Retirement homes in Ontario would face licensing and regulation for the first time under proposed legislation, the government said Tuesday.
Regulations would enforce care and safety standards, mandate emergency plans and inflection-control programs as well as police background checks for staff.
Residents of retirement homes would also get a new set of rights, including the right to know the true cost of care and the right to live in an environment with zero tolerance for abuse or neglect.
"Many retirement homes do their very best to give their residents the comfort of knowing that they're living in a safe environment; other retirement-home residents are not so lucky," Gerry Phillips, the minister responsible for seniors, said in introducing the bill Tuesday.
"Imagine not having the information you need to make decisions about your own care, imagine not having any recourse for making your home better and no one to talk to when your rights are not respected."
The bill defines a retirement home as one where at least six unrelated residents, primarily aged 65 and over, purchase accommodation and care.
Unlike Ontario nursing homes, which receive government funding to provide medical care to elderly patients, retirement homes are privately operated and are not regulated.
Progressive Conservative critic Gerry Martiniuk said the bill didn't go far enough to meet the needs of seniors who really need more long-term care beds.
"My fear is that by regulating retirement homes, seniors will be moved from hospitals to these homes, where the level of care they require may not be available," Martiniuk said.
"Regulating retirement homes may be a good idea, but it totally ignores the real problem, and it's the cheap way of getting patients out of hospitals."
The lack of nursing home beds in Ontario was thrown into sharp relief recently when Ottawa's chief coroner reported that the lower level of care offered at a retirement home contributed to the death of a 92-year-old woman.
The woman had moved out of hospital and into a retirement home while waiting for a bed to open at a nursing home.
NDP critic Paul Miller said he was happy to see some administrative changes and higher scrutiny in the bill, but said the key issue of mandatory sprinkler systems shouldn't have been ignored.
"This government needs to finally step up to the plate for seniors and ensure that funding for retirement homes in Ontario be fully equipped with operational sprinkler system," Miller said.
There are an estimated 43,000 seniors living in about 700 retirement homes across Ontario.
Phillips said recently that Ontario's rapidly aging population had spurred the government to regulate retirement homes.
Recent estimates project the seniors population in Ontario will double in the next 16 years. [rc]
© 2010 CTV Globe Media
March 31, 2010
CANADA: Ontario to regulate retirement homes for first time
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SCARBOROUGH, Ontario / CTV Television / Health / / March 31, 2010
Ontario to regulate retirement homes for first time; residents to get rights
By Keith Leslie And Romina Maurino, The Canadian Press
Retirement homes in Ontario would face licensing and regulation for the first time under proposed legislation, the government said Tuesday.
Regulations would enforce care and safety standards, mandate emergency plans and inflection-control programs as well as police background checks for staff.
Residents of retirement homes would also get a new set of rights, including the right to know the true cost of care and the right to live in an environment with zero tolerance for abuse or neglect.
"Many retirement homes do their very best to give their residents the comfort of knowing that they're living in a safe environment; other retirement-home residents are not so lucky," Gerry Phillips, the minister responsible for seniors, said in introducing the bill Tuesday.
"Imagine not having the information you need to make decisions about your own care, imagine not having any recourse for making your home better and no one to talk to when your rights are not respected."
The bill defines a retirement home as one where at least six unrelated residents, primarily aged 65 and over, purchase accommodation and care.
Unlike Ontario nursing homes, which receive government funding to provide medical care to elderly patients, retirement homes are privately operated and are not regulated.
Progressive Conservative critic Gerry Martiniuk said the bill didn't go far enough to meet the needs of seniors who really need more long-term care beds.
"My fear is that by regulating retirement homes, seniors will be moved from hospitals to these homes, where the level of care they require may not be available," Martiniuk said.
"Regulating retirement homes may be a good idea, but it totally ignores the real problem, and it's the cheap way of getting patients out of hospitals."
The lack of nursing home beds in Ontario was thrown into sharp relief recently when Ottawa's chief coroner reported that the lower level of care offered at a retirement home contributed to the death of a 92-year-old woman.
The woman had moved out of hospital and into a retirement home while waiting for a bed to open at a nursing home.
NDP critic Paul Miller said he was happy to see some administrative changes and higher scrutiny in the bill, but said the key issue of mandatory sprinkler systems shouldn't have been ignored.
"This government needs to finally step up to the plate for seniors and ensure that funding for retirement homes in Ontario be fully equipped with operational sprinkler system," Miller said.
There are an estimated 43,000 seniors living in about 700 retirement homes across Ontario.
Phillips said recently that Ontario's rapidly aging population had spurred the government to regulate retirement homes.
Recent estimates project the seniors population in Ontario will double in the next 16 years. [rc]
© 2010 CTV Globe Media
Retirement homes in Ontario would face licensing and regulation for the first time under proposed legislation, the government said Tuesday.
Regulations would enforce care and safety standards, mandate emergency plans and inflection-control programs as well as police background checks for staff.
Residents of retirement homes would also get a new set of rights, including the right to know the true cost of care and the right to live in an environment with zero tolerance for abuse or neglect.
"Many retirement homes do their very best to give their residents the comfort of knowing that they're living in a safe environment; other retirement-home residents are not so lucky," Gerry Phillips, the minister responsible for seniors, said in introducing the bill Tuesday.
"Imagine not having the information you need to make decisions about your own care, imagine not having any recourse for making your home better and no one to talk to when your rights are not respected."
The bill defines a retirement home as one where at least six unrelated residents, primarily aged 65 and over, purchase accommodation and care.
Unlike Ontario nursing homes, which receive government funding to provide medical care to elderly patients, retirement homes are privately operated and are not regulated.
Progressive Conservative critic Gerry Martiniuk said the bill didn't go far enough to meet the needs of seniors who really need more long-term care beds.
"My fear is that by regulating retirement homes, seniors will be moved from hospitals to these homes, where the level of care they require may not be available," Martiniuk said.
"Regulating retirement homes may be a good idea, but it totally ignores the real problem, and it's the cheap way of getting patients out of hospitals."
The lack of nursing home beds in Ontario was thrown into sharp relief recently when Ottawa's chief coroner reported that the lower level of care offered at a retirement home contributed to the death of a 92-year-old woman.
The woman had moved out of hospital and into a retirement home while waiting for a bed to open at a nursing home.
NDP critic Paul Miller said he was happy to see some administrative changes and higher scrutiny in the bill, but said the key issue of mandatory sprinkler systems shouldn't have been ignored.
"This government needs to finally step up to the plate for seniors and ensure that funding for retirement homes in Ontario be fully equipped with operational sprinkler system," Miller said.
There are an estimated 43,000 seniors living in about 700 retirement homes across Ontario.
Phillips said recently that Ontario's rapidly aging population had spurred the government to regulate retirement homes.
Recent estimates project the seniors population in Ontario will double in the next 16 years. [rc]
© 2010 CTV Globe Media
UK: Free Care? Elderly will still have to pay most of the cost just to stay in a home
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LONDON, England / The Daily Mail / News / March 31, 2010
By Daniel Martin
Labour's free care for the elderly plan was exposed as a sham yesterday after it emerged that the middle classes will still face bills of thousands of pounds a year.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham announced that by 2014 the Government would pay full care costs once someone had been in a residential home for two years.
But the small print of his White Paper revealed the state will pick up less than half the bill. Only ' personal care' - the cost of helping people to wash, eat, dress and move around - will be included for all, an average of about £12,000 a year.
Even if Labour's fiercely controversial 'death tax' is introduced, accommodation costs - rent of a room, food and utility bills which can add up to a further £16,800 - will not be paid except for the least well- off. It means that dementia sufferers who spend years in care homes could be landed with bills for tens of thousands of pounds.
Care plan: Gordon Brown and Health Secretary Andy Burnham (left) chat to Sylvia Thomas, 81, in her social housing flat in Stockwell, south London, yesterday
Last night critics derided Mr Burnham's much-heralded launch of the National Care Service as a betrayal of the elderly, especially those who had saved all their lives to give them a nest egg in retirement.
Only those with assets of less than £23,000 - including the equity in their home - will have their personal care and accommodation costs paid.
Questions were also raised about how the plans would be funded.
The White Paper was being seen as a humiliation for the Health Secretary as he was forced to delay plans to bring in a 'death tax' to pay for free elderly care for all until after a further election, in 2015.
Cabinet colleagues told him the unpopular proposal, which could have seen middle income families paying up to £50,000 into a compulsory insurance scheme, could cost Labour millions of votes in the election expected in May.
However the paper makes it clear that the Government supports a compulsory levy, saying the Tories' alternative proposal of a voluntary scheme would not raise enough.
Mr Burnham said Labour would appoint a commission of experts to decide how a compulsory levy would be paid - with the idea of a 10 per cent tax on the value of an estate, paid on death, firmly on the table.
But people with more than £23,000 in assets would still have to pay accommodation costs, even after they had paid into a compulsory insurance scheme.
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: 'The death tax is alive and kicking despite their attempts to bury it in the small print of the policy in the hope people won't notice.'
The White Paper said a deferred payment system would mean no one will be forced to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for the accommodation costs of residential care.
Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of care home provider Anchor, said: 'It is shocking that individuals will not have their accommodation costs covered. A scheme which allows people to defer payment is a step forward but is unlikely to stop people having to sell their homes, just put it off for a bit.'
Labour peer Lord Lipsey, who sat on the 1999 Royal Commission for Long-Term Care which was ignored by Tony Blair, said the proposals were unfair, unaffordable, and fail to ' provide the better services that elderly people and their carers really need'. [rc]
Click to continue reading...
The five-year plan to defuse a timebomb
Analysis by Daniel Martin
© Associated Newspapers Ltd
Even if Labour's fiercely controversial 'death tax' is introduced, accommodation costs - rent of a room, food and utility bills which can add up to a further £16,800 - will not be paid except for the least well- off. It means that dementia sufferers who spend years in care homes could be landed with bills for tens of thousands of pounds.
Care plan: Gordon Brown and Health Secretary Andy Burnham (left) chat to Sylvia Thomas, 81, in her social housing flat in Stockwell, south London, yesterday
Last night critics derided Mr Burnham's much-heralded launch of the National Care Service as a betrayal of the elderly, especially those who had saved all their lives to give them a nest egg in retirement.
Only those with assets of less than £23,000 - including the equity in their home - will have their personal care and accommodation costs paid.
Questions were also raised about how the plans would be funded.
The White Paper was being seen as a humiliation for the Health Secretary as he was forced to delay plans to bring in a 'death tax' to pay for free elderly care for all until after a further election, in 2015.
Cabinet colleagues told him the unpopular proposal, which could have seen middle income families paying up to £50,000 into a compulsory insurance scheme, could cost Labour millions of votes in the election expected in May.
However the paper makes it clear that the Government supports a compulsory levy, saying the Tories' alternative proposal of a voluntary scheme would not raise enough.
Mr Burnham said Labour would appoint a commission of experts to decide how a compulsory levy would be paid - with the idea of a 10 per cent tax on the value of an estate, paid on death, firmly on the table.
But people with more than £23,000 in assets would still have to pay accommodation costs, even after they had paid into a compulsory insurance scheme.
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: 'The death tax is alive and kicking despite their attempts to bury it in the small print of the policy in the hope people won't notice.'
The White Paper said a deferred payment system would mean no one will be forced to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for the accommodation costs of residential care.
Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of care home provider Anchor, said: 'It is shocking that individuals will not have their accommodation costs covered. A scheme which allows people to defer payment is a step forward but is unlikely to stop people having to sell their homes, just put it off for a bit.'
Labour peer Lord Lipsey, who sat on the 1999 Royal Commission for Long-Term Care which was ignored by Tony Blair, said the proposals were unfair, unaffordable, and fail to ' provide the better services that elderly people and their carers really need'. [rc]
Click to continue reading...
The five-year plan to defuse a timebomb
Analysis by Daniel Martin
© Associated Newspapers Ltd
UK: How to get rich? Dedicate yourself to making money
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LONDON, England / The First Post / Business / March 31, 2010
Team spirit is for losers, financially speaking, says Felix Dennis in his new guide to making money
By Edward Helmore
Felix Dennis (born 1947), the proprietor of several print and online magazines, including The First Post, has a new business guide: 88 The Narrow Road: A Brief Guide To The Getting of Money. Whether it can help in the acquisition of money is hard to say; certainly the qualities, insight and advice Dennis offers have in certain ways and at certain times helped him to become an extremely wealthy man - the 88th wealthiest in the UK, according to the Sunday Times.
The ideal position from which to start out, according to Dennis - conceivably the only place to start out - is young, penniless, inexperienced and, above all, energetic. Dennis reaches for Goethe: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it - Boldness has genius, power and magic to it."
Mercifully, there's no executive "c-suite" corporate level nonsense in 88 The Narrow Road (inspired, Dennis says, by Francis Bacon's 1597 Essays). It's straight talk, philosophically perceptive, irreverent, yes, but not irresponsible. The author gives the impression he's learned to respect professions that have protected him from himself - accountants, lawyers, tax planners and the like.
Even if you're not abruptly transformed into a thrusting entrepreneur as a consequence, it's a fun, wise-headed read. Even if you don't get rich, it may at least help to protect you from getting scalped by more savage deal-makers along the way.
The point Dennis makes is one not often made by entrepreneurial types: that making money requires absolute dedication to making money - and to the self. "Team spirit is for losers, financially speaking," he writes. "It is the glue that binds losers together - a strategy used by employers to shackle useful employees to their desks."
Later in the book, on the subject of sacred cows and when to slaughter them, he reveals the Mantra of Dennis: "I am not in the business of pampering babies or protecting sacred cows, no matter how hard I work to breed them. I am in the business of the getting of money. There is only one sacred cow in this organisation. Me!"
So how difficult is it, exactly, to make a lot of money? There is no magic bullet, no secret formula - just a question of degrees of dedication. In essence, he seems to be saying, nothing succeeds like success. Provided you live in a country with some claim to being governed by the rule of law; are of reasonable intelligence; and in good mental and physical health; and are not presently incarcerated in a prison or institution, then nothing, absolutely nothing, can stop you from becoming rich.
"Cut loose from parents and family, obviously. Cut loose from working for others ... loose from negative influences." And then? Why are there so few truly successful self-made men? Mostly he writes because most of us are trying to reduce the odds of failure and humiliation.
Asked to pick one example of Dennis advice from this highly entertaining book, it would have to be the entry on the entrepreneur sizing up his quarry - the deal. "You are a wild pig rooting for truffles," Dennis writes. "You are a weasel about to rip the throat out of a rabbit." Inspired lunacy but inspired nonetheless. [rc]
'88 The Narrow Road: A Brief Guide To The Getting of Money' is published by Vermilion.
Copyright © 2010 First Post Newsgroup IPR Limited
Team spirit is for losers, financially speaking, says Felix Dennis in his new guide to making money
By Edward Helmore
Felix Dennis (born 1947), the proprietor of several print and online magazines, including The First Post, has a new business guide: 88 The Narrow Road: A Brief Guide To The Getting of Money. Whether it can help in the acquisition of money is hard to say; certainly the qualities, insight and advice Dennis offers have in certain ways and at certain times helped him to become an extremely wealthy man - the 88th wealthiest in the UK, according to the Sunday Times.
The ideal position from which to start out, according to Dennis - conceivably the only place to start out - is young, penniless, inexperienced and, above all, energetic. Dennis reaches for Goethe: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it - Boldness has genius, power and magic to it."
Mercifully, there's no executive "c-suite" corporate level nonsense in 88 The Narrow Road (inspired, Dennis says, by Francis Bacon's 1597 Essays). It's straight talk, philosophically perceptive, irreverent, yes, but not irresponsible. The author gives the impression he's learned to respect professions that have protected him from himself - accountants, lawyers, tax planners and the like.
Even if you're not abruptly transformed into a thrusting entrepreneur as a consequence, it's a fun, wise-headed read. Even if you don't get rich, it may at least help to protect you from getting scalped by more savage deal-makers along the way.
The point Dennis makes is one not often made by entrepreneurial types: that making money requires absolute dedication to making money - and to the self. "Team spirit is for losers, financially speaking," he writes. "It is the glue that binds losers together - a strategy used by employers to shackle useful employees to their desks."
Later in the book, on the subject of sacred cows and when to slaughter them, he reveals the Mantra of Dennis: "I am not in the business of pampering babies or protecting sacred cows, no matter how hard I work to breed them. I am in the business of the getting of money. There is only one sacred cow in this organisation. Me!"
So how difficult is it, exactly, to make a lot of money? There is no magic bullet, no secret formula - just a question of degrees of dedication. In essence, he seems to be saying, nothing succeeds like success. Provided you live in a country with some claim to being governed by the rule of law; are of reasonable intelligence; and in good mental and physical health; and are not presently incarcerated in a prison or institution, then nothing, absolutely nothing, can stop you from becoming rich.
"Cut loose from parents and family, obviously. Cut loose from working for others ... loose from negative influences." And then? Why are there so few truly successful self-made men? Mostly he writes because most of us are trying to reduce the odds of failure and humiliation.
Asked to pick one example of Dennis advice from this highly entertaining book, it would have to be the entry on the entrepreneur sizing up his quarry - the deal. "You are a wild pig rooting for truffles," Dennis writes. "You are a weasel about to rip the throat out of a rabbit." Inspired lunacy but inspired nonetheless. [rc]
'88 The Narrow Road: A Brief Guide To The Getting of Money' is published by Vermilion.
Copyright © 2010 First Post Newsgroup IPR Limited
INDIA: Senior citizens demand separate ministry
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GUNTUR, Andhra Pradesh / The Hindu / March 31, 2010
By Staff Reporter
* Elderly persons in Old Age Homes denied Arogyasri benefit, says Mittal
* Budgetary allocation for senior citizens dimsal, they say
* 50 p.c. concession in RTC bus fares sought
The All-India Senior Citizens Confederation (AISCCON) has urged the Centre to set up a separate ministry for the welfare of senior citizens and disabled and give priority to the problems faced by the elderly in the country. In the national executive committee meeting held on the premises of Bhashyam School here on Tuesday, confederation president S.P Kinjawadakar said though senior citizens constitute 21 per cent of the total population in the country, the governments at the Centre and the State were not doing enough for their welfare.
For a fair deal: A section of senior citizens at the All India Senior Citizens Confederation meeting held in Guntur on March 30. Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar
The budgetary allocation for senior citizens had been a dismal one per cent of the total allocation of Rs.2,200 crore made for the Ministry of Social Justice, which was doubled this year, but a lot of money was being left unspent, he said.
The National Policy of Older Persons made in 1999 was not being implemented in spirit with 22 States still not implementing it, he said urging the Government to immediately set up a bureau or a commissionerate to look into welfare of senior citizens.
Confederation senior vice president and state unit president R.N Mittal said elderly persons living in Old Age Homes were denied the benefit of Arogyasri health insurance scheme and urged the State Government to issue the necessary guidelines.
He also demanded that the Centre should take into consideration the recommendations made by the Sastri Committee on bringing the senior citizens into the insurance coverage without a bar on their age or health condition.
The State Government should also immediately relax rules and provide 50 per cent concessions to senior citizens travelling in APSRTC buses, he added. [rc]
Copyright © 2010, The Hindu.
The All-India Senior Citizens Confederation (AISCCON) has urged the Centre to set up a separate ministry for the welfare of senior citizens and disabled and give priority to the problems faced by the elderly in the country. In the national executive committee meeting held on the premises of Bhashyam School here on Tuesday, confederation president S.P Kinjawadakar said though senior citizens constitute 21 per cent of the total population in the country, the governments at the Centre and the State were not doing enough for their welfare.
For a fair deal: A section of senior citizens at the All India Senior Citizens Confederation meeting held in Guntur on March 30. Photo: T. Vijaya Kumar
The budgetary allocation for senior citizens had been a dismal one per cent of the total allocation of Rs.2,200 crore made for the Ministry of Social Justice, which was doubled this year, but a lot of money was being left unspent, he said.
The National Policy of Older Persons made in 1999 was not being implemented in spirit with 22 States still not implementing it, he said urging the Government to immediately set up a bureau or a commissionerate to look into welfare of senior citizens.
Confederation senior vice president and state unit president R.N Mittal said elderly persons living in Old Age Homes were denied the benefit of Arogyasri health insurance scheme and urged the State Government to issue the necessary guidelines.
He also demanded that the Centre should take into consideration the recommendations made by the Sastri Committee on bringing the senior citizens into the insurance coverage without a bar on their age or health condition.
The State Government should also immediately relax rules and provide 50 per cent concessions to senior citizens travelling in APSRTC buses, he added. [rc]
Copyright © 2010, The Hindu.
AUSTRALIA: Sale of Garrawarra may 'diminish care'
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ILLAWARRA, South Coast, NSW / Illawarra Mercury / Dementia / March 31, 2010
By Nicole Hasham
Old foes united yesterday to denounce plans to sell off one of the state's only specialist dementia facilities.
Shaking off traditional party divide, former Labor Heathcote MP Ian McManus joined Opposition Health spokeswoman Jillian Skinner to protest a State Government decision to sell the publicly owned Garrawarra Centre at Waterfall.
Together with Liberal politicians John Ajaka and Malcolm Kerr, they called on Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt to overturn the plan amid fears it would lead to diminished care for its elderly and special-needs patients.
The Garrawarra Centre houses dementia patients from the Illawarra and Sutherland Shire, many of whom exhibit aggressive and challenging behaviours.
Liberals Malcolm Kerr and John Ajaka, Former Labor MP Ian McManus, Liberal Jillian Skinner and concerned family members oppose the sale of Waterfall's Garrawarra Centre. Picture: Chris Lane
NSW Health is evaluating expressions of interest into Garrawarra and 10 other state-owned facilities and is expected to make a decision within weeks.
Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt has insisted the quality of patient care would remain unaffected if the facility changed hands.
But Mr McManus said he feared private operators would be unable or unwilling to cope with the centre's more difficult patients.
"The sell off will mean a decline in the standard of care to residents, a decline that will not be tolerated by carers," Mr McManus said.
He criticised the State Government for its lack of communication with Garrawarra's staff and carers.
"No local members, and no minister has gone to the place to explain what their intent is.
"No-one knows what's happening - it's shrouded in secrecy," he said.
Carers and staff who had demanded a meeting with Ms Tebbutt to discuss their concerns were met with a stony silence, he said.
A spokesman for Ms Tebbutt said she was open to requests for meetings, subject to her availability.
She reiterated "the depth of experience of non-government providers makes them well placed to provide quality care to all residents". [rc]
Copyright © 2010. Fairfax Media
Together with Liberal politicians John Ajaka and Malcolm Kerr, they called on Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt to overturn the plan amid fears it would lead to diminished care for its elderly and special-needs patients.
The Garrawarra Centre houses dementia patients from the Illawarra and Sutherland Shire, many of whom exhibit aggressive and challenging behaviours.
Liberals Malcolm Kerr and John Ajaka, Former Labor MP Ian McManus, Liberal Jillian Skinner and concerned family members oppose the sale of Waterfall's Garrawarra Centre. Picture: Chris Lane
NSW Health is evaluating expressions of interest into Garrawarra and 10 other state-owned facilities and is expected to make a decision within weeks.
Health Minister Carmel Tebbutt has insisted the quality of patient care would remain unaffected if the facility changed hands.
But Mr McManus said he feared private operators would be unable or unwilling to cope with the centre's more difficult patients.
"The sell off will mean a decline in the standard of care to residents, a decline that will not be tolerated by carers," Mr McManus said.
He criticised the State Government for its lack of communication with Garrawarra's staff and carers.
"No local members, and no minister has gone to the place to explain what their intent is.
"No-one knows what's happening - it's shrouded in secrecy," he said.
Carers and staff who had demanded a meeting with Ms Tebbutt to discuss their concerns were met with a stony silence, he said.
A spokesman for Ms Tebbutt said she was open to requests for meetings, subject to her availability.
She reiterated "the depth of experience of non-government providers makes them well placed to provide quality care to all residents". [rc]
Copyright © 2010. Fairfax Media
March 30, 2010
USA: 'Stand and Deliver' inspiration dead at 79
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LOS ANGELES, California / United Press International / Movies / March 30, 2010
Former Los Angeles high school teacher Jaime Escalante, the inspiration for the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," died of bladder cancer Tuesday. He was 79.
Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante in the celebrated movie, confirmed the teacher's death at his son's home in Roseville, Calif., to the Los Angeles Times.
The Bolivian-born educator became famous after the movie, which showed how he taught at-risk, inner-city students calculus and drove them to pass Advanced Placement tests.
"Jaime didn't just teach math. Like all great teachers, he changed lives," the Times quoted Olmos as saying earlier this month when he helped raise funds to pay for Escalante's medical bills.
Edward James Olmos arrives to participate in a staged reading of "The World of Nick Adams", a performance to benefit Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall California Camp, The Painted Turtle, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on October 27, 2008. UPI Photo/Terry Schmitt
"Jaime Escalante has left a deep and enduring legacy in the struggle for academic equity in American education," said Gaston Caperton, former West Virginia governor and president of the College Board, which sponsors the Scholastic Assessment Test and the Advanced Placement exam. "His passionate belief (was) that all students, when properly prepared and motivated, can succeed at academically demanding course work, no matter what their racial, social or economic background. Because of him, educators everywhere have been forced to revise long-held notions of who can succeed." [rc]
© 2010 United Press International, Inc
Edward James Olmos, who played Escalante in the celebrated movie, confirmed the teacher's death at his son's home in Roseville, Calif., to the Los Angeles Times.
The Bolivian-born educator became famous after the movie, which showed how he taught at-risk, inner-city students calculus and drove them to pass Advanced Placement tests.
"Jaime didn't just teach math. Like all great teachers, he changed lives," the Times quoted Olmos as saying earlier this month when he helped raise funds to pay for Escalante's medical bills.
Edward James Olmos arrives to participate in a staged reading of "The World of Nick Adams", a performance to benefit Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall California Camp, The Painted Turtle, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on October 27, 2008. UPI Photo/Terry Schmitt
"Jaime Escalante has left a deep and enduring legacy in the struggle for academic equity in American education," said Gaston Caperton, former West Virginia governor and president of the College Board, which sponsors the Scholastic Assessment Test and the Advanced Placement exam. "His passionate belief (was) that all students, when properly prepared and motivated, can succeed at academically demanding course work, no matter what their racial, social or economic background. Because of him, educators everywhere have been forced to revise long-held notions of who can succeed." [rc]
© 2010 United Press International, Inc
USA: Making Cells Live Forever in Quest for Cures
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NEW YORK, NY / Wall Street Journal / Health / March 30, 2010
By SHIRLEY S. WANG
It's not quite the Fountain of Youth, but scientists have found a way to induce some of our cells to live forever.
The purpose isn't to make people immortal, but rather to create therapies that might one day treat or delay the onset of disease, such as progressive eye disease, gastrointestinal disorders and cancer.
The research is focused on so-called telomeres, small bits of DNA that serve as protective coverings at the end of our chromosomes. These caps keep our chromosomes from unraveling, much like the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces. When our telomeres are healthy, our cells remain healthy. But each time the cells divide, telomeres get shorter. When they reach a critically short length, as they do with age or the onset of certain diseases, cells lose the ability to divide and eventually die.
Three Americans discovered telomeres and the enzyme that makes them, called telomerase, in the 1980s, work for which they recently won the Nobel Prize in medicine. Since then, a growing number of researchers have been seeking to understand how telomeres work.
One feat researchers have accomplished in the lab is using telomerase to "immortalize" human cells. Scientists from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and others have shown they can keep certain types of cells living forever, including those from the breast, skin, retina and, recently, the colon, by adding telomerase to keep telomeres intact or repair those that became too short. Now researchers are studying how telomerase-based therapies could help repair damaged cells and play an major role in cancer research.
"What our goal should be isn't increasing life span, but healthy life span," says Jerry Shay who, with his UT Southwestern colleague Woodring Wright, first figured out how to use telomerase to immortalize cells in the late 1990s. "Is there some way we can intervene and slow down some of the problems?"
Telomeres aren't the only reason we age, likely accounting for 10% or less of the aging process, biologists say. But if cells can be kept healthier longer, diseases that might have caused serious illness at 65 years old could be delayed until, say, 75.
Compressing disease into a smaller window later in life could significantly improve individuals' quality of life, helping them live independently for longer rather than in a nursing home, says Dr. Shay, professor of cell biology and associate director of the Simmons Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. "Potentially we can keep you from getting too frail," he says.
A limit to telomerase is that it benefits only cells that divide—and most neurons, the dominant type of cell in the brain, don't divide. If scientists could figure out a way to get telomerase even to the small portion of brain cells that do divide, there could be some brain benefit, according to Dr. Shay.
A related concern is the possibility of inadvertently creating or accelerating cancer if telomerase were administered throughout the body, including to cancerous or pre-cancerous cells. Somehow, cancer cells have telomeres that are just the right length and don't shorten—a perfection of the division process that allows cells to keep dividing, Dr. Shay says.
But if a telomerase-based therapy could be given to specific cells temporarily, say for a week or two, it could be a therapeutic "home run," repairing telomeres and allowing cells to keep dividing, Dr. Shay says. Such a therapy—which would actually occur on a patients' own cells grown in a lab dish—could help people with conditions where cells have been injured and have used up their allotment of telomeres, such as anemia or skin sores or conditions involving inflammation. Many cancer researchers are trying to figure out how to turn off telomerase and potentially treat cancer.
More than a decade ago, Drs. Shay and Wright's team showed they could immortalize human retinal and foreskin cells by adding the gene for telomerase into a virus and then "infecting" the cells. Inside the cells, the virus began producing telomerase, and the cells kept growing and dividing indefinitely. These cells, still active today, are used by researchers all over the country to study cancer and other diseases.
The Shay-Wright team published this work in Science in 1998. Since then, they have induced growth in epithelial cells, which are otherwise-normal, healthy cells from which cancer tends to develop. Previously, scientists had difficulty growing epithelial cells in a lab setting, which made studying cancer more difficult. Earlier this month, the Shay-Wright team published a paper in the journal Gastroenterology about immortalization of a line of epithelial colon cells, which can now be used to study colon cancer.
Telomerase appears particularly to promote growth of cells that are descendents of stem cells. Embryonic stem cells, the focus of research in a number of diseases, are undifferentiated cells that can develop into highly specialized cells. Many efforts are under way to figure out how to reverse adult stem cells back to their embryonic state—called "induced pluripotent" stem cells—so that they may be used to repair damaged tissues.
In experiments with lung cells, Drs. Shay and Wright are exploring how telomerase could be an alternative—and potentially easier—way of using stem cells to grow healthy tissue, without turning them all the way back to their embryonic state.
"We age for multiple, multiple, multiple reasons," says Dr. Wright. Telomeres account for only a "small fraction" of the aging process, but if strides could be made to improve healthy life even by a little bit, "that's a huge amount," he says[rc]
Shirley S. Wang
E-Mail: shirley.wang@wsj.com
Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Shirley S. Wang
E-Mail: shirley.wang@wsj.com
Copyright ©2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
USA: Raquel Welch on Oprah - Super at 69
.
BOSTON, Massachusetts / Gather.com / Entertainment / People / March 30, 2010
So all I have to say is Raquel Welch at 69 is looking so fine! I can only hope I look half as good on the verge of 70!
Raquel Welch on Oprah
By Kristen Douglas
So why is Raquel Welch such a hot topic as of recent? Well the sex symbol, for many decades, well known for the promo poster for movie One Million Years B.C. that has been featured on sexy-contemporary culture countdowns on channels like VH1 and in films like The Shawshank Redemption was on the Oprah show. On the show she opened up about plastic surgery and her nose job that she had before hitting Hollywood.
One of the main reasons she was on the show was to talk about staying a sex symbol ang aging gracefully, while still promoting her book: Beyond the Cleavage.
In the book she talks about anti-aging routine(s) and the importance of diet and exercise. She also talks about how she takes 3 hours to get ready. I'm sure she's worth the wait. She has a list of famous men: like Elvis Presley and Richard Burton, who've had the privilege of being associated with her and her sexiness.
If you didn't get a chance to see the show, here is a pic and you can also look up more information on www.oprah.com
[rc]
Copyright © 2010 Gather Inc
So all I have to say is Raquel Welch at 69 is looking so fine! I can only hope I look half as good on the verge of 70!
Raquel Welch on Oprah
By Kristen Douglas
So why is Raquel Welch such a hot topic as of recent? Well the sex symbol, for many decades, well known for the promo poster for movie One Million Years B.C. that has been featured on sexy-contemporary culture countdowns on channels like VH1 and in films like The Shawshank Redemption was on the Oprah show. On the show she opened up about plastic surgery and her nose job that she had before hitting Hollywood.
One of the main reasons she was on the show was to talk about staying a sex symbol ang aging gracefully, while still promoting her book: Beyond the Cleavage.
In the book she talks about anti-aging routine(s) and the importance of diet and exercise. She also talks about how she takes 3 hours to get ready. I'm sure she's worth the wait. She has a list of famous men: like Elvis Presley and Richard Burton, who've had the privilege of being associated with her and her sexiness.
If you didn't get a chance to see the show, here is a pic and you can also look up more information on www.oprah.com
[rc]
Copyright © 2010 Gather Inc
USA: Dan Duncan, Billionaire Philanthropist, Dies at 77
.
NEW YORK CITY / BusinessWeek / Bloomberg / March 30, 2010
By Joe Carroll and David Wethe
Dan L. Duncan, the Texas pipeline billionaire who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to hospitals, museums and wildlife associations, died March 28 at his home in Houston. He was 77.
Photo credit: WorldBuzzNow
During the past four decades, Duncan parlayed $10,000 and two fuel trucks into a trio of publicly traded entities with a combined market value of $29.2 billion. The biggest of the three, Enterprise Products Partners LP, returned 20 percent a year during the past decade, compared with 1 percent annual losses for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Houston-based Enterprise said the cause of Duncan’s death was unknown.
“People like him are irreplaceable,” said Mark Wallace, chief executive officer for Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Duncan and his wife made a “transformational gift” to the hospital in late 2007 for $50 million. “He will be remembered as one of the greatest philanthropists in the history of the Texas Medical Center,” Wallace said.
Duncan didn’t limit his involvement to writing checks, Wallace said. “I spent so many hours with him one on one talking about the medical center. That was one of the key differences in Dan Duncan. He wasn’t just behind the scenes.”
Duncan, who was chairman and the largest investor in Enterprise Products Partners when he died, ranked as the third- richest Texan by Forbes magazine this month, behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heir Alice Walton and Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell. Among U.S. billionaires, Duncan was No. 30.
Helping Everybody
Forbes estimated Duncan’s fortune at $9 billion. Beneficiaries of his generosity included the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas Heart Institute, the Boy Scouts of America, the Houston Zoo and Baylor College of Medicine, where he was diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer in 1995.
Richard Wainerdi, chief executive for the Texas Medical Center, estimated Duncan made $250 million in donations to hospitals and other institutions in the Texas Medical Center system during the past five years.
“He really wanted to help everybody,” said Wainerdi, who knew Duncan more than 10 years.
The Texas Medical Center, located on the edge of downtown Houston, is made up of 48 institutions and has 5.5 million patient visits a year, according to its Web site.
Top 50 Giver
“His philanthropy spread over many areas in Houston and beyond,” C. Kent Osborne, director of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a telephone interview. “In terms of Baylor, he was very generous, giving $100 million to the cancer center of which I’m the director. I’ll never forget he entrusted me and my colleagues at a very early stage before we had really proven ourselves.”
Duncan’s contributions to medical research, orphans and the poor amounted to $259 million from 2004 to 2008, landing him in the 38th spot on BusinessWeek’s Top 50 American Givers list. In addition to membership on university and museum boards, Duncan was an avid hunter and member of the Houston Safari Club.
His charitable endeavors included the 5,000-acre Double “D” Ranch in Texas, which introduces children to fishing and hunting, BusinessWeek said in a November 2008 article.
After forming Enterprise in 1968 to haul propane, Duncan expanded into crude-oil pipelines, fuel storage and natural-gas processing.
Teppco Deal
In October, Enterprise purchased another Duncan-controlled partnership, Teppco Partners LP, for about $3.3 billion. The acquisition swelled Enterprise’s asset base to 48,000 miles of pipelines and enough storage space to hold every barrel of oil imported into the U.S. over a three-week period.
Enterprise is the majority owner of the Independence Hub, a floating platform in the Gulf of Mexico that gathers gas from 15 wells reaching 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) beneath the sea surface. The company also operates a 4,700-mile pipeline that carries gasoline and diesel from refineries in Texas to markets in the U.S. Northeast.
As a master limited partnership, Enterprise relies on assets that generate steady cash flow used to make payouts to unit holders.
The executive teams overseeing Houston-based Enterprise Products, Enterprise GP Holdings LP and Duncan Energy Partners LP, will stay in their current roles, the partnership said yesterday in a statement. Enterprise Products is the largest U.S. pipeline partnership by market value.
Duncan is survived by his wife, Jan, as well as four children and four grandchildren, Enterprise said in the statement. [rc]
With assistance from Jordan Burke in New York.
Editors: Susan Warren, Tony Cox.
E-Mail: Joe Carroll in Chicago
jcarroll8@bloomberg.net
E-Mail: David Wethe in Houston
dwethe@bloomberg.net
©2010 Bloomberg L.P
Dan L. Duncan, the Texas pipeline billionaire who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to hospitals, museums and wildlife associations, died March 28 at his home in Houston. He was 77.
Photo credit: WorldBuzzNow
During the past four decades, Duncan parlayed $10,000 and two fuel trucks into a trio of publicly traded entities with a combined market value of $29.2 billion. The biggest of the three, Enterprise Products Partners LP, returned 20 percent a year during the past decade, compared with 1 percent annual losses for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Houston-based Enterprise said the cause of Duncan’s death was unknown.
“People like him are irreplaceable,” said Mark Wallace, chief executive officer for Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Duncan and his wife made a “transformational gift” to the hospital in late 2007 for $50 million. “He will be remembered as one of the greatest philanthropists in the history of the Texas Medical Center,” Wallace said.
Duncan didn’t limit his involvement to writing checks, Wallace said. “I spent so many hours with him one on one talking about the medical center. That was one of the key differences in Dan Duncan. He wasn’t just behind the scenes.”
Duncan, who was chairman and the largest investor in Enterprise Products Partners when he died, ranked as the third- richest Texan by Forbes magazine this month, behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heir Alice Walton and Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell. Among U.S. billionaires, Duncan was No. 30.
Helping Everybody
Forbes estimated Duncan’s fortune at $9 billion. Beneficiaries of his generosity included the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas Heart Institute, the Boy Scouts of America, the Houston Zoo and Baylor College of Medicine, where he was diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer in 1995.
Richard Wainerdi, chief executive for the Texas Medical Center, estimated Duncan made $250 million in donations to hospitals and other institutions in the Texas Medical Center system during the past five years.
“He really wanted to help everybody,” said Wainerdi, who knew Duncan more than 10 years.
The Texas Medical Center, located on the edge of downtown Houston, is made up of 48 institutions and has 5.5 million patient visits a year, according to its Web site.
Top 50 Giver
“His philanthropy spread over many areas in Houston and beyond,” C. Kent Osborne, director of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine, said in a telephone interview. “In terms of Baylor, he was very generous, giving $100 million to the cancer center of which I’m the director. I’ll never forget he entrusted me and my colleagues at a very early stage before we had really proven ourselves.”
Duncan’s contributions to medical research, orphans and the poor amounted to $259 million from 2004 to 2008, landing him in the 38th spot on BusinessWeek’s Top 50 American Givers list. In addition to membership on university and museum boards, Duncan was an avid hunter and member of the Houston Safari Club.
His charitable endeavors included the 5,000-acre Double “D” Ranch in Texas, which introduces children to fishing and hunting, BusinessWeek said in a November 2008 article.
After forming Enterprise in 1968 to haul propane, Duncan expanded into crude-oil pipelines, fuel storage and natural-gas processing.
Teppco Deal
In October, Enterprise purchased another Duncan-controlled partnership, Teppco Partners LP, for about $3.3 billion. The acquisition swelled Enterprise’s asset base to 48,000 miles of pipelines and enough storage space to hold every barrel of oil imported into the U.S. over a three-week period.
Enterprise is the majority owner of the Independence Hub, a floating platform in the Gulf of Mexico that gathers gas from 15 wells reaching 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) beneath the sea surface. The company also operates a 4,700-mile pipeline that carries gasoline and diesel from refineries in Texas to markets in the U.S. Northeast.
As a master limited partnership, Enterprise relies on assets that generate steady cash flow used to make payouts to unit holders.
The executive teams overseeing Houston-based Enterprise Products, Enterprise GP Holdings LP and Duncan Energy Partners LP, will stay in their current roles, the partnership said yesterday in a statement. Enterprise Products is the largest U.S. pipeline partnership by market value.
Duncan is survived by his wife, Jan, as well as four children and four grandchildren, Enterprise said in the statement. [rc]
With assistance from Jordan Burke in New York.
Editors: Susan Warren, Tony Cox.
E-Mail: Joe Carroll in Chicago
jcarroll8@bloomberg.net
E-Mail: David Wethe in Houston
dwethe@bloomberg.net
©2010 Bloomberg L.P
UK: Ministers must plug £2bn hole in social care budget, warns Age Concern
.
LONDON, England / The Telegraph / Social Care / March 30, 2010
Ministers must tackle an expected social care deficit of almost £2 billion before they are able to put proposed care reforms in place, an Age Concern director has warned.
By Rosa Prince, Political Correspondent
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, has admitted that the Government has abandoned plans for a new National Care Service providing free support for the elderly. In an embarrassing climbdown, ministers have scrapped advanced proposals for a compulsory scheme that would have been funded partly by a £20,000 "death tax".
Andrew Harrop, director of public policy at Age Concern said: "The problem with these proposals is, is there enough money to pay for them?"
Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY
Related Articles
Who should pay for care for the elderly?
Burnham: NHS plans most significant reform for 60 years
Blair under pressure to explain if he is avoiding taxes
Cameron ready to be as 'widely disliked' as Thatcher
Death tax to pay for elderly care is scrapped
Labour will do a better job of caring for the elderly
A Social Care White Paper to be published by Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, today will instead contain instead a watered-down package of reforms.
This will include an offer to pay the costs of residential care after two years and a commitment to push ahead with proposals that would provide free care in the home for those with the greatest health needs.
But Andrew Harrop, director of public policy at Age Concern, told the Today programme on Radio 4 on Tuesday: "The problem with these proposals is, is there enough money to pay for them?
"We really don't know whether these proposals will be funded adequately. Over the next two to three years alone with public spending cuts we could see a huge almost £2 billion hole open up in the care budget.
"So far we have only seen a few hundred million of new money promised. We need to have that hole closed over three years before we even look at the long term funding."
He added: "The politicians have to be frank about this. Over the next three years we think a hole of £1.75 billion is going to open up."
The climbdown was made amid fears in Cabinet that arguments over funding would lose votes at a general election due within a few weeks.
Mr Darling revealed that the Government had ruled out the tax when he was challenged by George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, during a televised debate on Channel 4 last night.
Mr Darling criticised the Conservatives for walking away from efforts to get a cross-party consensus on provision of care for the elderly, accusing them of trying to score political points.
But Mr Osborne insisted they had abandoned the effort because the Government's favoured option was unacceptable.
"I just do not think it is fair to have a 10 per cent death tax on people. I am afraid the Conservative Party will not be supporting that option."
He then went on to press Mr Darling over whether the proposal would be included in the Government's White Paper on social care, being published today.
"It's a simple question," Mr Osborne said. "Is that an option that a Labour government, if elected in four to five weeks' time, will keep on the table?"
Mr Darling replied: "No, it is not."
Mr Osborne raised laughter from the audience of the Channel 4-hosted debate by quipping: "I've been accused of not agreeing with him, and it's an option he has ruled out."
For more than a decade, the Government has promised to find a solution to the growing problem of how to fund long-term care for the elderly.
At the Labour Party conference last September, Gordon Brown announced proposals for a National Care Service, modelled on the NHS, to provide help regardless of a person’s income.
The watered down White Paper will also promise to remove the "postcode lottery" whereby local councils set criteria to decide who qualifies for free care, which can differ wildly.
No details will be provided on funding. Mr Burnham will say instead that a Royal Commission will be appointed to draw up proposals for a care service after 2015.
It will be given the task of setting out how the scheme will be funded – sparing Labour the prospect of fighting an election on a manifesto including an unpopular new tax.
The changes will be seen as a humiliation for the Health Secretary, who had hoped that plans for a National Care Service would be at the heart of Labour’s campaign to win a fourth term.
Department of Health officials had worked out detailed proposals, with elderly people offered a choice of three payment options – a 10 per cent levy on estates after death, delaying retirement by a year, or a monthly tax.
Labour was alarmed, however, when the Conservatives accused the Prime Minister of planning a £20,000 inheritance "death tax" on all estates.
Mr Burnham was forced to strip out any references to compulsory payments from the White Paper after his colleagues warned that they were an "electoral liability".
Plans to scrap disability benefits were also dumped, amid fears that carers and disabled voters would punish Labour at the ballot box.
The Government is still likely to face criticism for not facing up to the problem of caring for the ageing population. Labour ignored the findings of a Royal Commission into long-term care that reported in 1999 when Tony Blair, who was prime minister, said he did not want to live in a country where people had to sell their homes to pay for care.
The pledge to pick up the cost after two years of residential care — paid for by Alistair Darling’s freezing of the inheritance tax threshold — will allow Labour to claim that Mr Blair’s challenge has been met.
However, the average stay in a residential home is two years for a man, and three years for a woman, meaning many elderly people will not live long enough to have their care paid for.
Ministers will argue that most people on medium incomes have sufficient savings to avoid selling their homes until they have been in care for about two years, while low earners already have their support paid for.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "In 1997 Labour promised to end the scandal of people having to sell their homes to pay for care.
Thirteen years have passed while they did nothing to improve our unfair care system, but now just 13 days before the election campaign starts they are rushing out these proposals.
Labour seems to care more about playing politics than sorting out the care system."
The Tories propose a voluntary scheme, which people would pay £8,000 to join on retirement.
Mr Burnham proposes that social care reforms come in two phases, with the requirements of the "most needy" being addressed in the next parliament. rc]
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2010
Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, has admitted that the Government has abandoned plans for a new National Care Service providing free support for the elderly. In an embarrassing climbdown, ministers have scrapped advanced proposals for a compulsory scheme that would have been funded partly by a £20,000 "death tax".
Andrew Harrop, director of public policy at Age Concern said: "The problem with these proposals is, is there enough money to pay for them?"
Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY
Related Articles
Who should pay for care for the elderly?
Burnham: NHS plans most significant reform for 60 years
Blair under pressure to explain if he is avoiding taxes
Cameron ready to be as 'widely disliked' as Thatcher
Death tax to pay for elderly care is scrapped
Labour will do a better job of caring for the elderly
A Social Care White Paper to be published by Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, today will instead contain instead a watered-down package of reforms.
This will include an offer to pay the costs of residential care after two years and a commitment to push ahead with proposals that would provide free care in the home for those with the greatest health needs.
But Andrew Harrop, director of public policy at Age Concern, told the Today programme on Radio 4 on Tuesday: "The problem with these proposals is, is there enough money to pay for them?
"We really don't know whether these proposals will be funded adequately. Over the next two to three years alone with public spending cuts we could see a huge almost £2 billion hole open up in the care budget.
"So far we have only seen a few hundred million of new money promised. We need to have that hole closed over three years before we even look at the long term funding."
He added: "The politicians have to be frank about this. Over the next three years we think a hole of £1.75 billion is going to open up."
The climbdown was made amid fears in Cabinet that arguments over funding would lose votes at a general election due within a few weeks.
Mr Darling revealed that the Government had ruled out the tax when he was challenged by George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, during a televised debate on Channel 4 last night.
Mr Darling criticised the Conservatives for walking away from efforts to get a cross-party consensus on provision of care for the elderly, accusing them of trying to score political points.
But Mr Osborne insisted they had abandoned the effort because the Government's favoured option was unacceptable.
"I just do not think it is fair to have a 10 per cent death tax on people. I am afraid the Conservative Party will not be supporting that option."
He then went on to press Mr Darling over whether the proposal would be included in the Government's White Paper on social care, being published today.
"It's a simple question," Mr Osborne said. "Is that an option that a Labour government, if elected in four to five weeks' time, will keep on the table?"
Mr Darling replied: "No, it is not."
Mr Osborne raised laughter from the audience of the Channel 4-hosted debate by quipping: "I've been accused of not agreeing with him, and it's an option he has ruled out."
For more than a decade, the Government has promised to find a solution to the growing problem of how to fund long-term care for the elderly.
At the Labour Party conference last September, Gordon Brown announced proposals for a National Care Service, modelled on the NHS, to provide help regardless of a person’s income.
The watered down White Paper will also promise to remove the "postcode lottery" whereby local councils set criteria to decide who qualifies for free care, which can differ wildly.
No details will be provided on funding. Mr Burnham will say instead that a Royal Commission will be appointed to draw up proposals for a care service after 2015.
It will be given the task of setting out how the scheme will be funded – sparing Labour the prospect of fighting an election on a manifesto including an unpopular new tax.
The changes will be seen as a humiliation for the Health Secretary, who had hoped that plans for a National Care Service would be at the heart of Labour’s campaign to win a fourth term.
Department of Health officials had worked out detailed proposals, with elderly people offered a choice of three payment options – a 10 per cent levy on estates after death, delaying retirement by a year, or a monthly tax.
Labour was alarmed, however, when the Conservatives accused the Prime Minister of planning a £20,000 inheritance "death tax" on all estates.
Mr Burnham was forced to strip out any references to compulsory payments from the White Paper after his colleagues warned that they were an "electoral liability".
Plans to scrap disability benefits were also dumped, amid fears that carers and disabled voters would punish Labour at the ballot box.
The Government is still likely to face criticism for not facing up to the problem of caring for the ageing population. Labour ignored the findings of a Royal Commission into long-term care that reported in 1999 when Tony Blair, who was prime minister, said he did not want to live in a country where people had to sell their homes to pay for care.
The pledge to pick up the cost after two years of residential care — paid for by Alistair Darling’s freezing of the inheritance tax threshold — will allow Labour to claim that Mr Blair’s challenge has been met.
However, the average stay in a residential home is two years for a man, and three years for a woman, meaning many elderly people will not live long enough to have their care paid for.
Ministers will argue that most people on medium incomes have sufficient savings to avoid selling their homes until they have been in care for about two years, while low earners already have their support paid for.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "In 1997 Labour promised to end the scandal of people having to sell their homes to pay for care.
Thirteen years have passed while they did nothing to improve our unfair care system, but now just 13 days before the election campaign starts they are rushing out these proposals.
Labour seems to care more about playing politics than sorting out the care system."
The Tories propose a voluntary scheme, which people would pay £8,000 to join on retirement.
Mr Burnham proposes that social care reforms come in two phases, with the requirements of the "most needy" being addressed in the next parliament. rc]
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2010
USA: Consumer Reports offer a guide for making the most of old age
.
WASHINGTON / Washington Post / Health / Men / Reports / March 30, 2010
Consumer Reports Insights
Adopting healthful habits can significantly alter the course of aging, even if you don't start until you are middle-aged or older, growing research suggests.
As more people live into their 80s, 90s and beyond, researchers are increasingly asking what it takes not just to survive but also to thrive in later years. Here is Consumer Reports' guide to successful aging.
Exercise, both physical and mental, has beneficial effects on people as they grow older. (Bigstockphoto)
Exercise your brain.
Your brain needs a workout just as much as your arms and legs. Education and an active work life when you are younger can help ward off dementia later, perhaps by building a cognitive reserve so that small losses in function are not as noticeable. It may be equally important to stay mentally engaged after retirement. A study of about 500 men and women 75 and older published in the journal Neurology in 2009 found that they could delay cognitive decline by participating in mentally stimulating activities such as reading, writing and doing puzzles.
Strong social ties can also help.
Harvard researchers followed 16,638 adults 50 and older for six years. Those who volunteered the most and had lots of connections to family and friends were least likely to show declines in memory tests.
Keep eyes and ears sharp.
Vision and hearing tests by specialists should be a regular part of your anti-aging plan. Sight-threatening diseases that are more common with age, including cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration, can be controlled or halted if caught early. Hearing loss, the third most common chronic condition in older Americans, can contribute to cognitive decline, depression and social isolation, and can even signal an increased risk of other health problems such as Type 2 diabetes or stroke.
To reduce your risk of eye disease, avoid tobacco smoke, wear sunglasses, maintain a healthy weight and control high blood pressure and blood sugar levels. To reduce the risk of hearing loss, consider using earplugs in situations noisy enough that you have to raise your voice to be heard.
Stay young at heart.
Undiagnosed vascular disease -- clogged arteries in the heart, brain or legs -- may lead to disability not only by triggering heart attacks and strokes but also by causing frailty, weakness and unplanned weight loss, according to findings from the Cardiovascular Health Study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and involved about 4,700 people 65 and older. So work with your doctor to keep blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels under control even as you get into your 70s and beyond.
Guard your gut.
People turning 60 now may actually face a higher risk of disability than those who reached that age a decade or two ago, possibly because more people today are overweight. So if you are in your 40s, 50s or 60s, you should be especially vigilant against creeping weight gain.
Strengthen your back.
Back pain is the nation's second-leading cause of disability, trailing only arthritis. Being able to stand straight and remain free of crippling lower-back pain in later years depends on maintaining the strength of the bones in your spine as well as the muscles that support them. Exercises that work muscles in the back and abdomen, such as abdominal curls and trunk extensions, may also help prevent spinal fractures. And activities such as Pilates and yoga can help ease back pain.
Protect hips and knees.
Exercise is also a key to helping prevent or alleviate arthritis and joint pain. Resistance training doing calisthenics or using elastic bands, free weights or weight machines strengthens the muscles. That, in turn, protects the joints and makes them more stable.
Stay steady on your feet.
The fear of falling often causes anxiety, and with good reason: About 30 percent of people older than 65 and half of those 80 and older have fallen at some point. Build strong legs by doing strength exercises two to three times weekly.
Sleep well, age well.
"The idea that people need and want less sleep as they get older is a myth," says Harrison Bloom, a physician who is a senior associate with the International Longevity Center USA in New York. But it is true that the type of sleep they get often changes. "People may not sleep as deeply as they did when they were young, and they may awaken more frequently," Bloom says. That disturbed sleep increases the risk of conditions such as cardiovascular disease, depression and hypertension.
Health conditions that impair sleep, such as sleep apnea, are often independent problems that respond to treatment. Your physician should periodically question both you and your bed partner about your sleep habits at routine exams, referring you to a specialist if warranted. [rc]
Copyright 2010. Consumers Union of United States Inc.
Adopting healthful habits can significantly alter the course of aging, even if you don't start until you are middle-aged or older, growing research suggests.
As more people live into their 80s, 90s and beyond, researchers are increasingly asking what it takes not just to survive but also to thrive in later years. Here is Consumer Reports' guide to successful aging.
Exercise, both physical and mental, has beneficial effects on people as they grow older. (Bigstockphoto)
Exercise your brain.
Your brain needs a workout just as much as your arms and legs. Education and an active work life when you are younger can help ward off dementia later, perhaps by building a cognitive reserve so that small losses in function are not as noticeable. It may be equally important to stay mentally engaged after retirement. A study of about 500 men and women 75 and older published in the journal Neurology in 2009 found that they could delay cognitive decline by participating in mentally stimulating activities such as reading, writing and doing puzzles.
Strong social ties can also help.
Harvard researchers followed 16,638 adults 50 and older for six years. Those who volunteered the most and had lots of connections to family and friends were least likely to show declines in memory tests.
Keep eyes and ears sharp.
Vision and hearing tests by specialists should be a regular part of your anti-aging plan. Sight-threatening diseases that are more common with age, including cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration, can be controlled or halted if caught early. Hearing loss, the third most common chronic condition in older Americans, can contribute to cognitive decline, depression and social isolation, and can even signal an increased risk of other health problems such as Type 2 diabetes or stroke.
To reduce your risk of eye disease, avoid tobacco smoke, wear sunglasses, maintain a healthy weight and control high blood pressure and blood sugar levels. To reduce the risk of hearing loss, consider using earplugs in situations noisy enough that you have to raise your voice to be heard.
Stay young at heart.
Undiagnosed vascular disease -- clogged arteries in the heart, brain or legs -- may lead to disability not only by triggering heart attacks and strokes but also by causing frailty, weakness and unplanned weight loss, according to findings from the Cardiovascular Health Study, which was funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and involved about 4,700 people 65 and older. So work with your doctor to keep blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels under control even as you get into your 70s and beyond.
Guard your gut.
People turning 60 now may actually face a higher risk of disability than those who reached that age a decade or two ago, possibly because more people today are overweight. So if you are in your 40s, 50s or 60s, you should be especially vigilant against creeping weight gain.
Strengthen your back.
Back pain is the nation's second-leading cause of disability, trailing only arthritis. Being able to stand straight and remain free of crippling lower-back pain in later years depends on maintaining the strength of the bones in your spine as well as the muscles that support them. Exercises that work muscles in the back and abdomen, such as abdominal curls and trunk extensions, may also help prevent spinal fractures. And activities such as Pilates and yoga can help ease back pain.
Protect hips and knees.
Exercise is also a key to helping prevent or alleviate arthritis and joint pain. Resistance training doing calisthenics or using elastic bands, free weights or weight machines strengthens the muscles. That, in turn, protects the joints and makes them more stable.
Stay steady on your feet.
The fear of falling often causes anxiety, and with good reason: About 30 percent of people older than 65 and half of those 80 and older have fallen at some point. Build strong legs by doing strength exercises two to three times weekly.
Sleep well, age well.
"The idea that people need and want less sleep as they get older is a myth," says Harrison Bloom, a physician who is a senior associate with the International Longevity Center USA in New York. But it is true that the type of sleep they get often changes. "People may not sleep as deeply as they did when they were young, and they may awaken more frequently," Bloom says. That disturbed sleep increases the risk of conditions such as cardiovascular disease, depression and hypertension.
Health conditions that impair sleep, such as sleep apnea, are often independent problems that respond to treatment. Your physician should periodically question both you and your bed partner about your sleep habits at routine exams, referring you to a specialist if warranted. [rc]
Copyright 2010. Consumers Union of United States Inc.
AUSTRALIA: Fortunes to change hands as boomers hit the home stretch
.
SYDNEY, NSW / The Australian / Business / Property / March 30, 2010
By Lanai Vasek, The Australian
MORE than $400 billion of housing stock will change hands in Australia over the next 15 years as the parents of the baby boomers, and then the boomers themselves, shuffle off the mortal coil and leave their property to their children.
It will be the biggest intergenerational wealth transfer in Australia's history, according to a report released yesterday by Bankwest.
Rising property prices, an ageing population and high home-ownership rates are expected to boost the pick-up in housing inheritance as a large number of "veterans" (people now aged 70 and above), followed by the boomers, succumb to old age and pass on a vast pool of property assets to their adult children.
The transfer could create a new wave of prosperity but may do nothing to alleviate the supply-side bottlenecks plaguing the housing sector and driving up prices for home buyers.
The Bankwest Financial Indicator Series report says one in every 10 Australian homes will be given away by 2025, representing an "unprecedented baton change in intergeneration wealth".
Bankwest Retail chief executive Vittoria Shortt said the research forecast a 95 per cent increase in the number of estates with housing assets by 2025.
"Baby boomers and generation Xers are likely to be the main beneficiaries, which should help to fund their retirement plans and consolidate their financial positions," Ms Shortt said.
Those in capital cities would realise the biggest gains from housing inheritance, with the largest projections for Sydney ($113bn), followed by Melbourne ($86bn), Brisbane ($33bn) and Perth ($33bn).
Real Estate Institute of Australia president David Airey said while the transfer of wealth was "significant" it would not help ease supply issues in the housing sector. "It will simply be making those people who inherit these assets very wealthy," Mr Airey said.
Ms Shortt said there were still some factors that could reduce housing wealth projections, including aged-care costs and older people extracting equity from their homes.
"It's no secret that many boomers are determined to cling to a lost youth," she said.
"They might decide to sell their property and go out with a bang, rather than sit on a huge asset and pass it on to their adult children."
Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association policy co-ordinator Charmaine Crowe said if the cost of aged care continued to grow, many older home owners would be forced to sell their assets, reducing the amount passed on to children.
"Most people are paying on average a $200,000-$300,000 bond just to get into aged-care facilities, with some paying up to $1 million," Ms Crowe said. "If costs keep growing, which we expect they will, then the reality is not all of this wealth will be passed on to younger generations." [rc]
Copyright 2010 News Limited.
MORE than $400 billion of housing stock will change hands in Australia over the next 15 years as the parents of the baby boomers, and then the boomers themselves, shuffle off the mortal coil and leave their property to their children.
It will be the biggest intergenerational wealth transfer in Australia's history, according to a report released yesterday by Bankwest.
Rising property prices, an ageing population and high home-ownership rates are expected to boost the pick-up in housing inheritance as a large number of "veterans" (people now aged 70 and above), followed by the boomers, succumb to old age and pass on a vast pool of property assets to their adult children.
The transfer could create a new wave of prosperity but may do nothing to alleviate the supply-side bottlenecks plaguing the housing sector and driving up prices for home buyers.
The Bankwest Financial Indicator Series report says one in every 10 Australian homes will be given away by 2025, representing an "unprecedented baton change in intergeneration wealth".
Bankwest Retail chief executive Vittoria Shortt said the research forecast a 95 per cent increase in the number of estates with housing assets by 2025.
"Baby boomers and generation Xers are likely to be the main beneficiaries, which should help to fund their retirement plans and consolidate their financial positions," Ms Shortt said.
Those in capital cities would realise the biggest gains from housing inheritance, with the largest projections for Sydney ($113bn), followed by Melbourne ($86bn), Brisbane ($33bn) and Perth ($33bn).
Real Estate Institute of Australia president David Airey said while the transfer of wealth was "significant" it would not help ease supply issues in the housing sector. "It will simply be making those people who inherit these assets very wealthy," Mr Airey said.
Ms Shortt said there were still some factors that could reduce housing wealth projections, including aged-care costs and older people extracting equity from their homes.
"It's no secret that many boomers are determined to cling to a lost youth," she said.
"They might decide to sell their property and go out with a bang, rather than sit on a huge asset and pass it on to their adult children."
Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association policy co-ordinator Charmaine Crowe said if the cost of aged care continued to grow, many older home owners would be forced to sell their assets, reducing the amount passed on to children.
"Most people are paying on average a $200,000-$300,000 bond just to get into aged-care facilities, with some paying up to $1 million," Ms Crowe said. "If costs keep growing, which we expect they will, then the reality is not all of this wealth will be passed on to younger generations." [rc]
Copyright 2010 News Limited.
INDIA: Health mission takes up old-age related health problems
.
MYSORE, Karnataka / Star of Mysore / News / March 30, 2010
A two-day campaign on 'Geriatrics- Health for the Aged' organised by the Government Ayurveda College under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) began at JSS Educational Institutions auditorium in Suttur this morning.
The NRHM envisages to bring AYUSH forms of ancient medical practices to the mainstream of public health sector. Experts in the field of medicine, education, administrative officers of the AYUSH departments, doctors, representatives of various voluntary organisations and PG students of various Ayurveda colleges in State are participating.
They will be presenting papers on safeguarding health of the aged persons, food habits, mental and social problems faced by elderly, role of Ayurveda and other ancient forms of medicine in preventing age-related ailments and their treatment etc.
MP Dhruvanarayan inaugurated the function in presence of Suttur Seer Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji, as the Health Minister Ramachandra Gowda did not turn up. MLA Siddharamaiah was chief guest.
Zilla Panchayat President Dharmendra, AYUSH Director G.S. Srikantaiah, Mysore Ayurveda College Principal Ashok. T. Sathputhe and others were present on the occasion.
About Geriatrics: is a sub-specialty of medicine that focuses on health care of the elderly. Geriatrics was separated from internal medicine as a distinct entity in the same way that neonatology was separated from pediatrics.
There is no set age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician. It is determined by a profile of the typical problems that geriatrics focus on.
The term geriatrics differs from gerontology which is the study of the aging process itself. The term comes from the Greek geron meaning 'old man' and iatros meaning 'healer'. [rc]
© 2003-2004, Star Of Mysore
MP Dhruvanarayan inaugurated the function in presence of Suttur Seer Sri Shivarathri Deshikendra Swamiji, as the Health Minister Ramachandra Gowda did not turn up. MLA Siddharamaiah was chief guest.
Zilla Panchayat President Dharmendra, AYUSH Director G.S. Srikantaiah, Mysore Ayurveda College Principal Ashok. T. Sathputhe and others were present on the occasion.
About Geriatrics: is a sub-specialty of medicine that focuses on health care of the elderly. Geriatrics was separated from internal medicine as a distinct entity in the same way that neonatology was separated from pediatrics.
There is no set age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician. It is determined by a profile of the typical problems that geriatrics focus on.
The term geriatrics differs from gerontology which is the study of the aging process itself. The term comes from the Greek geron meaning 'old man' and iatros meaning 'healer'. [rc]
© 2003-2004, Star Of Mysore
INDIA: Keeping cool with cucumbers
.
DOHA, Qatar / Gulf Times / India News / March 30, 2010
Roadside vendor Mangal Kumar sells cucumbers
in the northern city of Amritsar yesterday. A kilogram
of cucumber sells for Rs10 rupees, with Kumar
earning about Rs100 to 150 daily. Cucumbers are
in heavy demand during the summer season.
$1 = Rs.46
Gulf-Times.com © 2009-2010
Roadside vendor Mangal Kumar sells cucumbers
in the northern city of Amritsar yesterday. A kilogram
of cucumber sells for Rs10 rupees, with Kumar
earning about Rs100 to 150 daily. Cucumbers are
in heavy demand during the summer season.
$1 = Rs.46
Gulf-Times.com © 2009-2010
March 29, 2010
HONG KONG: `Suzie' shows how to age gracefully
.
HONG KONG / The Standard / March 29, 2010
By Jacqueline Pang
I wasn't born when Nancy Kwan reached the pinnacle of her acting career. I'm not a fan, and have only watched The World of Suzie Wong once [frankly more because of William Holden].
The success of her later films, such as Flower Drum Song, is to me largely hearsay.
I've heard people talking about her documentary, To Whom it May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey, but only started looking forward to it lately after reading interviews she gave during her recent trip back to her native Hong Kong.
To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey.
Nancy Kwan (born May 19, 1939), now 70, she has had a rich life, and built up quite a resume - graduation from the Royal Ballet School in England, with a certificate to teach; the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer; Golden Ring Award; and interestingly, her recognition as style icon for the Vidal Sassoon bob! But like everyone else, she has reasons to be sad: two divorces and the death of her only son at 33.
Related reports
Bangkok Post: Actress Nancy Kwan speaks outside the re-built Luk Kwok hotel, a former waterfront location where she filmed the movie 'The World of Suzy Wong', in Hong Kong. Hotel employees appear incredulous at Kwan's unexpected appearance as an AFP photographer snaps pictures of the former screen siren, born to a Chinese father and Scottish mother.
The New York Times: Heady Days for Hong Kong Women
Instead of complaining, she remains energetic and active. She still acts [did you know she played a role in the TV series ER?] and is politically active.
While here, she criticized the tearing down of colonial buildings and the ever-shrinking Victoria Harbour.
Her philosophy is simple: "I was very lucky. Everything in life is about timing, and if it's not meant to happen, I don't care what you do, it's not going to happen."
I guess this is the key to aging gracefully. [rc]
TV hostess and disc jockey Jacqueline Pang takes the passing years in her stride.
© 2010 The Standard, The Standard Newspapers Publishing Ltd..
By Jacqueline Pang
I wasn't born when Nancy Kwan reached the pinnacle of her acting career. I'm not a fan, and have only watched The World of Suzie Wong once [frankly more because of William Holden].
The success of her later films, such as Flower Drum Song, is to me largely hearsay.
I've heard people talking about her documentary, To Whom it May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey, but only started looking forward to it lately after reading interviews she gave during her recent trip back to her native Hong Kong.
To Whom It May Concern: Ka Shen's Journey.
Nancy Kwan (born May 19, 1939), now 70, she has had a rich life, and built up quite a resume - graduation from the Royal Ballet School in England, with a certificate to teach; the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer; Golden Ring Award; and interestingly, her recognition as style icon for the Vidal Sassoon bob! But like everyone else, she has reasons to be sad: two divorces and the death of her only son at 33.
Related reports
Bangkok Post: Actress Nancy Kwan speaks outside the re-built Luk Kwok hotel, a former waterfront location where she filmed the movie 'The World of Suzy Wong', in Hong Kong. Hotel employees appear incredulous at Kwan's unexpected appearance as an AFP photographer snaps pictures of the former screen siren, born to a Chinese father and Scottish mother.
The New York Times: Heady Days for Hong Kong Women
Instead of complaining, she remains energetic and active. She still acts [did you know she played a role in the TV series ER?] and is politically active.
While here, she criticized the tearing down of colonial buildings and the ever-shrinking Victoria Harbour.
Her philosophy is simple: "I was very lucky. Everything in life is about timing, and if it's not meant to happen, I don't care what you do, it's not going to happen."
I guess this is the key to aging gracefully. [rc]
TV hostess and disc jockey Jacqueline Pang takes the passing years in her stride.
© 2010 The Standard, The Standard Newspapers Publishing Ltd..
USA: The Elder' Storytelling Place is Moving!
.
PORTLAND, Maine / Time Goes By / The Elder Storytelling Place / March 29, 2010
By Ronni Bennett,
The TGB Proprietor
Finding a New Home (Again)
Early tomorrow morning, I will board an airplane headed for Portland, Oregon. My goal, over the next three or four days is to find a new home.
Portland, Oregon is what most people think of as a home town; it is the place where I was born almost exactly 69 years ago although, if I had not filled out hundreds of forms in the intervening years requesting the name of my birthplace, I doubt I would attach undue importance to that fact.
Oh, there was family there, now diminished to one brother, but I was always willing to embrace any of the eight other cities I have lived in as home – until life, and I, moved on.
This latest, in Maine, has not worked out for me – one of the larger of my life's mistakes. This city (population 60,000 or so) is too small, too quiet for a woman whose spiritual sense of place will always be New York City, Greenwich Village in particular. I was priced out of it four years ago and, being nothing if not a practical sort, have found some contentment in the memories collected there over 40 years.
(Sometimes I take a mental walk about my New York neighborhood, taking pleasure in all the details of the buildings, businesses, shops and restaurants along with the historical facts I amassed during my time there.)
I don't regret my four years in Portland, Maine. It's been another kind of adventure, but it is time to make a more suitable life now and I am fortunate that even during the housing crisis, my apartment's location, condition and attractiveness made for a quick sale at a price, with careful budgeting, that allows me to make this move.
When I visited Portland, Oregon in 2007, I loved the liveliness in its downtown on a summer evening. It felt like a version of Manhattan. Walking the length of a city block or two, I passed dozens of people – something that doesn't happen walking for a mile or more here. The people and the laughter and the hubbub of conversation spilling out of restaurants and bars energized me.
In contemplating a move to Portland, Oregon over the past couple of years, I found myself drawn to the grandeur of its natural setting that I recall from childhood. The towering Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens visible from the city; the denseness of the forests; and the crashing of the Pacific Ocean surf just 90 miles away. (Maybe there is more to the idea of home as one's childhood place than I am giving credit to.)
As emotionally charged as the word “home” is with the ideas of comfort, settledness, refuge, the core of one's daily life, it is the practicalities that have consumed me as I have combed the real estate listings during recent weeks preparing for this move.
Like many elders, my circumstances - thanks to the banksters - are diminished a great deal from when I moved to Portland, Maine four years ago. There is no money this time for built-in bookshelves and new vinyl windows, should my selection need them. So I have concentrated on properties that will need little, if any, work that I can't do myself.
Portland, Oregon is primarily a city of single family homes and there are, in our distressed housing market, many attractive ones to choose from. Most, however, have humongously large yards touted in the listings as a plus. Puh-leeze. I don't intend to spend my remaining years mowing a lawn.
And, because my income is limited, any large repair job – a new roof or heating system, for example – would nearly impoverish me. So I settled on a condominium where such expenses are shared. This reduces the number of choices a great deal. Another consideration is my age and the health issues I may acquire in time, so I eliminated many two-floor apartments and those with a lot of steps to the front door.
Others had to be dropped from consideration because they are short sales – priced lower than the owner's mortgage balance. These, I am well assured, can take six or eight months to close, time I don't have and if I did, I feel uncomfortable benefiting from someone else's despair.
Further, I want to be able to walk to the store. Driving here in Portland, Maine for no more than a forgotten quart of milk or bulb of garlic irritates me every time it happens. And I must consider nearby public transportation should the day arrive when I need to turn in my car keys. Fortunately, Portland, Oregon's transportation system is, relative to its size, nearly as good as New York City's.
So, after hours that probably mount up to a couple of 24-hour days, I have whittled down my choices for this trip to 14 condominiums (condominia?). My real estate agent did drive-bys over the weekend to remove any that, as The Elder Storytelling Place contributor, Nancy Leitz put it to me in an email, are next door to Joe's Python Farm.
It is odd, today, as I look at the printouts of those 14 properties, to know that one will probably become my new home. None of them feel like a place of comfort and refuge right now but I have no doubt, as I always have in the past, that I will make it so.[rc]
© 2010 Ronni Bennett.
By Ronni Bennett,
The TGB Proprietor
Finding a New Home (Again)
Early tomorrow morning, I will board an airplane headed for Portland, Oregon. My goal, over the next three or four days is to find a new home.
Portland, Oregon is what most people think of as a home town; it is the place where I was born almost exactly 69 years ago although, if I had not filled out hundreds of forms in the intervening years requesting the name of my birthplace, I doubt I would attach undue importance to that fact.
Oh, there was family there, now diminished to one brother, but I was always willing to embrace any of the eight other cities I have lived in as home – until life, and I, moved on.
This latest, in Maine, has not worked out for me – one of the larger of my life's mistakes. This city (population 60,000 or so) is too small, too quiet for a woman whose spiritual sense of place will always be New York City, Greenwich Village in particular. I was priced out of it four years ago and, being nothing if not a practical sort, have found some contentment in the memories collected there over 40 years.
(Sometimes I take a mental walk about my New York neighborhood, taking pleasure in all the details of the buildings, businesses, shops and restaurants along with the historical facts I amassed during my time there.)
I don't regret my four years in Portland, Maine. It's been another kind of adventure, but it is time to make a more suitable life now and I am fortunate that even during the housing crisis, my apartment's location, condition and attractiveness made for a quick sale at a price, with careful budgeting, that allows me to make this move.
When I visited Portland, Oregon in 2007, I loved the liveliness in its downtown on a summer evening. It felt like a version of Manhattan. Walking the length of a city block or two, I passed dozens of people – something that doesn't happen walking for a mile or more here. The people and the laughter and the hubbub of conversation spilling out of restaurants and bars energized me.
In contemplating a move to Portland, Oregon over the past couple of years, I found myself drawn to the grandeur of its natural setting that I recall from childhood. The towering Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens visible from the city; the denseness of the forests; and the crashing of the Pacific Ocean surf just 90 miles away. (Maybe there is more to the idea of home as one's childhood place than I am giving credit to.)
As emotionally charged as the word “home” is with the ideas of comfort, settledness, refuge, the core of one's daily life, it is the practicalities that have consumed me as I have combed the real estate listings during recent weeks preparing for this move.
Like many elders, my circumstances - thanks to the banksters - are diminished a great deal from when I moved to Portland, Maine four years ago. There is no money this time for built-in bookshelves and new vinyl windows, should my selection need them. So I have concentrated on properties that will need little, if any, work that I can't do myself.
Portland, Oregon is primarily a city of single family homes and there are, in our distressed housing market, many attractive ones to choose from. Most, however, have humongously large yards touted in the listings as a plus. Puh-leeze. I don't intend to spend my remaining years mowing a lawn.
And, because my income is limited, any large repair job – a new roof or heating system, for example – would nearly impoverish me. So I settled on a condominium where such expenses are shared. This reduces the number of choices a great deal. Another consideration is my age and the health issues I may acquire in time, so I eliminated many two-floor apartments and those with a lot of steps to the front door.
Others had to be dropped from consideration because they are short sales – priced lower than the owner's mortgage balance. These, I am well assured, can take six or eight months to close, time I don't have and if I did, I feel uncomfortable benefiting from someone else's despair.
Further, I want to be able to walk to the store. Driving here in Portland, Maine for no more than a forgotten quart of milk or bulb of garlic irritates me every time it happens. And I must consider nearby public transportation should the day arrive when I need to turn in my car keys. Fortunately, Portland, Oregon's transportation system is, relative to its size, nearly as good as New York City's.
So, after hours that probably mount up to a couple of 24-hour days, I have whittled down my choices for this trip to 14 condominiums (condominia?). My real estate agent did drive-bys over the weekend to remove any that, as The Elder Storytelling Place contributor, Nancy Leitz put it to me in an email, are next door to Joe's Python Farm.
It is odd, today, as I look at the printouts of those 14 properties, to know that one will probably become my new home. None of them feel like a place of comfort and refuge right now but I have no doubt, as I always have in the past, that I will make it so.[rc]
© 2010 Ronni Bennett.
EUROPE: Walker's World - Europe's Crisis Of Aging
.
PARIS, France / Walker's World / March 29, 2010
By Martin Walker, UPI Editor Emeritus
Walker's World
The euro crisis may have been resolved by the deal reached with the international Monetary Fund to support the embattled Greeks. But there is one clear and profound result of the deal; the issue of retirement ages and funding for Europe's pensions is now high on the agenda of Europe's governments.
The mantra German commentators and radio talk shows kept repeating was that it was simply absurd for Germans to work until they were 67 so Greeks could continue to retire at the age of 62. And the harsh cuts imposed on Greek public spending by their eurozone partners as the price of support mean that Greece cannot afford to continue is current generous pension system.
Moreover, a precedent has been established by last week's EU summit that similar harsh terms will be imposed on any other EU government that seeks financial support from its partners. With Portugal, Spain and Italy also facing severe debt problems, very tight squeeze is coming on public spending. This certainly constrains Europe's traditionally generous welfare states.
The simplest way to adapt to that strain is to raise the retirement age, particularly for those southern countries that tend both to have the biggest fiscal problems and to start paying pensions earlier.
This has already begun in northern Europe. In the 1990s, the traditional retirement age in Italy, France and Germany was 60. This was very early, considering that life expectancy is approaching 80 and that modern diets and medicine allow many people to continue working well into their 70s. An increase of the retirement age to 65, which is being progressively introduced in Germany, would sharply reduce the number of retirees who depend on the employed for support. A retirement age of 70 in Germany would virtually end the problem, at least until life expectancy rose as high as 90 years.
The work force participation rate in Germany (and much of continental Europe) is relatively low. Not only do Europeans retire on the early side but the generous social welfare system allows others to withdraw from work earlier in life. An increase in employment would boost revenues flowing into the social security system. For example, only 67 percent of women in Germany were in the work force in 2005, compared with 76 percent in Denmark and 78 percent in Switzerland. (The average rate for the 15 "core" EU states is 64 percent; for the United States, 70 percent.)
Professor David Coleman, a demographer at Oxford University, has suggested that the European Union's work force could be increased by nearly one-third if both sexes were to match Denmark's participation rates. The EU itself has set a target participation rate of 70 percent for both sexes. Reaching this goal would significantly alleviate the fiscal challenge of maintaining Europe's welfare system, which has been aptly described as "more of a labor-market challenge than a demographic crisis."
The average retirement age across Europe is around 65 for men and women. The lowest is 59 for Italian women; the highest is 67 for Danish men and women. There are some special cases. French train drivers, for example, can retire at 55 with a pension and most countries allow police and fire workers to retire early. And Britain is phasing out its traditional sexist approach, which allows women to retire at 60 while men have to work until 65.
But the problem of financing an increasing number of pensioners with fewer people of working age is about to get a great deal worse in Europe. From now on, according to the EU's own statistical service, the population aged 60 years and above will be growing by 2 million people every year for the next 25 years. The growth of the working age population (15-64 years) is slowing fast and will stop altogether in about six years; from then on, this group, who pay the taxes that finance the welfare state, will be shrinking by 1 million to 1.5 million people each year.
Societies and economies will have to adapt to this rapidly changing age structure and manage the prospect of political tensions between the tax-paying young and the pension-receiving elderly. And since older people are usually much more likely to vote than the young, governments will handle this issue with great care.
The EU Commission last year deployed its Eurobarometer polling system to assess public views on what they called "Intergenerational Solidarity."
The main result was that the vast majority of Europeans have a generally positive image of older people, with only 14 percent considering them to be a burden to society. Strikingly, this minority is largest among the elderly. Almost half of all Europeans asked, 49 percent, said they believe governments should make more money available for pensions and care for the elderly.
However, they are pessimistic, with 58 percent of respondents saying governments will no longer be able to pay for pensions and care for older people in the future. And 66 percent say governments should make it easier for older people to continue working beyond the normal retirement age, if they so wish. But there was little resentment of the elderly.
"Europeans strongly acknowledge the contribution of older people to society, providing financial help for children and grandchildren and acting as volunteers," the Eurobarometer report said. It noted that 75 percent of respondents said the role of the elderly in caring for family members "is not sufficiently appreciated."
The elderly, after all, are not an anonymous mass; they are people's parents and grandparents, who have mostly worked hard, paid their taxes and are thought to deserve a decent retirement. But the lesson of the Greek crisis, and of the huge debt burdens that governments have accumulated during the crisis of the past two years, is that the EU's "Intergenerational Solidarity" is going to be tested. [rc]
© 2010 United Press International, Inc
By Martin Walker, UPI Editor Emeritus
Walker's World
The euro crisis may have been resolved by the deal reached with the international Monetary Fund to support the embattled Greeks. But there is one clear and profound result of the deal; the issue of retirement ages and funding for Europe's pensions is now high on the agenda of Europe's governments.
The mantra German commentators and radio talk shows kept repeating was that it was simply absurd for Germans to work until they were 67 so Greeks could continue to retire at the age of 62. And the harsh cuts imposed on Greek public spending by their eurozone partners as the price of support mean that Greece cannot afford to continue is current generous pension system.
Moreover, a precedent has been established by last week's EU summit that similar harsh terms will be imposed on any other EU government that seeks financial support from its partners. With Portugal, Spain and Italy also facing severe debt problems, very tight squeeze is coming on public spending. This certainly constrains Europe's traditionally generous welfare states.
The simplest way to adapt to that strain is to raise the retirement age, particularly for those southern countries that tend both to have the biggest fiscal problems and to start paying pensions earlier.
This has already begun in northern Europe. In the 1990s, the traditional retirement age in Italy, France and Germany was 60. This was very early, considering that life expectancy is approaching 80 and that modern diets and medicine allow many people to continue working well into their 70s. An increase of the retirement age to 65, which is being progressively introduced in Germany, would sharply reduce the number of retirees who depend on the employed for support. A retirement age of 70 in Germany would virtually end the problem, at least until life expectancy rose as high as 90 years.
The work force participation rate in Germany (and much of continental Europe) is relatively low. Not only do Europeans retire on the early side but the generous social welfare system allows others to withdraw from work earlier in life. An increase in employment would boost revenues flowing into the social security system. For example, only 67 percent of women in Germany were in the work force in 2005, compared with 76 percent in Denmark and 78 percent in Switzerland. (The average rate for the 15 "core" EU states is 64 percent; for the United States, 70 percent.)
Professor David Coleman, a demographer at Oxford University, has suggested that the European Union's work force could be increased by nearly one-third if both sexes were to match Denmark's participation rates. The EU itself has set a target participation rate of 70 percent for both sexes. Reaching this goal would significantly alleviate the fiscal challenge of maintaining Europe's welfare system, which has been aptly described as "more of a labor-market challenge than a demographic crisis."
The average retirement age across Europe is around 65 for men and women. The lowest is 59 for Italian women; the highest is 67 for Danish men and women. There are some special cases. French train drivers, for example, can retire at 55 with a pension and most countries allow police and fire workers to retire early. And Britain is phasing out its traditional sexist approach, which allows women to retire at 60 while men have to work until 65.
But the problem of financing an increasing number of pensioners with fewer people of working age is about to get a great deal worse in Europe. From now on, according to the EU's own statistical service, the population aged 60 years and above will be growing by 2 million people every year for the next 25 years. The growth of the working age population (15-64 years) is slowing fast and will stop altogether in about six years; from then on, this group, who pay the taxes that finance the welfare state, will be shrinking by 1 million to 1.5 million people each year.
Societies and economies will have to adapt to this rapidly changing age structure and manage the prospect of political tensions between the tax-paying young and the pension-receiving elderly. And since older people are usually much more likely to vote than the young, governments will handle this issue with great care.
The EU Commission last year deployed its Eurobarometer polling system to assess public views on what they called "Intergenerational Solidarity."
The main result was that the vast majority of Europeans have a generally positive image of older people, with only 14 percent considering them to be a burden to society. Strikingly, this minority is largest among the elderly. Almost half of all Europeans asked, 49 percent, said they believe governments should make more money available for pensions and care for the elderly.
However, they are pessimistic, with 58 percent of respondents saying governments will no longer be able to pay for pensions and care for older people in the future. And 66 percent say governments should make it easier for older people to continue working beyond the normal retirement age, if they so wish. But there was little resentment of the elderly.
"Europeans strongly acknowledge the contribution of older people to society, providing financial help for children and grandchildren and acting as volunteers," the Eurobarometer report said. It noted that 75 percent of respondents said the role of the elderly in caring for family members "is not sufficiently appreciated."
The elderly, after all, are not an anonymous mass; they are people's parents and grandparents, who have mostly worked hard, paid their taxes and are thought to deserve a decent retirement. But the lesson of the Greek crisis, and of the huge debt burdens that governments have accumulated during the crisis of the past two years, is that the EU's "Intergenerational Solidarity" is going to be tested. [rc]
© 2010 United Press International, Inc
USA: Did rapid brain evolution make humans susceptible to Alzheimers?
.
BREA, California / PhysOrg.com / Medicine & Health / Neuroscience / March 29, 2010
By Alvin Powell
Of the millions of animals on Earth, including the relative handful that are considered the most intelligent -- including apes, whales, crows, and owls -- only humans experience the severe age-related decline in mental abilities marked by Alzheimer's disease.
To Bruce Yankner, professor of pathology and neurology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), it’s pretty clear that evolution is to blame.
“Something has occurred in evolution that makes our brain susceptible to age-related change,” Yankner said in a talk last night sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History as part of its “Evolution Matters” lecture series.
The puzzling question, Prof. Bruce Yankner said, is why humans develop the severe disabilities of Alzheimer’s disease.
Yankner, whose HMS lab studies brain aging and how getting old gives rise to the pathology of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, said Alzheimer’s is one of the most rapidly emerging diseases of this century. As medical science lengthens human lifespan, the proportion of the population that is elderly is growing. Considering that as many as half of those over age 85 develop Alzheimer’s, there is a growing urgency to understand the disease more fully and to develop more effective interventions.
“It is clear that cognitive impairment and decline is one of the emerging health threats of the 21st century,” Yankner said.
Yankner said that scientific evidence shows that some cognitive decline — beginning in middle age and accelerating after age 70 — is normal as we grow older. This decline is also seen in other animals, including mice and monkeys. It is marked by wide variation among individuals, with some individuals maintaining cognitive abilities similar to those much younger.
The puzzling question, Yankner said, is why humans develop the severe disabilities of Alzheimer’s disease. Studies of other creatures show no sign of similar conditions even in our closest animal relatives. That means susceptibility to Alzheimer’s evolved recently, likely during a period marked by a rapid increase in our brain size. Size alone probably isn’t the determining factor, though, Yankner said, since other animals are known to have even larger brains, including whales, elephants, and even our extinct relative the Neanderthal.
Instead, he said, it is likely that brain complexity and the new large number of cells in the human brain have something to do with it.
Recent research, in Yankner’s lab and elsewhere, has used genetic tools to probe the differences between young and old brains in humans, monkeys, and mice. The work shows that gene function in the aging brain slows — dramatically in ones with Alzheimer’s — and that the genes that shut off the most are those that protect the brain against genetic damage from environmental and other factors.
Yankner said he believes that cognitive decline is due to a slow accumulation of genetic damage in the aging brain, with Alzheimer’s showing the most severe form of this damage, called double strand breaks. Though the source of the damage is not yet clear, one culprit, he said, may be the accumulation of metals in the brain over time, particularly iron.
Neurons use more energy than most other cells, Yankner said. With the brain’s increase in complexity over time, its energy demands also rose. Iron plays a key role in a cell’s energy-producing mitochondria, and so iron accumulation leading to genetic damage could be a byproduct of our neuron-rich, energy-gobbling brains.
“Aging is a balance between wear and tear and repair. Where you wind up in that balance determines how you do,” Yankner said. [rc]
Provided by Harvard University
© PhysOrg.com 2003-2009
“Something has occurred in evolution that makes our brain susceptible to age-related change,” Yankner said in a talk last night sponsored by the Harvard Museum of Natural History as part of its “Evolution Matters” lecture series.
The puzzling question, Prof. Bruce Yankner said, is why humans develop the severe disabilities of Alzheimer’s disease.
Yankner, whose HMS lab studies brain aging and how getting old gives rise to the pathology of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, said Alzheimer’s is one of the most rapidly emerging diseases of this century. As medical science lengthens human lifespan, the proportion of the population that is elderly is growing. Considering that as many as half of those over age 85 develop Alzheimer’s, there is a growing urgency to understand the disease more fully and to develop more effective interventions.
“It is clear that cognitive impairment and decline is one of the emerging health threats of the 21st century,” Yankner said.
Yankner said that scientific evidence shows that some cognitive decline — beginning in middle age and accelerating after age 70 — is normal as we grow older. This decline is also seen in other animals, including mice and monkeys. It is marked by wide variation among individuals, with some individuals maintaining cognitive abilities similar to those much younger.
The puzzling question, Yankner said, is why humans develop the severe disabilities of Alzheimer’s disease. Studies of other creatures show no sign of similar conditions even in our closest animal relatives. That means susceptibility to Alzheimer’s evolved recently, likely during a period marked by a rapid increase in our brain size. Size alone probably isn’t the determining factor, though, Yankner said, since other animals are known to have even larger brains, including whales, elephants, and even our extinct relative the Neanderthal.
Instead, he said, it is likely that brain complexity and the new large number of cells in the human brain have something to do with it.
Recent research, in Yankner’s lab and elsewhere, has used genetic tools to probe the differences between young and old brains in humans, monkeys, and mice. The work shows that gene function in the aging brain slows — dramatically in ones with Alzheimer’s — and that the genes that shut off the most are those that protect the brain against genetic damage from environmental and other factors.
Yankner said he believes that cognitive decline is due to a slow accumulation of genetic damage in the aging brain, with Alzheimer’s showing the most severe form of this damage, called double strand breaks. Though the source of the damage is not yet clear, one culprit, he said, may be the accumulation of metals in the brain over time, particularly iron.
Neurons use more energy than most other cells, Yankner said. With the brain’s increase in complexity over time, its energy demands also rose. Iron plays a key role in a cell’s energy-producing mitochondria, and so iron accumulation leading to genetic damage could be a byproduct of our neuron-rich, energy-gobbling brains.
“Aging is a balance between wear and tear and repair. Where you wind up in that balance determines how you do,” Yankner said. [rc]
Provided by Harvard University
© PhysOrg.com 2003-2009
CHINA: Number of outbound tourists soaring
.
BEIJING, China / The China Daily / March 29, 2010
By Yu Tianyu / China Daily
China Tourism Academy estimates as many as 54 million tourists will go abroad this year, up from 47 million in 2009, reports Yu Tianyu from Beijing.
Zhu Mingxia, a 66-year-old Beijing resident, proudly shows off her passport with tourist visas for 13 countries.
She is busy planning another trip soon with her 67-year-old husband but is torn between Melbourne and London.
"My grandson is studying economics in Melbourne. We miss him so much and want to see him," Zhu said. "But, I also would love to visit the British Museum because I read an interesting article about it in middle school more than 50 years ago."
Two Beijingers study a travel offering at a travel agency office in Beijing. The latest outbound tourism report by the China Tourism Academy said China will the fourth largest source of outbound tourism in the world by 2020. [Provided to China Daily]
Zhu, a former college professor, and her husband traveled to 13 foreign countries, including South Africa and Burma, within five years of their retirement.
"We have become experienced travelers and never joined any tour groups because we wish to freely plan our routes, activities and accommodation and at the same time get to know local people and their culture," she said.
Ahead of their trips, Zhu and her husband always do a lot of homework on local traditions, must-go places and the general culture. Zhu said that she booked hotels and regional train tickets online and read many pieces written by other travelers.
She said: "Although we only speak a few words of English, it is still not a big problem because many overseas countries have started to provide services in Chinese and there are also many helpful people who are able to speak fluent Chinese."
Zhu is just one of many Chinese travel enthusiasts who decided to explore the world as the Chinese economy boomed and overseas travel became less of a luxury limited to the privileged few.
The Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development 2009-2010, recently released by the China Tourism Academy (CTA), estimated that 54 million travelers would go abroad this year, up from 47 million in 2009.
Jiang Yiyi, director of the academy's international tourism development institute, said that the outbound travel market for the Chinese mainland would remain brisk this year, continuing to contribute to the recovery of the world economy and helping to offset China's trade surplus.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, China will be the world's fourth-largest source of outbound tourists by 2020, with 100 million overseas visits.
Spotting the huge market potential, many countries have striven to lure more free-spending Chinese tourists, especially amid the global economic recovery.
Gregory Hywood, chief executive of Tourism Victoria, Australia, told China Business Weekly in an exclusive interview that 163,000 Chinese tourists visited Victoria in 2009, accounting for a half of the total Chinese tourists who traveled to Australia. He added the total length of stay soared by 48.2 percent year-on-year to 6.3 million nights.
Hywood said his organization had worked out a 10-year plan for the Chinese market and it also expects a 70 percent increase in the number of tourists to Victoria this year, with Chinese visitors accounting for 70 percent of the rise.
"With an investment of A$1.4 billion ($951.6 million), the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center has received many groups of Chinese visitors in recent years," he said. "We will put great efforts into the meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition (MICE) business because more Chinese enterprises have started putting emphasis on rewarding and encouraging their staff."
Additionally, events and activities, including the Australian Open, F1 Championship and Melbourne Film Festival, will attract many Chinese tourists, especially young people, he said.
The India tourism industry has launched its 'Incredible India' campaign with dances and cultural events all over China projecting southern Asian nation as a top travel destination in an effort to woo Chinese tourists.
Shoeb Samad, director of India Tourism in Beijing has said that the number of Chinese tourists arriving in India increased from 21,152 in 2003 to 98,724 in 2008. He said India was a natural destination for Chinese travelers looking for a spiritually gratifying experience.
Sri Lanka is also looking towards China to boost its sinking tourism industry. Hit by the financial crisis, Sri Lanka received only 9,000 Chinese tourists in 2009, but the number is steadily rising.
The Sri Lankan Tourism Bureau set up an office in Beijing in 2008, while Sri Lankan Airlines also offered a number of tour packages to the Chinese market. There are three direct flights from Beijing to the capital, Colombo, every week with Chinese attendants on board.
Many emerging travel destinations are opening up their arms to welcome Chinese tourists.
The first Chinese tour group of 200 tourists is due to visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on April 12, said a statement from the National Tourism Administration of China. Chinese tourists have been able to travel to Lebanon since March 1.
A report by AC Nielson showed that Asian countries were the top choice for Chinese tourists with more than 60 percent of respondents favoring the destination. The region's popularity was followed by Europe and Oceania.
According to statistics from travel search engine Qunar.com, top destinations for travelers departing from Beijing were Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok, New York, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, London and Sydney.
Ma Nan, marketing manager of Beijing UTS International Travel Service Co Ltd, said his company was expecting a 20 percent rise this year in tourists visiting South Africa, Egypt, Japan, the US and island countries in Southeast Asia, despite a possible 5 percent year-on-year rise in prices.
Ma also said that Chinese tourists have gradually got more sophisticated. Far fewer now travel long journeys by bus, snap a photograph at an attraction then leave straight away.
Chinese tourists' preferences mostly depends on age, she said. Travelers aged from 20 to 35 would like to go Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia and those 35 and above prefer to visit Europe, Australia and the United States. Older tourists often chose South Africa and Egypt.
More and more Chinese prefer to visit one or two countries during an overseas trip and they have raised their requirements on accommodation and flights, Ma added.
A senior couple read posters advertising travel offers on the window of a travel agency in Shanghai. Residents of the municipality comprise a large number of Chinese outbound travelers. [China Foto Press]
Ding Ding, public relations manager of Hua Yuan International Travels Company Ltd, said that most Chinese tourists would like tour groups of less than 30 people, direct flights and four-star hotels or above.
According to online figures from Chinese hotel and destination review website Daodao.com, about 34 percent of Chinese travelers choose budget hotels, 26 percent prefer four-star hotels and 16 percent of them choose five-star hotels.
More than 61 percent of Chinese tourists conducted online research ahead of their trips and about 48 percent of travelers would make adjustments to their trip based on information they received from online travel bulletins, an AC Nielson report showed.
Industry insiders recommend tourism businesses and travel agencies to maintain online communication with their Chinese customers as much as they can.
Speaking as a former journalist, Gregory Hywood of Tourism Victoria said tourism and journalism were similar industries in that they are both about marketing and people. "Firstly, you'd better learn more about the demands of Chinese tourists. And, you need to work hard on how to promote what they are able to get from your place and also consider seriously how to provide better services to them when they arrive," he said.
Dai Bin, deputy head of the China Tourism Academy, said countries should provide more services and facilities in Chinese in order to enhance satisfaction rates.
Talking about shopping - perhaps the most important activity when Chinese people travel abroad - Hywood said a flourishing number of both emerging and established designers in Melbourne were showing off their products.
"Flinders Lane in Melbourne in particular has become a beacon for fashionistas, with everything from high-end labels to vintage pieces to be found," said Luee Sun, a London-based buyer who purchases fashion items for department stores.
Sun said also Oxford Circus in London and Fifth Avenue in New York were both driving Chinese "shopaholics" crazy.
The Galleries Lafayette in Paris reported that a typical Chinese tourist spent 1,000 euros in two hours last year, topping tourists from other countries.
The Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development 2009-2010 said Chinese tourists are expected to spend $6.86 billion overseas in 2010, which is up by 14 per cent from a year earlier.
Ding of Hua Yuan said her company arranges shopping-themed tour groups in both discount seasons of July to August and December to February.
Also, cards from China UnionPay, the Chinese bankcard association, are accepted in 90 countries and regions outside China and they have ATM machines in more than 50 countries and regions.
Zhang Chi, a 26-year-old self-confessed "shopaholic", travels abroad at least twice a year, saying that she always buys cosmetics and skincare products for the whole year since they are relatively cheaper and there is greater choice available abroad.
[rc]
Copyright 1995 - 2010 . China Daily Information Co (CDIC).
China Tourism Academy estimates as many as 54 million tourists will go abroad this year, up from 47 million in 2009, reports Yu Tianyu from Beijing.
Zhu Mingxia, a 66-year-old Beijing resident, proudly shows off her passport with tourist visas for 13 countries.
She is busy planning another trip soon with her 67-year-old husband but is torn between Melbourne and London.
"My grandson is studying economics in Melbourne. We miss him so much and want to see him," Zhu said. "But, I also would love to visit the British Museum because I read an interesting article about it in middle school more than 50 years ago."
Two Beijingers study a travel offering at a travel agency office in Beijing. The latest outbound tourism report by the China Tourism Academy said China will the fourth largest source of outbound tourism in the world by 2020. [Provided to China Daily]
Zhu, a former college professor, and her husband traveled to 13 foreign countries, including South Africa and Burma, within five years of their retirement.
"We have become experienced travelers and never joined any tour groups because we wish to freely plan our routes, activities and accommodation and at the same time get to know local people and their culture," she said.
Ahead of their trips, Zhu and her husband always do a lot of homework on local traditions, must-go places and the general culture. Zhu said that she booked hotels and regional train tickets online and read many pieces written by other travelers.
She said: "Although we only speak a few words of English, it is still not a big problem because many overseas countries have started to provide services in Chinese and there are also many helpful people who are able to speak fluent Chinese."
Zhu is just one of many Chinese travel enthusiasts who decided to explore the world as the Chinese economy boomed and overseas travel became less of a luxury limited to the privileged few.
The Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development 2009-2010, recently released by the China Tourism Academy (CTA), estimated that 54 million travelers would go abroad this year, up from 47 million in 2009.
Jiang Yiyi, director of the academy's international tourism development institute, said that the outbound travel market for the Chinese mainland would remain brisk this year, continuing to contribute to the recovery of the world economy and helping to offset China's trade surplus.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, China will be the world's fourth-largest source of outbound tourists by 2020, with 100 million overseas visits.
Spotting the huge market potential, many countries have striven to lure more free-spending Chinese tourists, especially amid the global economic recovery.
Gregory Hywood, chief executive of Tourism Victoria, Australia, told China Business Weekly in an exclusive interview that 163,000 Chinese tourists visited Victoria in 2009, accounting for a half of the total Chinese tourists who traveled to Australia. He added the total length of stay soared by 48.2 percent year-on-year to 6.3 million nights.
Hywood said his organization had worked out a 10-year plan for the Chinese market and it also expects a 70 percent increase in the number of tourists to Victoria this year, with Chinese visitors accounting for 70 percent of the rise.
"With an investment of A$1.4 billion ($951.6 million), the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Center has received many groups of Chinese visitors in recent years," he said. "We will put great efforts into the meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition (MICE) business because more Chinese enterprises have started putting emphasis on rewarding and encouraging their staff."
Additionally, events and activities, including the Australian Open, F1 Championship and Melbourne Film Festival, will attract many Chinese tourists, especially young people, he said.
The India tourism industry has launched its 'Incredible India' campaign with dances and cultural events all over China projecting southern Asian nation as a top travel destination in an effort to woo Chinese tourists.
Shoeb Samad, director of India Tourism in Beijing has said that the number of Chinese tourists arriving in India increased from 21,152 in 2003 to 98,724 in 2008. He said India was a natural destination for Chinese travelers looking for a spiritually gratifying experience.
Sri Lanka is also looking towards China to boost its sinking tourism industry. Hit by the financial crisis, Sri Lanka received only 9,000 Chinese tourists in 2009, but the number is steadily rising.
The Sri Lankan Tourism Bureau set up an office in Beijing in 2008, while Sri Lankan Airlines also offered a number of tour packages to the Chinese market. There are three direct flights from Beijing to the capital, Colombo, every week with Chinese attendants on board.
Many emerging travel destinations are opening up their arms to welcome Chinese tourists.
The first Chinese tour group of 200 tourists is due to visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on April 12, said a statement from the National Tourism Administration of China. Chinese tourists have been able to travel to Lebanon since March 1.
A report by AC Nielson showed that Asian countries were the top choice for Chinese tourists with more than 60 percent of respondents favoring the destination. The region's popularity was followed by Europe and Oceania.
According to statistics from travel search engine Qunar.com, top destinations for travelers departing from Beijing were Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok, New York, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, London and Sydney.
Ma Nan, marketing manager of Beijing UTS International Travel Service Co Ltd, said his company was expecting a 20 percent rise this year in tourists visiting South Africa, Egypt, Japan, the US and island countries in Southeast Asia, despite a possible 5 percent year-on-year rise in prices.
Ma also said that Chinese tourists have gradually got more sophisticated. Far fewer now travel long journeys by bus, snap a photograph at an attraction then leave straight away.
Chinese tourists' preferences mostly depends on age, she said. Travelers aged from 20 to 35 would like to go Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia and those 35 and above prefer to visit Europe, Australia and the United States. Older tourists often chose South Africa and Egypt.
More and more Chinese prefer to visit one or two countries during an overseas trip and they have raised their requirements on accommodation and flights, Ma added.
A senior couple read posters advertising travel offers on the window of a travel agency in Shanghai. Residents of the municipality comprise a large number of Chinese outbound travelers. [China Foto Press]
Ding Ding, public relations manager of Hua Yuan International Travels Company Ltd, said that most Chinese tourists would like tour groups of less than 30 people, direct flights and four-star hotels or above.
According to online figures from Chinese hotel and destination review website Daodao.com, about 34 percent of Chinese travelers choose budget hotels, 26 percent prefer four-star hotels and 16 percent of them choose five-star hotels.
More than 61 percent of Chinese tourists conducted online research ahead of their trips and about 48 percent of travelers would make adjustments to their trip based on information they received from online travel bulletins, an AC Nielson report showed.
Industry insiders recommend tourism businesses and travel agencies to maintain online communication with their Chinese customers as much as they can.
Speaking as a former journalist, Gregory Hywood of Tourism Victoria said tourism and journalism were similar industries in that they are both about marketing and people. "Firstly, you'd better learn more about the demands of Chinese tourists. And, you need to work hard on how to promote what they are able to get from your place and also consider seriously how to provide better services to them when they arrive," he said.
Dai Bin, deputy head of the China Tourism Academy, said countries should provide more services and facilities in Chinese in order to enhance satisfaction rates.
Talking about shopping - perhaps the most important activity when Chinese people travel abroad - Hywood said a flourishing number of both emerging and established designers in Melbourne were showing off their products.
"Flinders Lane in Melbourne in particular has become a beacon for fashionistas, with everything from high-end labels to vintage pieces to be found," said Luee Sun, a London-based buyer who purchases fashion items for department stores.
Sun said also Oxford Circus in London and Fifth Avenue in New York were both driving Chinese "shopaholics" crazy.
The Galleries Lafayette in Paris reported that a typical Chinese tourist spent 1,000 euros in two hours last year, topping tourists from other countries.
The Annual Report of China Outbound Tourism Development 2009-2010 said Chinese tourists are expected to spend $6.86 billion overseas in 2010, which is up by 14 per cent from a year earlier.
Ding of Hua Yuan said her company arranges shopping-themed tour groups in both discount seasons of July to August and December to February.
Also, cards from China UnionPay, the Chinese bankcard association, are accepted in 90 countries and regions outside China and they have ATM machines in more than 50 countries and regions.
Zhang Chi, a 26-year-old self-confessed "shopaholic", travels abroad at least twice a year, saying that she always buys cosmetics and skincare products for the whole year since they are relatively cheaper and there is greater choice available abroad.
[rc]
Copyright 1995 - 2010 . China Daily Information Co (CDIC).
CHINA: Saving water, but too little too late in a village run dry
.
BEIJING, China / The People's Daily / China Society / March 29, 2010
By Lin Meilian in Guizhou
Ma Zhiyou is in his early 50s, but rock dust has whitened his hair and reddened his eyes, making him look much older. His blue coat is dusty and smelly, unwashed for weeks as villagers try to save every drop of water they can in the drought that has ravaged farmlands in Guizhou Province.
Ma is one of about 60 villagers who are busy building a reservoir on a mountaintop in Liuchang county, Qingzhen. Here, 90 percent of the village wells have run dry.
The drought has killed crops, dried up riverbeds and left 17,000 people and 15,500 livestock thirsting for clean drinking water.
"We live off nature and believed that nature would solve the problem by itself," Ma told a Global Times reporter on the mountaintop. "So we wait and wait…no rain since October … our farmland, drinking water and wells all dried up."
Photograph added for illustration purposes Guizhou: Market Days in China’s Poorest Province Filed by Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott on Uncorneredmarkets
This is a familiar scene in many parched rural areas where an antiquated water conservancy system is now too old to function and the idea of "living off nature" ran too deeply for anyone to have considered upgrading the old hydro facility.
The idea of building a reservoir to utilize limited water resources in a more efficient way never crossed the minds of villagers until the six-month-long drought worsened day by day. Now they are desperate.
The villagers work night and day on top of the 800-meter mountain to build the reservoir that will hold 600 cubic meters of water pumped up from a river below.
In early March, the local government poured in 10 million yuan and launched the project.
It is the first emergency anti-drought project in Liuchang since the dry spell began last autumn.
"When it is done," Ma says, pointing at the top of the mountain, "at least we can have water to drink."
There is no water reservoir in the village. The 2,500 cisterns they used to save a limited amount of water have run dry.
Ma and his family must carry water jugs on their shoulders from a river 2.5 kilometers away. They need to make the difficult trek twice a day to feed three people, two cattle and four pigs. Some villagers have sold their livestock rather than let the animals die of thirst.
But the project is backbreaking labor.
Ma Dengju, 27, bent under the weight of a heavy bamboo basket of cement on his back, moved slowly to the other side of the mountain.
Villagers are paid to do this heavy labor by hand because large construction vehicles cannot climb the steep mountain.
"One, two, three, stone GO!" you hear the villagers grunt as they lift giant stones by hand and use simple tools to dig out the water diversion ditch.
The project is expected to be finished within a month. Water will be pumped up from the Zhuqiao River, literally translated as "Pig Bridge," although pigs might not get a single drop of clean water to drink.
"Clean water to let pigs drink?" Are you kidding me?" a villager named Zhou Mingfa said. "Every morning, I wash my face with clean water, then save it to wash my feet, and then save it to let the pigs drink."
Major water saving measures
The Ministry of Water Resources said Sunday that the country will step up water conservation infrastructure construction to better cope with natural disasters.
The central government has allocated over 80 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) this year for water conservation projects. Total investment in the sector is expected to hit 200 billion yuan, vice minister Jiao Yong said at a work conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
Meanwhile, repair and maintenance work on reservoirs in poor condition will be boosted this year, said Sun Jichang, a senior official with the ministry.
China needed to reinforce a total of 6,240 faulty reservoirs in the three years leading up to 2010. So far, only 2,000 of them have been reinforced as insufficient local funding or possible misuse of funds has delayed the work, Sun said.
All reservoir repair work will be finished by the end of the year. [rc]
Source: Xinhua
Copyright by People's Daily Online
The drought has killed crops, dried up riverbeds and left 17,000 people and 15,500 livestock thirsting for clean drinking water.
"We live off nature and believed that nature would solve the problem by itself," Ma told a Global Times reporter on the mountaintop. "So we wait and wait…no rain since October … our farmland, drinking water and wells all dried up."
Photograph added for illustration purposes Guizhou: Market Days in China’s Poorest Province Filed by Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott on Uncorneredmarkets
This is a familiar scene in many parched rural areas where an antiquated water conservancy system is now too old to function and the idea of "living off nature" ran too deeply for anyone to have considered upgrading the old hydro facility.
The idea of building a reservoir to utilize limited water resources in a more efficient way never crossed the minds of villagers until the six-month-long drought worsened day by day. Now they are desperate.
The villagers work night and day on top of the 800-meter mountain to build the reservoir that will hold 600 cubic meters of water pumped up from a river below.
In early March, the local government poured in 10 million yuan and launched the project.
It is the first emergency anti-drought project in Liuchang since the dry spell began last autumn.
"When it is done," Ma says, pointing at the top of the mountain, "at least we can have water to drink."
There is no water reservoir in the village. The 2,500 cisterns they used to save a limited amount of water have run dry.
Ma and his family must carry water jugs on their shoulders from a river 2.5 kilometers away. They need to make the difficult trek twice a day to feed three people, two cattle and four pigs. Some villagers have sold their livestock rather than let the animals die of thirst.
But the project is backbreaking labor.
Ma Dengju, 27, bent under the weight of a heavy bamboo basket of cement on his back, moved slowly to the other side of the mountain.
Villagers are paid to do this heavy labor by hand because large construction vehicles cannot climb the steep mountain.
"One, two, three, stone GO!" you hear the villagers grunt as they lift giant stones by hand and use simple tools to dig out the water diversion ditch.
The project is expected to be finished within a month. Water will be pumped up from the Zhuqiao River, literally translated as "Pig Bridge," although pigs might not get a single drop of clean water to drink.
"Clean water to let pigs drink?" Are you kidding me?" a villager named Zhou Mingfa said. "Every morning, I wash my face with clean water, then save it to wash my feet, and then save it to let the pigs drink."
Major water saving measures
The Ministry of Water Resources said Sunday that the country will step up water conservation infrastructure construction to better cope with natural disasters.
The central government has allocated over 80 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) this year for water conservation projects. Total investment in the sector is expected to hit 200 billion yuan, vice minister Jiao Yong said at a work conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.
Meanwhile, repair and maintenance work on reservoirs in poor condition will be boosted this year, said Sun Jichang, a senior official with the ministry.
China needed to reinforce a total of 6,240 faulty reservoirs in the three years leading up to 2010. So far, only 2,000 of them have been reinforced as insufficient local funding or possible misuse of funds has delayed the work, Sun said.
All reservoir repair work will be finished by the end of the year. [rc]
Source: Xinhua
Copyright by People's Daily Online
March 28, 2010
USA: Are you in Pain?
.
DELRAY BEACH, Florida / MY MOM'S BLOG / March 28, 2010
Are you in PAIN?
A few weeks ago Ronni from over at "Time Goes By" made a post about all the annoying ads on TV about the elderly and their medical needs - pills for everything that ails them.
Well, here in Florida you should see ALL the ads directed at the elderly.
Here is just a sampling:
PAIN INSTITUTE - SUCCESSFULLY TREATING ARTHRITIS PAIN, BACK PAIN, HIP PAIN, SPINAL PAIN ETC. ETC.
HEARING CENTER - FREE Electronic Test
FREE Video Ear Inspection
FREE Hearing Aid Cleaning
DENTAL DREAM TEAM Implants, Aesthetics, and I.V. Sedation
FOOT CARE Peripheral Neuropathy
STOP Lower Back Pain and Sciatica NOW With Lasting Results
Eliminate Loose Dentures - Securely Anchor Your Dentures
ARE YOU IN PAIN? NEW PATIENTS SEEN SAME DAY
IMPLANTS A.M. DINNER P.M.
DENTURE REPAIRS - ADJUSTMENTS - RELINES WHILE YOU WAIT
OPTICAL SHOP - FREE LENSES WITH ANY FRAME PURCHASE
Believe it or not all the above ads appeared in the same issue of a daily newspaper. Not only that, I want you to know I didn't include all the health care ads that ran that day.
If I need a doctor down here I ask my friends for a referral. I suppose if you are new in town, you would take a chance and call a doctor who advertised.
One thing's for sure, if it weren't for those medical ads, car care and restaurant ads, the newspaper would not survive.
Posted by Mildred Garfield
E-Mail: mildredgarfield@yahoo.com
At 84 years young, Millie Garfield is one of the Internet's oldest bloggers, according to The Ageless Project. With an authentic and humorous voice, a knack for story telling and frequent updates, Millie's blog, My Mom's Blog, shows that people want to hear from someone with a story to tell.
[rc]
Are you in PAIN?
A few weeks ago Ronni from over at "Time Goes By" made a post about all the annoying ads on TV about the elderly and their medical needs - pills for everything that ails them.
Well, here in Florida you should see ALL the ads directed at the elderly.
Here is just a sampling:
PAIN INSTITUTE - SUCCESSFULLY TREATING ARTHRITIS PAIN, BACK PAIN, HIP PAIN, SPINAL PAIN ETC. ETC.
HEARING CENTER - FREE Electronic Test
FREE Video Ear Inspection
FREE Hearing Aid Cleaning
DENTAL DREAM TEAM Implants, Aesthetics, and I.V. Sedation
FOOT CARE Peripheral Neuropathy
STOP Lower Back Pain and Sciatica NOW With Lasting Results
Eliminate Loose Dentures - Securely Anchor Your Dentures
ARE YOU IN PAIN? NEW PATIENTS SEEN SAME DAY
IMPLANTS A.M. DINNER P.M.
DENTURE REPAIRS - ADJUSTMENTS - RELINES WHILE YOU WAIT
OPTICAL SHOP - FREE LENSES WITH ANY FRAME PURCHASE
Believe it or not all the above ads appeared in the same issue of a daily newspaper. Not only that, I want you to know I didn't include all the health care ads that ran that day.
If I need a doctor down here I ask my friends for a referral. I suppose if you are new in town, you would take a chance and call a doctor who advertised.
One thing's for sure, if it weren't for those medical ads, car care and restaurant ads, the newspaper would not survive.
Posted by Mildred Garfield
E-Mail: mildredgarfield@yahoo.com
At 84 years young, Millie Garfield is one of the Internet's oldest bloggers, according to The Ageless Project. With an authentic and humorous voice, a knack for story telling and frequent updates, Millie's blog, My Mom's Blog, shows that people want to hear from someone with a story to tell.
[rc]
USA: Facing an age-old question
.
ROYAL OAK, Michigan / The Daily Tribune / News / March 28, 2010
Facing an age-old question
By Kathryn Hutson, Daily Tribune columnist
A few years ago, I was doing some work for a company whose expertise was teaching sales professionals how to sell to women. One of the tenets of the process is never to call a woman "ma'am" because it makes her feel old. While we had to argue that point in the South where "ma'am" is a term of respect, it was a truism in the North — especially when a woman is called "ma'am" by handsome young or even middle-aged men.
A salesperson at Kohl's kicked the relationship between ma'ams and old up a notch on a recent Wednesday when she asked: "Ma'am, would you like the senior discount?" Two age-slaps in one question. I almost had a case of the Victorian "vapors" right there in the checkout line in front of God and everybody. But 10 percent is 10 percent, and when a body's facing a future that includes counting on an overspending, underfunded federal government for a few shekels each month, every penny of savings counts. I took the 10 percent and added to my 15 percent and my other discounts. It's like playing "Let's Make a Deal" at times.
I learned about facing old age from my mother. Along with her nightly use of Ponds cold cream, she insisted on wearing large, button-type earrings. "They hide my wrinkled earlobes," she pointed out. The woman was in her 80s and worried about wrinkled earlobes.
I recently told her that at 93 with two of her children retired and four categorized as senior citizens themselves, she could probably cut herself some slack about the earlobes. She looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
I don't worry about wrinkles on my earlobes. My earlobes are too small to wrinkle, although I do worry about the crease that's supposed to mean latent heart disease. I chalk the creases up to sleeping wrong, but who knows. I fixate on the wrinkles under my eyes. Ever notice that the women selling wrinkle cream on commercials can't be a day over 40? You need a magnifying glass to see the wrinkles they're worried about. What they need are some "real" wrinkles as examples of the before and after. And when the commercial goes on to say that 45 percent of those using the product saw an improvement, who are they talking about? Is it 50-year-olds or 30-year-olds? At 30, I could see a marked improvement in my appearance when I put on lipstick.
But I digress.
When I was at church last fall, I stopped to talk to one of the women who works at the day care in our building. She was pushing a stroller that holds six children. "What are those?" asked a little guy who couldn't have been more than 3, pointing at my face.
"Those what?" I asked, bending down to get closer to him.
"Those wrinklies," he said, pointing at the wrinkles on my cheeks. God love his honesty.
Besides the earlobes and wrinklies, there are some other life markers that point a body toward old age. For starters, there's the invitation from AARP that arrives in time for your 50th birthday. In fact, as I recall, it arrived before my 50th birthday — talk about a postal department smack!
With 50 being the new 40, I really didn't feel I needed to join an organization for old people. I still felt perfectly capable of fighting for my rights. After all, I was a product of the '60s. When my generation got feisty, the government had to send in the National Guard, tanks and tear gas to keep us in check.
Imagine what would happen today, now that the women of my age are being fueled by the additional testosterone that comes with age! It's the added testosterone, by the way, that causes those long, black hairs to grow in places on our faces that they never grew before.
Wrinkles, hairs growing in the wrong places, testosterone-fueled behavior ... I'm depressing myself.
Better quit this while I'm ahead. I'll save the flabby upper arm issue for another day. [rc]
Kathryn Hutson is a Troy resident and freelance writer.
© 2010 dailytribune.com, a Journal Register Property
I learned about facing old age from my mother. Along with her nightly use of Ponds cold cream, she insisted on wearing large, button-type earrings. "They hide my wrinkled earlobes," she pointed out. The woman was in her 80s and worried about wrinkled earlobes.
I recently told her that at 93 with two of her children retired and four categorized as senior citizens themselves, she could probably cut herself some slack about the earlobes. She looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
I don't worry about wrinkles on my earlobes. My earlobes are too small to wrinkle, although I do worry about the crease that's supposed to mean latent heart disease. I chalk the creases up to sleeping wrong, but who knows. I fixate on the wrinkles under my eyes. Ever notice that the women selling wrinkle cream on commercials can't be a day over 40? You need a magnifying glass to see the wrinkles they're worried about. What they need are some "real" wrinkles as examples of the before and after. And when the commercial goes on to say that 45 percent of those using the product saw an improvement, who are they talking about? Is it 50-year-olds or 30-year-olds? At 30, I could see a marked improvement in my appearance when I put on lipstick.
But I digress.
When I was at church last fall, I stopped to talk to one of the women who works at the day care in our building. She was pushing a stroller that holds six children. "What are those?" asked a little guy who couldn't have been more than 3, pointing at my face.
"Those what?" I asked, bending down to get closer to him.
"Those wrinklies," he said, pointing at the wrinkles on my cheeks. God love his honesty.
Besides the earlobes and wrinklies, there are some other life markers that point a body toward old age. For starters, there's the invitation from AARP that arrives in time for your 50th birthday. In fact, as I recall, it arrived before my 50th birthday — talk about a postal department smack!
With 50 being the new 40, I really didn't feel I needed to join an organization for old people. I still felt perfectly capable of fighting for my rights. After all, I was a product of the '60s. When my generation got feisty, the government had to send in the National Guard, tanks and tear gas to keep us in check.
Imagine what would happen today, now that the women of my age are being fueled by the additional testosterone that comes with age! It's the added testosterone, by the way, that causes those long, black hairs to grow in places on our faces that they never grew before.
Wrinkles, hairs growing in the wrong places, testosterone-fueled behavior ... I'm depressing myself.
Better quit this while I'm ahead. I'll save the flabby upper arm issue for another day. [rc]
Kathryn Hutson is a Troy resident and freelance writer.
© 2010 dailytribune.com, a Journal Register Property
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