balance, if not to protect ourselves in old age? Surely, the entire reason for wealth accumulation is to store fat in the fat times to pay out in the lean. Yet we persist in a belief that only our children should be able to prise our house keys out of our dead, cold hands.

We have developed a perverse, visceral relationship with our homes. Stamp duty and inheritance tax are akin to physical assaults. The baby-boomer generation bought all the houses when they were cheap, and guard them like terriers, determined to pass them on to the next generation. Their determination is understandable. The gap between the equity rich and the renters is wide and growing. Once on the wrong side of the divide, it is difficult to return. We want our children to be on the right side.

But the boomers are rapidly ageing. Either they accept that their houses should be sold to pay for their care, or they bequeath a monstrous tax burden. Either way, their children will pay. [rc]

Copyright 2009 Times Newspapers Ltd.

MEXICO: Mexican once put up for oldest woman dies at 119

2009-11-20T09:49:00.000+05:30

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BAKU, Azerbaijan / Trend News / World / November 20, 2009

A Mexican once put forward for the title of world's oldest woman has died at 119, government officials said Thursday, AP reported.

Ana Maria Perez died of pneumonia Tuesday at a hospital in the Pacific state of Colima, said Dora Yanez, an official with the Colima state Institute for Attention to the Elderly.

Perez has a valid birth certificate stating she was born June 22, 1890, in western Michoacan state, Yanez told The Associated Press.

State authorities applied about three years ago to have Perez declared the world's oldest woman by the Guinness Book of World Records, but the attempt foundered when officials could not raise enough money for a Guinness judge to visit and confirm the claim, Yanez said.

Yanez said her institute first learned about Perez through her granddaughter. Institute officials were visiting the granddaughter - then 77 - to offer their services. They were shocked when the elderly woman said she had a grandmother who could also use help.

"We said, 'Ay caray! Well, where is your grandmother?'" Yanez said.

Although Perez never got the world title, she received a visit last year from President Felipe Calderon, who awarded her a special recognition.

Gertrude Baines, declared the world's oldest person by Guinness last January, died in September in Los Angeles at 115. Japan's Kama Chinen, 114, now holds that title, according to Gerontology Research Group, which tracks claims of extreme old age.

Guinness says the oldest person ever known with an authenticated birth date was Jeanne-Louise Calment, who was 122 when she died Aug. 4, 1997, in Arles, France.[rc]

© TREND News Agency

CANADA: My in-laws never threw anything away

2009-11-19T12:31:00.004+05:30

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TORONTO, Ontario / The Globe and Mail / Globe Life / November 19, 2009

Facts & Arguments Essay

They had 10 brooms, six mops and expired tins of tomatoes. But emptying their house, I got to know them

By Demetra Samaras
From Thursday's Globe and Mail

My husband and his siblings were still coming to terms with the 2007 death of their father when their mother died last year.

After dealing with their elderly parents' deteriorating health – their father succumbed to the soul-crushing effects of Alzheimer's disease and their mother to the misery of cancer – the thought of cleaning out the house with all its memories was too daunting. So the task fell to my sister-in-law and me.

How do you begin taking apart the household of a couple who were married almost 60 years? My sister-in-law Rosemary, a whiz at organization, took control. With military precision she laid out the plan for sorting through the large back-split home. We'd work from the top down, starting with the bedrooms, the bathrooms, then on to the living room and dining room, the kitchen and then down to the basement. The garage, which contained my father-in-law's workshop and tools, would be left to the men.

My father- and mother-in-law, in true Italian fashion, kept an immaculate household. Everything had its place. Always on top of repairs, they were early adopters of recycling and repurposing, not because it was fashionable but because frugality is what they knew. They threw nothing away.

Maybe it was the poverty they experienced in Italy that made them want to never be without, but my in-laws had multiples of everything. And I mean everything: Ten brooms (six of them brand new); a half-dozen mops (as I said, the house was clean); and enough tape measures, tools and nails to start their own hardware store (each grandchild will be getting a toolbox filled with their nonno's tools).

Every shelf, every nook, was used as storage. We found paint and oil cans dating to the pre-bilingual 1960s, postwar appliances, parts of old vacuum cleaners and more than two dozen tins of whole tomatoes long past their expiry date.

It was as if, despite their prosperous life in Canada, they were always preparing for the flood, the earthquake, the next calamity that might take it all away.

The first weekend of cleaning left me overwhelmed, tired and dirty. I couldn't believe the scale of the task at hand. The master bedroom alone took five hours to clear and that was after my husband's sister had already removed most of the clothing. From the four bedrooms we sent 15 bags of clothes to Goodwill and generated a dozen bags of garbage and recyclables.

As soon as I got home I called my mother. “You have to start cleaning out your house! Now!” I yelled into the phone. I may have sounded hysterical.

“Are you free later so we can go to the Bay?” my mother asked.

“You're not listening,” I said. “I don't want to have to deal with all your stuff too.”

“I know I have too many things,” she said, “but I'm not planning on dying tomorrow.”

Too many things? She had to be kidding. As a retired seamstress, my mother has fabric dating back 40 years, shoes from the seventies that she's kept for her daughters, hoping they would come back into style (they did, for about five minutes, but of course by then they didn't fit my sisters or me) and every towel she's ever purchased since arriving in Canada from Greece almost 50 years ago.

“I'm just giving you a 20-year head start,” I said, “because that's how long it's going to take you to get rid of all your junk.”

I know I'm right in more ways than one. In 20 years I'll be in my 60s. I won't have the same energy to deal with my parents' things that I have today. And I'm not being generous with time either. Longevity runs in my family. My mother's parents are alive and kicking and into their 90s; her grandmother lived to 105. So it's possible I could be in my 80s when I have to deal with my mother's things. Of course, by then my robot housekeeper Rosie will do most of the work.

Four months after we started, my in-laws' house was emptied and scrubbed clean of its former inhabitants. The only reminder of my mother- and father-in-law is the backyard. Their love of gardening will be felt by the new owners as they discover a patch of strawberries just beside the shed. The pear tree, heading into its winter sleep, will erupt with fruit next year. And when it's hot next summer, the grapevine growing over the pergola will provide shade (and grapes).

I'm glad my in-laws' house was full. Had they followed the advice I gave my mother, we would never have found the chest that came with my father-in-law to Canada in 1951, or my husband's baby shoes, or their mortgage discharge papers from 1974. At the end, disease robbed them of their identities. Going through their home helped me get to know them again.

It was only after their house was sold this year that I realized I shouldn't be pushing my mother to empty hers just to make it easier for me and my sisters. Once she and my father are gone – when they are really, really old – sorting through the house will be part of the grieving process. My sisters and I will cry and laugh and reminisce our way through the place. (So many shoes! So many towels!) More tears and laughter when no one takes her ugly dining-room set.

And when the time comes, I promise not to complain. [rc]

Demetra Samaras lives in Toronto.

Illustration by Kate O'Connor.

© Copyright 2009 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.

CANADA: Seniors urged to recognize, stop elder abuse

2009-11-19T12:07:00.004+05:30

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FORT FRANCES, Ontario / Fort Frances Times / Health & Wellness / November 19, 2009

By Duane Hicks, Staff writer

“It’s your life. It should be your call.”

That’s the message Lee Stones of the Ontario Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse promoted Saturday at the fourth-annual Seniors’ Lifestyle Expo, which drew about 80 area seniors and their families/caregivers.

“Are seniors being respected? I think that’s a really important question,” said Stones. “Are seniors being respected by the people that love them, neighbours, friends, their grandkids, all of the people around them?

“Because we are an ageist society, you get to a certain age and stage [which] other people perceive as not as serious or important as we used to be.

“Maybe we’re seen as forgetful, maybe we are seen as not being as powerful,” she added.

“Things can change and that worries me because I think when you start to get to be 45, 55, 65, and 75 and upwards, I think you find you’re getting huge amounts of wisdom, and layers and layers of life experience, and that’s when people start saying, ‘Oh, she tells the same stories over and over again. She’s this and she’s that.’

“And I think we don’t stand up enough for ourselves,” Stones stressed. “We don’t demand that people stop and listen to us, and I think that’s important.”

Elder abuse is defined as any act done by a person in a position of trust to a senior that causes then harm or stress, explained Stones, noting a stranger snatching an elderly woman’s purse on the street is a robbery, but when her grandson steals from her purse in her own home, it’s elder abuse because he betrayed her trust.

Stones said that when you ask someone if they know a senior who is being abused, they say they don’t. But once they learn what elder abuse really is, they realize they do know someone.

It can range from verbal abuse to neglect to being overprotective (i.e., preventing parents from driving, dating, leaving the house, etc.) to the most common form: financial abuse.

Whether it’s emotional abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse, or neglect, Stones said an estimated four-10 percent of seniors in the Fort Frances area are being abused in some way.

However, an estimated 90 percent of elder abuse is never reported.

One of the problems is that it is up to the individual to say “stop,” but unfortunately many seniors don’t want to be seen as a trouble-maker or “tell on” their loved ones.

Some even may think it’s their fault they are being abused, with abusers trying to make them feel guilty and accusing them of being less than a perfect parent.
As well, some seniors don’t feel comfortable talking to the police.

Unfortunately, added Stones, abuse breeds more abuse when it goes unchecked. The self-esteem of the abused goes down, abuse tends to escalate, and the pattern continues into the next generation.

Abuse also causes conflicts among family members.

So what can a senior who is being abused do about it? Stones said because of the complexity of the situation, it is up to them to decide what they will do about it.
Unless the abuse is physical, in which case they must call the police, the first step is to talk about it with someone. For example, they can contact local resources, or talk with a loved one they can trust.

For those who are relatives of someone who may be abused, give them a chance to talk about it, listen, and support them in their decision as to what they want to do.
Stones said seniors have to stand up for themselves, demand respect, and say they will not take any abuse, adding there is no reason for others to see seniors as forgetful or weak.

She advised seniors to stay socially active, volunteer, learn new things, and not dwell on the past too much.

They also should plan well for their financial future, only sign documents they understand and are comfortable with, and get cheques deposited directly into their bank accounts.

And Stones noted they should keep track of their medications, exercise and eat right, and start off every day with a positive attitude.

“Seniors really do rock. Let’s teach the world that,” she enthused.

“I think [Stones] did a great job,” said expo organizer Becky Holden, a health educator with the Northwestern Heath Unit and chair of the local seniors’ coalition.

“The people who did stay and listen to her enjoyed it,” she noted. “From the feedback I got afterwards, they felt she had a great message to share, and they were glad they stayed.

“One lady said she wished more people had stayed because she felt more people would have benefitted from it,” Holden added, noting Stones’ “down-to-earth nature” was effective in relating to the audience.

‘Photovoice’ project: Those on hand Saturday also got to see a screening of a video of the “Photovoice” project done by Couchiching First Nation elders.

The project, co-ordinated by the Couchiching Drug Assessment Team, saw a number of elders use digital cameras to take photos of what has influenced them to use or not use drugs and alcohol in their lifetime.

Hugh Dennis, co-ordinator of the Rainy River District Substance Abuse Prevention Team, explained this initiative was a counterpart to a “Photovoice” project recently done with district high school students.

He added that by listening to the answers provided by both the youth and elders, they would provide a more complete picture of what can be done to help others “because we all realize there is a problem in our community with the overuse or misuse of drugs and alcohol.”

Some 60-plus photos were taken, and then pared down to 32. Captions then were added to them, and they were edited together into a narrated video presentation on DVD.
The photos covered subjects like nature/creation/spirituality, family and community, recreation, passion, grandparenting, and self.

Image-wise, the photos were of everything from Rainy Lake to elders and their grandchildren, accompanied by phrases like, “Beauty is inspiring,” “Children should fee free to call Grandma at any time,” and “Offering a helping hand will encourage a person.”

While Saturday’s presentation did not have good sound quality, the public will be able to see the “Photovoice” projects done by the Couchiching elders, and the one done by district youths, online in the near future when they are posted at www.preventingtragedy.org

The seniors’ expo also featured 13 exhibitors who covered topics and services ranging from chiropractic care, stroke prevention, and diabetes management to funeral planning, substance abuse prevention, and eye care.

A Nintendo Wii, provided by the Northwest Healthy Living Partnership and Shopper’s Drug Mart, was set up for seniors to play and went over particularly well.

“I know the two high school students working with the Wii [Carrie Bragg and Mikaela Kroeker] said the people who tried it out had a lot of fun. . . . Their comment to me was that they really enjoyed being there and helping seniors with the Wii,” said Holden.

“It was kind of bridging the generations, which was exciting,” she added. “They said they were interested in helping out again from that experience.”

Holden admitted some event-goers said they would have liked to have seen more booths, but explained some exhibitors dropped out at the last minute while others declined to do the expo at this busy time of year.

Holden said attendance also was lower than last year, but felt the fact quite a few other events were going on Saturday, not to mention the rain and snow, were factors in keeping some people away.

“But it’s always nice to see people out,” she reasoned, adding that feedback from the comment sheets indicated most people “had a great day.”

In addition to giveaways ranging from pamphlets and product samples to pens, calendars, and candy, all of the exhibitors also provided at least one draw prize, so there were plenty of chances for people to win something.

The purpose of the event was to get seniors together to socialize while also increasing their knowledge of local services that are senior-friendly and beneficial to their health. [rc]

© 2009 Fort Frances Times Ltd.

USA: Byrd becomes longest-serving Congress member

2009-11-18T23:53:00.000+05:30

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In this image from video, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., speaks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009, at the Capitol in Washington. Wednesday marked the day when Byrd became the longest-serving member of Congress. AP Photo/APTV
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BOSTON, Massachusetts / The Boston Globe / November 18, 2009

By Laurie Kellman,
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON—Sen. Robert C. Byrd became history's longest-serving member of Congress on Wednesday, earning a formal salute from the Senate and President Barack Obama for his nearly 57 years of service.

"I've loved every precious minute of it," the frail West Virginia Democrat, who turns 92 on Friday, said during a day of floor tributes to him, and moments before the Senate passed a resolution marking the milestone.

Obama earlier in the day described the one-time segregationist as a touchstone for constitutional values and a role model to all lawmakers.

"Countless colleagues, myself included, have looked to him for advice, guidance and leadership over the years," Obama, who represented Illinois in the Senate, said in a statement. "He is one of the most steadfast defenders of the United States Constitution, and he never lets us forget the guiding values and principles that make our nation great."

As Tuesday became Wednesday, Byrd shattered the record for congressional service that had been set by Carl Hayden, D-Ariz., who served in the House and Senate from 1912 to 1969. Byrd began his career in Washington in 1952 with his election to the House, and his elevation six years later to the Senate.

"Because of those wonderful people in West Virginia, this foster son of an impoverished coal miner from the great hills of southern West Virginia has had the opportunity to walk with kings, to meet with prime ministers, and to debate with presidents," Byrd said.

He wept a few minutes later as he named his only regret - that his wife Erma, who died in 2006, was not there.

"But I know, yes I do," Byrd said tearfully, pointing a finger to the sky, "that she's smiling down from Heaven and reminding me not to get a big head."

Republicans were in their weekly health care meeting during Byrd's big moment, unaware that he was speaking or of the impending resolution vote, said a spokesman for Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was the first Republican to rush in as the three dozen Democrats assembled rose in a final standing ovation. McConnell, who had saluted Byrd's "astonishing" record of service in a floor speech earlier in the day, was next, followed by Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona. All offered their congratulations and joined the line to shake Byrd's hand.

Byrd is accustomed to setting records.

Since June 12, 2006, Byrd has been the longest-serving senator and later that year he was elected to an unprecedented ninth term. His colleagues have elected him to more leadership positions than any senator in history. He has cast more than 18,000 votes and, despite fragile health that has kept him from the Senate floor during much of this year, has a nearly 98 percent attendance record over the course of his career.

Which, by Byrd's count, has spanned 20,774 days.

"I am willing to risk predicting that many of the records set by Sen. Robert Byrd will never be passed," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in the first of a series of floor tributes Wednesday.

Byrd has served long enough for him to rescind positions that he once trumpeted, such as his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He has voiced regret about joining the Ku Klux Klan a lifetime ago. He lived long enough to see and cheer the nation's first black president and to watch his one-time rival and later dear friend, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., succumb to brain cancer.

Byrd remains a champion of "earmarks" -- pet project spending that critics also call "pork." He's helped bring home to West Virginia $326 million for 2008 alone, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.

Though he no longer chairs the Appropriations Committee, he does head up a subcommittee. In October, after a season of illness and absence, Byrd personally managed a $44.1 billion spending agreement on security measures against natural disaster, terrorist attacks and other threats. [rc]

On the Net:
Sen. Robert Byrd: http://byrd.senate.gov

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press.

UK: The cruelty of neglect

2009-11-17T11:46:00.003+05:30

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LONDON, England / The Guardian / News / Culture / November 17, 2009

Alzheimer's Society Report urges NHS to cut dementia patients' hospital stays

A dementia carer holds the hand of a patient. Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian.

A typical hospital ward is ill-equipped to recognise and meet the daily needs of a dementia sufferer

COMMENT IS FREE
By Andrea Gillies

Four years ago I found that I had become a dementia carer, when my my mother-in-law Nancy, who has Alzheimer's, moved in. She's in care now, in a good dementia unit, but during the years she was with us, the illness transformed an articulate friendly person and attentive granny into a paranoid, hostile, ranting woman who thought herself at various times to be 28 and unmarried, or the chief executive of a large company, or the king of Scotland, and at all times to have a life somewhere else that we were conspiring to keep her from. She wasn't always physically well, but it became imperative that we try and keep her out of hospital, fearing that would be a terrible cruelty. An odd way to think, on the face of it.

A quarter of hospital beds are occupied by people over 65 with dementia. Some are there because they are ill with treatable conditions. Some for social reasons. Others, and this is less obvious, because once the transient condition that led to admission is sorted out, they're not felt to be well enough to leave. NHS staff don't always understand that people live their lives with dementia, and that this is as well as they're ever going to be.

Hospitals run on information and on chain of command. They depend on patients speaking up. I've heard many stories from other carers about dearly loved parents rapidly losing weight and hope in wards, left sitting in their own faeces, distressed and misunderstood. It's horrifying that elderly people should be discharged from hospital in a much worse physical state than when they went in, but that's what's happening, as this week's release of a survey by the Alzheimer's Society reveals.

People with dementia lose the ability to put into action the sequential intellectual steps needed to initiate the very ordinary: to take their pills, to use the bathroom, to eat and drink. Unless NHS staff are alert to this, neglect, benign or otherwise, can lead to a rapid deterioration. Emotional upset is a further complication. People who can no longer make memories are likely to be in a state of permanent panic, and panic can lead to aggression. A shocking 144,000 people with dementia are on wrongly prescribed antipsychotics, and about 1,800 of these a year are killed by these medicines – drugs that are often administered only as a means of control. "There isn't time to deal with her tantrums" a staff nurse told someone I know, of her disoriented and anxious mother.

The urge to walk, walking and pacing up and down, is common in dementia, and this has to do with urgent, non-specific prompts that they should be elsewhere and should be busy. Pacing isn't tolerated in hospitals. When Nancy lived with us, we had to keep the doors locked: she'd go out on to the road in the middle of the night otherwise, looking for her old life. During a short hospital stay she managed to break out of the ward twice, once through a fire door and into the grounds. This seemed to take the staff by surprise.

An ordinary hospital ward is ill-equipped for the life a dementia sufferer leads. Nancy's days are made as good for her as they can be. She has the freedom to walk about. She has people to talk to who are tolerant of her gibberish and reciprocate it, and staff who understand her darker moods. They notice things that are wrong. They make sure she's fed and watered and clean. When she got to the stage where she wouldn't eat unless she was allowed to do so on the move, that was fine. It wouldn't be fine in a hospital ward.

There, she'd be frightened and angry. She wouldn't eat and would end up on a drip. She'd try to tear out the drip and would be sedated. And that, likely as not, is how she would end her days. [rc]

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

AUSTRALIA: Leads the world in diagnosing chronic medical conditions of the aged

2009-11-17T11:06:00.002+05:30

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SYDNEY, NSW / Australian Aging Agenda / November 17, 2009

Australian aged care facilities lead in the world in diagnosing chronic medical conditions among their residents, according to a census from multinational provider Bupa.

The 2009 census was based on 26,647 surveys conducted across the group’s 400 aged care facilities in the UK, Spain, New Zealand and Australia.

The census revealed that Australian facilities were better at detecting dementia and depression.

Bupa Care Services’ Managing Director, Paul Gregerson told the Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) conference in Melbourne that the Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI) was a driving force behind the nation’s impressive detection record.

“There is some evidence that the tools we use in Australia lead to better diagnosis, which in turn, leads to better care and planning,” he said.

“Undoubtedly Australians have a better chance of receiving appropriate care than aged care residents in the other [three] countries.”

Similar censuses were conducted in the UK in 2003 and 2006 but this year was the first time Bupa compared its international services.

The surveys showed that Australian residents had been diagnosed with an average of 3.2 medical conditions on admission to residential aged care but in the other countries, the average was just 2.4.

Australian residents were also more likely to be diagnosed with sight and hearing impairments than their counterparts in the UK, Spain and New Zealand.

However the survey did suggest that the government’s imposed ratio of low and high care ratios is out of step with the rest of the world.

Only 78 per cent of the resident’s in Bupa’s Australian facilities were deemed to be high care, while in the other three countries, where ratios are not predetermined, that figure was 87 per cent. [rc]

© The Intermedia Group

USA: Internet addiction can harm real relationships

2009-11-16T17:20:00.005+05:30

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SEATTLE, Washington / Seattle Post-Intellingencer / Health & Fitness / Addictions / November 16, 2009

By Benny Evangelista, San Francisco Chronicle

Technology can be seductive because it provides an instant reward - a text message from a friend, success in a video game or stimulating news on a Web site - that is not necessarily harmful.

But mental health experts say an addiction can form - just as with gambling - when people keep seeking that intermittent, unpredictable reward.

"The fact that it is unpredictable is what compels the brain to keep checking over and over and over," said Dr. David Greenfield, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

"When people are afraid of not having their PDA or a phone with them, then it's addictive," Greenfield said.

Still, the question is: When does an addiction to technology become a problem?

Human contact suffers

Dr. Kimberly Young, founder and director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery of Bradford, Pa., said it depends on individual circumstances.

"It's not a time limit," said Young, who has been studying Internet addiction since 1994. "You can't diagnose alcoholism by how much someone drinks. "

Also, she said, "it's a generational thing. Go interview a 15-year-old, a 45-year-old and a 75-year-old, and you'll have different views of technology. For 15-year-olds, it's their lifeline."

But some of the warning signs include being so preoccupied with online activities that it affects relationships. (For more on signs of addiction, see the chart on the next page.)

There's a problem with "someone who is always having to get up in the middle of the night to check e-mail and not having sex with his wife," she said.

According to the center's Web site, NetAddiction.com, the most common type of Internet addiction is online pornography, but online gambling, auction sites and multiplayer role playing games are also on the rise. Surveys indicate half of Internet addicts also have another addiction, such as drugs, alcohol, smoking or sex.

Brain chemistry

Dr. John Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, said a physical addiction can form from the chemical reaction in the brain - a "dopamine squirt" - that comes from a rewarding tech experience.

"We condition ourselves to need it, and after a while, it becomes a physical need like any other constant practice," Ratey said. "It's worse now because we've got all these devices."

Greenfield said that 10 years ago there used to be more debate among mental health professionals about whether Internet addiction was an actual malady or a symptom of more recognized problems such as depression and social isolation.

In fact, a Pew Research Center study released last month concluded that the rise of Internet and mobile phone use has not made Americans more socially isolated.

"Personally, I have some doubts about the notion that there can be an Internet addiction," said sociologist Keith Hampton, the Pew study's lead author and an assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

"We can't forget that we had media before the Internet," he said. "Husbands have been sitting at the dinner table reading the newspaper for a long time. Just because the devices change doesn't necessarily mean that the overall social pattern has changed."

China's response

Photo courtesy: gadgeted.com.

Around the world, however, experts say they are just starting to measure the effects.

In China, which has almost 300 million Internet users, the government has declared Internet and video game addiction a public health problem.

Studies have found anywhere from 2.4 to 15 percent have a problematic Internet addiction, said Dr. Cheng-Hua Tian, professor of psychiatry at the Peking University Institute of Mental Health. In an e-mail, Tian said he and other senior psychiatrists are developing diagnostic criteria to more accurately measure addiction, which affects teenagers more than adults.

In the United States, Greenfield said, studies have estimated anywhere from 3 to 6 percent of Internet users have a problem. The nation's first inpatient "detox" center focusing on Internet and video game addiction opened in Fall City, Wash., in July.

The reStart Internet Addiction Recovery Clinic, which charges $14,000 for a 45-day recovery program, has treated three men and one woman who sought to kick serious video game habits that left them unable to complete school or hindered their ability to form real-world relationships, said clinic co-founder Dr. Hilarie Cash.

Instant gratification

In serious cases, technology "can be more immediately gratifying than the labor of building an intimate relationship," Cash said. "That is one of the biggest prices we pay by letting ourselves get seduced by all this technology."

Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, assistant director of the Stanford School of Medicine's Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic, said there's no question in his mind that technology can cause problem addictions.

"From a clinical experience, I've seen plenty of people whose primary problem is an Internet problem," he said. "They're not gamblers, they're not pornography addicts, they're not necessarily depressed. And there are real offline consequences that we are just starting to appreciate.

"What we're seeing is that people with social anxiety are gravitating online as a substitute, and that can be OK to a certain point," he said. "There's nothing wrong with having these connections, unless your real-life relationships begin to suffer, and that's when it becomes problematic. Some of them truly have difficulty forming real-life relationships." [rc]

Signs of addiction

Here are some questions to ask if you think you are addicted to the Internet:
-- Do you spend excessive time online, or more than you intended?
-- Do you feel more depressed or lonely the more time you spend online?
-- Do you have a heightened sense of euphoria while online or using a computer?
-- Is it interfering with your job or school performance?
-- Do family or friends complain about the time and energy you spend online?
-- Do you frequently chose spending time online over going out with other people?
-- Do you hide, lie or become defensive about online activities?
-- Do you feel depressed, restless, moody or nervous offline and fine again when online?
-- Do you spend too much time with online pornography, multiplayer games or gambling sites?

What to do?
-- Unplug yourself completely from technology for at least a few moments each day.
-- Keep track of how much you use technology, and moderate overuse.
-- If needed, seek counseling, self-help or support groups.

Sources:
Virtual-Addiction.com;
NetAddiction.com;
netaddictionrecovery.com;
Dr. John Ratey, Harvard Medical School.

Benny Evangelista
E-Mail: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com

© 1996-2009 Hearst Seattle Media, LLC

INDIA: Safety ring for senior citizens in Orissa capital region

2009-11-16T09:22:00.002+05:30

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KOLKATA, West Bengal / The Telegraph / National News / November 16, 2009

By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR, Orissa

Here is some relief for vulnerable senior citizens living alone. The Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police commissionerate has finally woken up to their needs.

With the number of criminal attacks on senior citizens rising, the commissionerate has decided to constitute a senior citizen’s security cell (SCSC).

Elderly people, who have reached 60 years of age, can register themselves with the cell, which will tender ready response to them. “The citizen must be aged more than 60 to avail this facility,” said police commissioner B.K. Sharma. Details of the tenants living with the senior citizens would also be collected for verification, he added.

To start with, the cells will function from five police stations. Registered senior citizens — at least 150 have already been enlisted — would be visited by an officer of the cell at least once a week and the cell would be responsible for facilitating emergency medical requirement of the elderly, if necessary.

“Earlier, policing was all about controlling law and order and keeping a tab on criminals. But things have changed now. This is an effort to construct a citizen-friendly approach,” said the police commissioner.

The programme was organised by Age Care Associate. [rc]

Copyright © 2009 The Telegraph.

INDIA: Senior citizens oppose Bhavnagar atomic power project

2009-11-16T07:07:00.003+05:30

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AHMEDABAD, Gujarat / The Indian Express / November 16, 2009

Express News Service

Senior citizens from Bhavnagar have joined hands to protest against the upcoming 6,000-MW atomic power project by the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC). According to them, the proposed project poses a major threat to Mithi Virdi village, which is known for its orchards of Kesar mango and chickoo, and sweet water ponds adjoining the Gulf of Khambhat.

“There are retired educationists and engineers from several groups. They are associated with Anu Urja Abhyas Joot. They conducted a meeting with the villagers of Mithi Virdi and three adjoining villages — Jasapara, Mandava and Sosiya on Sunday,” said Joot convenor Damayanti Modi (75).

Bhupat Parekh, a retired executive engineer of the Irrigation Department, said that others had no time to protest, “so we took the lead and convened a gathering of farmers dominated by women and youth”.

He added: “This project may be good, but who will make up for the lost means of livelihood of nearly 5,000 farmers who own lush green orchards here? Nearly 25 kilometres from here is Alang Ship Breaking Yard, so where would be the greenery?”
[rc]

© 2009 The Indian Express Limited.

INDIA: An Insurance For Old Age

2009-11-16T06:50:00.003+05:30

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BANGALORE, Karnataka / The Times of India / November 16, 2009

By Arpita Misra, Times News Network

She waits eagerly for this one day of the month when she can spend quality time in the company of like-minded and like-aged people, sharing one another's experience -- and soaking in a sense of assurance that there are many more like her.

For 74-year-old Meera Kamath, just to dress up for the occasion gives her impetus enough to look forward to meeting fellow members of Ashvasan Foundation.

In today's changing socio-economic set-up, it's often the elderly who find themselves cornered, braving the pangs of loneliness and craving for a sense of belonging. And it's for people like them that Ashvasan Foundation ushers in a sense of inclusion, boosting their self-esteem and enhancing their dignity.

Established in 1993, the Foundation has eight recreation centres across the city with over 1,000 members. Each centre organizes get-togethers once a month, where senior citizens of a particular area can meet and spend quality time together, relaxing, playing indoor games, listening to music and participating in various activities.

Informative talk sessions are organized on topics such as coping with loneliness, fear of being old, social and psychological health and other relevant issues.

A brainchild of Lalita Shivaram Ubhayaker, the foundation has grown brick-by-brick over the past 16 years. "I spent a lot of time with my mother during the twilight of her life and her subsequent death left a vacuum in my existence. I was aware of what ageing could do to a person and that's when I decided I should work for the welfare of this section of society. Ashvasan was one of its kind at the time of inception. All our projects have been pilots as we had no set model to emulate," says 80-year-old Lalita.

Lalita Ubhayaker, 80 - "Her life is an affirmation of the joy of living, of giving selflessly to others, and absorbing herself completely in her task, which is now her mission in life — to build support systems, and reach out to senior citizens of Bangalore through her organisation, Ashvasan."

This tribute by THE HINDU was published on her 75th birthday in 1973.

Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy/TheHindu

The services of Ashvasan have touched many lives in the city and its fringes as their other initiatives involve feeding senior citizens across five slums every day, training the financially deprived in income-generating activities such as making paper and cloth bags, and organizing regular health camps at subsidized rates. The Foundation also organizes an annual seminar encompassing topics of health, finance, physical security and spiritual well-being of the greying crowd.

"Everyone is welcome to be a part of Ashvasan. We believe in 'smile and make others smile' policy," explains 79-year-old R Sriram, a life member of the Foundation. "Such set-ups are rare but much-needed today," adds Meera, who's a member of Ashvasan for 10 years now.

The journey over the years has encountered ample rough weather, with fund crunch being a constant impediment. "I'm always in look-out for more volunteers. Though there's little glamour in being part of such an initiative, I want more youths to participate," adds Lalita.

As the name suggests, Ashvasan provides the much-needed assurance and mental cushioning to stride through various phases of ageing, a natural phenomenon often curtained in the humdrum of materialistic pursuits. [rc]

Copyright © 2009 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

USA: Portland photographer, 96, throws own wake: 'Why bother when I'm dead'

2009-11-15T23:59:00.001+05:30

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BEAVERTON, Oregon / The Oregonian / Life / News / November 15, 2009

By Steve Beaven, The Oregonian

At 96, photographer Hugh Ackroyd is still very much alive -- and seized the opportunity to enjoy his own wake. He spent decades photographing shipping in Oregon and recently published a book about a local railcar manufacturer, "Gunderson: A History in Photographs."

Fredrick D. Joe/The Oregonain

BEAVERTON -- They came with cameras, name tags and old memories, fitting gifts for an aged photographer with hordes of friends and a shaky short-term memory.

It was supposed to be Hugh Ackroyd's wake. And maybe the best part of Sunday afternoon was the fact that Hugh Ackroyd is not dead.

The man who made a career out of shooting photos of barges and ships and boxcars is 96 years old. He planned his wake, and he wasn't embarrassed to admit it.

"Well, why not?" he said. "Why bother when (I'm) dead?"

Ackroyd sat in his padded wheelchair at a friend's house, wearing suspenders, a pressed white shirt and an old-fashioned black tie. His hair was thick and white: perfect.

Someone brought a wreath with a ribbon that said: "Eventually, Hugh, rest in peace." Ackroyd got a kick out of that.

And his friends got a kick out of Ackroyd, who continued going to the office at Ackroyd Photography Inc. in Northwest Portland until last year and shot his last photographs in July. He's the kind of guy who skied until he was 87 and played golf until he was 92.

After picking up his first camera at age 16 in British Columbia, he did a stint in Hollywood and moved to Portland.

Here he chronicled heavy industry, shooting the work of shipbuilders and barge makers, including Gunderson Inc. and Shaver Transportation Co. He also shot mountains and skiers and the Oregon coast. Many of his photos have appeared in The Oregonian over the years.

"Hugh's a seat-of-the-pants photographer," said Jim Deis, a friend who used to be a wedding photographer. "Hugh shot by feel, as opposed to being a technical photographer. He shot by instinct a lot."

A father of two, Ackroyd has been a widower for about a dozen years. Most of his contemporaries are dead. Still, his wake was packed.

"He never quit making friends," said Edda Sigurdar, who hosted Sunday's party. "He didn't stagnate like so many people do."

As if anyone needed proof, Ackroyd sat in his padded chair and greeted his friends for most of the afternoon.

The wake?

"It's quite magnificent," he said. [rc]

Stephen Beaven
E-Mail: stevebeaven@news.oregonian.com

© 2009 Oregon Live LLC.

AUSTRALIA: Oh, what a lovely recession … for comfortable old folks

2009-11-11T09:55:00.005+05:30

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SYDNEY, NSW / The Sydney Morning Herald / National Times / November 11, 2009

By Ross Gittins
Economics Editor
Sydney Morning Herald

Ross Gittins says young people are overlooked by the government while being hit hardest by recession. Video

Politicians run the economy for the benefit of the old, not the young. That's because the middle-aged and old are a bigger and more demanding group of voters. The less interest young people take in politics, the more they're likely to be screwed.

You can see this from the way we've reacted to the unexpected mildness of the recession. People stopped worrying about the downturn from the moment they realised their chances of losing their job weren't high. The less worried we were - and thus the less we tightened our belts - the more our confidence that we'd keep our jobs became a self-fulfilling prophesy.

This recession has seen surprisingly little in the way of lay-offs. There's been almost no fall in the level of total employment (full-time plus part-time jobs) since it reached a peak in October last year.

True, many businesses have reacted to the downturn by cutting their payroll costs, but they seem to have done this mainly by ''natural attrition'' - failing to replace people who leave - and by putting workers on shorter hours rather than sacking them.

Pretty good, eh? Just one problem. While the oldies have been busy congratulating themselves on their good fortune, the burden of this strategy has fallen on the young (just as the traditional approach to lay-offs - last on, first off - shifts the burden to the young).

Although total employment has hardly fallen, the number of unemployed has risen by almost 220,000 since February last year. Huh?

This is possible because - though the old keep forgetting it - there are two ways to become unemployed: to lose your job or never to find one in the first place.

As Saul Eslake of the Grattan Institute reminded us in a speech last week, the vast majority of those newly unemployed are likely to be new entrants to the labour force, either school and university leavers or recently arrived migrants.

Young people aged 15 to 24 constitute about 18 per cent of the labour force, but account for almost twice that proportion among those who've become unemployed since February last year. Then, the rate of unemployment among this group was 8 per cent; today it's almost 12 per cent.

The unemployment rate among teenagers not in full-time education went from less than 14 per cent in February last year to 20 per cent a year later. One little-noticed reason the recession has proved so mild is the very strong growth in the population, mainly through high immigration. Migrants and their families add to the demand for goods and services and, hence, the demand for labour.

But though they also add to the supply of labour, it often takes them some time after they arrive to land a job. That would be particularly true at present.

It's likely many employers' first response to a recovery in the demand for their products will be to return their existing workers to full-time work rather than hiring more workers. So, as Eslake points out, it's likely that many of those education-leavers and migrants now unemployed will have quite a wait before they find a job.

And last week's revised forecasts from the Government imply that the number of unemployed will rise by a further 100,000 before it starts falling in the second half of next year.

Despite an expected total increase in unemployment of about 320,000 souls, it's fashionable to conclude we didn't have a recession. One reason we find such nonsense so easy to believe is that so much of the burden of this (mild) recession has been pushed off on to the young and other outsiders.

The much worse recessions in the United States and Britain have seen sharp declines in house prices. Our prices fell a little, but have since grown quite strongly and passed their previous peak. This is another reason we find it easy to imagine there's been no recession.

It's not surprising our house prices have held up so well. For a start, we haven't had many distressed sellers because so few home-owners have lost their jobs and because our Reserve Bank avoided the Americans' mistake of leaving interest rates too low for too long, tempting people to take on home loans they'd no longer be able to afford once rates rose to more normal levels. As well, our banks avoided lending to bad (''subprime'') risks.

But there's another reason: whereas the Americans ended up building more homes than were needed to keep up with the growth in their population - meaning that supply outstripped demand - we've done the reverse. According to the National Housing Supply Council, we have a nationwide shortage of about 85,000 homes. Does all that sound good to you? If it does it's probably because you've already got a home, and much prefer to see its value rising rather than falling. And that most likely means you're not young.

Since home owners form the majority of their customers, politicians and the media almost invariably assume that rising house prices are a good thing. But they're hardly a good thing if you're a young person wondering how you'll ever afford a home of your own.

While no one would wish on us the housing market collapse the Americans have suffered, the fact remains that they've solved their housing affordability problem, whereas our homes are as unaffordable as ever - and getting worse as house prices and interest rates resume their rise.

When pressed, politicians almost invariably respond to concerns about home loan affordability by giving special assistance to first-home buyers: cash grants or cuts in conveyancing stamp duty. But as Eslake and other economists have been warning for years, such measures add to demand without adding to supply, thus benefiting those who sell their homes to first-home buyers, not the buyers.

So why on earth do our politicians persist with such counterproductive policies? Because they run the economy for the benefit of the old, not the young. [rc]

Copyright © 2009. Fairfax Digital

USA: "Get a hold of yourself, America - We must win this war"

2009-11-11T08:21:00.007+05:30

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GREENSBORO, North Carolina / The Carolinian / Opinion / November 11, 2009

By John Sanford Friedrich

Sometimes Americans are "the good guys." I know that's a difficult notion for a lot of people to accept these days, especially for liberals - and I say that as a liberal.

But what, exactly, is liberal about a 50-year-old toothless goatherd taking a nine-year-old girl for a bride, and then proceeding to "consummate" the wedding with her in a room full of people?

Or when a village, that has few standing structures, builds a wall:

Not to start a school, but to topple on accused homosexuals.

An old man with an underage bride in Afghanistan.

Can you imagine a land where all music is outlawed, all poetry books burned, and television is a forgotten technology? I wouldn't want to live in a world like that, and I bet you don't either. But neither do the Afghan people. [rc]

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Source: The Carolinian Online

Seniors World Chronicle adds:
Reproduction of this Opinion does not reflect our views, nor the views of millions of Americans who vehemently oppose US presence in Afghanistan.