USA: HIV-positive jazz musician Fred Hersch, 53, returns to Detroit after 30 years

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LIVONIA, Michigan / PrideSource / Arts & Entertainment /  April 30, 2010

Pianist plays on

By Thomas Matich

For a city that's in need of some sort of hospice, Detroit could learn an inspirational lesson or two from Fred Hersch - a jazz pianist and composer who was given a death sentence over 20 years ago. Diagnosed with HIV in 1986, in an era when everyone from Rock Hudson to mustached gay porn stars were dropping like flies from the "gay cancer," Hersch has persevered. He's gone on to have a remarkably prolific career with dozens of albums under his belt along with Grammy nominations and prestigious musical fellowships. But it hasn't been easy.

In a scene from the documentary "Let Yourself Go - The Lives of Fred Hersch," Hersch is taking his medication, discussing his daily doses of 30 pills that amount to $45,000 a year. The pills he swallows to keep fighting along, and the pills he takes to counteract the side effects of other pills. Hersch appears frail, with the gaunt appearance of lipodystrophy painted on his face and his voice slightly more weathered and elderly than his 53 years of age.

Yet his music, be it his dazzling cover of Thelonious Monk's "Let's Cool One" to one of his own vibrant and ornate compositions, is marvelously energetic, punchy, beautiful and youthfully animated. One can close their eyes and picture Hersch's fingers gliding and dancing away on the piano. His musical genius, which can be heard on his upcoming album "Whirl" due June 22, is simply amazing considering that Hersch was learning to walk again after his health tailspinned in late 2007 with the onslaught of AIDS dementia attacking his brain and a bout of pneumonia landing him in a coma.

Photo Credit: © Hans Speekenbrink AllAboutJazz

"I couldn't do anything," says Hersch, the first prominent jazz musician to come out publicly as gay and HIV-positive. "

I couldn't swallow, couldn't eat, couldn't talk. I was totally helpless after the coma. It kicked my ass basically, and I was very lucky."

Despite Hersch's battles with mortality, he doesn't consider himself to be religious. Maybe Buddhist, if anything. Hersch guesses he hasn't played Detroit proper in nearly 30 years, even though he's a visiting professor at Western Michigan University and is well versed in Motown and its rich jazz history. More school of Stan Getz than Sade, Hersch isn't Kenny G; he's a minority inside a minority - a gay HIV-positive man playing the niche genre of pure instrumental jazz. And Hersch's return to Detroit will be at the Central Methodist Church. How's that for inspiration from someone who was never supposed to make it this far?

"Everything you deal with is more or less day by day," Hersch says. "Of course there was a time when it was a lot more of a death sentence than it is now, but that does not mean that it's an easy thing to manage. I lost a lot of friends and it was a very tough time, and with every record that I made I felt like this (it was) going to be my last record. I just wanted to leave some kind of legacy so maybe I'd be remembered - and here it is 25 years later."

Hersch is currently working on "The Coma Project," which will document his descent into darkness with visualizations, lyrics and music. It won't be the first time Hersch made innovative strides in jazz. His 2005 project "Leaves of Grass" married the poetry of Walt Whitman to Hersch's wondrous notes and breathed new life into the works of a once controversial early "gay American icon."

"I didn't do Whitman because he was gay," Hersch says. "I did him because I thought that the words were important and beautiful and should be heard. But it was not like gay jazz icon takes on poetry gay icon. I don't consider myself a gay jazz artist - I consider myself a jazz pianist and composer who happens to be gay and that's the end of it. I don't play 'gay' music; I don't write 'gay' music - I write my music and I play my music." [rc]

Fred Hersch
http://www.fredhersch.com/

© Pride Source Media Group 1992-2010

USA: Elderly couple copes with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and unwelcome idleness

MOUNT PLEASANT, Michigan / Central Michigan Life  / April 30, 2010

Richard Stillion, left, smiles as he watches his wife Alma play with their dog Hawk’s ears in their living room Wednesday in Lake. The couple has been married for 50 years and currently are both living for each other through developing diseases. Richard, 71, has Alzheimer’s disease and Alma, 77, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two year ago. “We live for each other,” Richard said. “She is everything to me. All we have left is one another. Most of our friends have died. We’ve made it 50 years together and we’re going to make it as many more as we can.” 
Photos by Jake May/Staff Photographer

Elderly couple copes with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and unwelcome idleness

By Randi Shaffer, staff reporter for Central Michigan Life

Richard and Alma Stillion vividly remember getting married on March 3, 1960.

They remember the day they met, raising Alma’s five sons and working until retirement.

But Richard’s memories are fading fast.

Richard, 71, was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and Alma, 77, is suffering from Parkinson’s, giving the Stillions new hurdles to jump and struggles to adapt to every day.

“It’s a challenge,” Richard said.

Richard met Alma while she was living in Ann Arbor, recently divorced and working at a drive-in to save money for beauty school and to support her five sons. Alma came within one exam of her beauty school graduation, before a trip to the hospital showed she had allergies from the products she would use in her profession.

She switched to a job in retail while Richard continued his employment, working in several different tool and die shops before moving to Westland and then Lake. After the move, Alma’s health problems began.

“The doctor retired me in 1990 after I had a …” she said. “Massive heart attack,” Richard said, finishing her statement.

Alma clearly remembers the moment. While eating dinner with her family she suddenly began to feel ill. Her family hauled her out of the house, into the car and to the hospital, she said. That was in December 1990, Alma’s last day of work and the start of more problems to come.

She suffered a stroke in 2003, and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2004 after falling and hitting her head. In about 2007, Alma underwent surgery to have a pacemaker implanted and will have a heart fibulator placed within the next few months.

Richard underwent a quadruple bypass heart operation in 1999 and began to develop Alzheimer’s disease about two years ago.

Busy to bored

After her unexpected retirement, Alma began feeling isolated from her former life of work and church activities. She picked up crocheting and craft work as a way to keep busy.

“It’s been miserable and, of course, it just keeps getting worse,” she said. “There’s not much you can do about it. It’s kind of hard for a person who’s been busy, just always doing something. Now I’m just sitting around, staring at four walls.”

Alma said her Parkinson’s comes with shakes and an overall loss of balance, and it keeps getting worse. She cannot walk without a crutch and she needs help from Richard with everyday tasks like showering.

Richard and Alma receive help from Isabella County’s Commission On Aging.

The COA’s Senior Companion program sends two different workers to the Stillion’s little house on a dirt road in Lake four times a week to entertain them and help them out with the various daily life necessities.

“I don’t know what we would do if we didn’t have these ladies,” Richard said.

Pat Blankenship is one of the two workers from the COA’s Senior Companion program that spends a few hours a day, two days a week with the Stillions. She was matched with the Stillions nine years ago by her supervisor at the COA and she continues to work with them and visit them.

“I like it a lot,” she said.

Richard has expressed great gratitude for both Blankenship and his other senior companion assistant, Sue. He said he feels safer running errands or going outside and leaving Alma alone when one of the two ladies was over, especially since their companionship has saved Alma’s life before.

A few years ago, Sue came to stay with Alma while Richard was downstate. Alma hadn’t had her pacemaker put in yet and was still having troubles with her heart. During Richard’s leave, she fainted while standing, leaving Sue to catch her and take appropriate emergency actions.

“There was really no warning,” Alma said.

With all of the challenges the couple face, they said their future seems slow, with no plans for vacations from every day life in sight.

“It’s not going to get any better, but hopefully it won’t get worse for awhile,” Richard said. “ “Sometimes I’ll just have to stop and think about something for a minute, but I think for the condition I’m in, I’m doing pretty good.” [rc]

Randi ShafferE-mail: shaff1rm@cmich.edu

© 2010 Central Michigan Life

CHINA: Jackie Chan, 56, top Forbes China Celebrity

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BEIJING, China / The Global Times / Life & Art / Entertainment / April 30, 2010

Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan (born April 7, 1954) ranks Number One

in the recently released Forbes China Celebrity List of 2010.

Chan, who held a concert in Beijing's Bird Nest in May 2009, became the first artist to perform in the National Stadium. Jay Chou didn't receive good reviews for his movies, but he got more attention for his work in the Hollywood film The Green Hornet with American actress Cameron Diaz. Meanwhile, Lau has starred in three movies, but his secret marriage to Carol Zhu that was exposed grabbed headlines.

Basketball forward Yao Ming continues to lead the list of celebrities from the Chinese mainland and actress Zhang Ziyi ranks fourth with 25 cover stories. Skit and sitcom actor Zhao Benshan is in the fifth place.

Writer Guo Jingming who edits Top Novel magazine is in 58th spot, while writer, blogger and racecar driver Han Han is 74th.

According to Forbes Chinese edition, the two standards for ranking celebrities are personal income and media exposure rate which is judged from 28 popular newspapers, 18 nationwide TV programs and cover stories in 29 magazines. [rc]

Copyright by Global Times © 2007-2010,

SINGAPORE: More grandparents lending helping hand

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SINGAPORE / TODAY / April 30, 2010

Some upkeep children's homes, do shopping for them

By Leong Wee Keat 

More seniors are providing a helping hand to their children and grandchildren, than being mere dependents, discovered a survey of 1,000 seniors here that flips one common assumption on its head.

One in 10 seniors gave practical support, such as helping to upkeep their children's homes or doing their shopping; while 2 per cent helped their grandchildren in similar fashion. Only 9 per cent, conversely, received practical help from their children.

Related report
Old folks in Singapore an asset

People who assume seniors are mere dependants likely focus on seniors' smaller tax contributions, noted Professor Sarah Harper, who heads the Oxford Institute of Ageing which conducted the Global Ageing Survey. "But in actual fact, when we look at families, we see older people making large contributions ... helping their children around the home." The global survey polled 44,000 people and Singapore's results were presented yesterday at the International Consortium for Intergenerational Programmes Conference here.

Older folks in Singapore are giving more help to their children and grandchildren than the other way around. Straits Times Photo: Chew Seng Kim

In South Korea, the survey found 37 per cent of seniors - more than Singapore's 12 per cent - helped their children or grandchildren.

And more seniors here rely on their children for financial help: Some 18 per cent were receiving money compared to 5 per cent who gave something to their children.

As demographic changes sweep the globe, conference participants debated various issues concerning intergenerational cohesion.

Council for Third Age board member Aline Wong lamented that some seniors have become "grandparents on-demand" - called upon to accompany their grandchildren to tuition classes and meet with their children and grandchildren only a few times a year.

She suggested youth organisations get more parents on board their programmes, rather than just focusing on relations between grandparents and grandchildren.

While the Government has in place policies such as the CPF Minimum Sum Top-Up, Parents' Relief and Grandparents' Relief, Minister-in-charge of Ageing Issues Lim Boon Heng urged the community to "internalise" intergenerational cohesion in order for it to be sustainable.

"It is not just about tax-relief or top-up grants," he said. [rc]

Copyright ©2010 MediaCorp Press Ltd.

CHINA: Nearly 18 percent of Chinese adults have mental disorders

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BEIJING, China / The People's Daily / Society / April 29, 2010

The latest large-scale survey involving 12 percent of Chinese adults found that nearly 18 percent of them suffer from mental disorders. Of that number, 6 percent suffer from mood disorders, 6 percent have anxiety disorders and another 6 percent have substance abuse disorders.

The survey also shows men have a higher prevalence of mood disorders and anxiety disorders than women. Those who are 40 years old and older have a higher prevalence of mental disorders.

The risk for men to develop alcohol abuse disorders is 38 times higher than women. Rural residents have a higher prevalence of major depression disorders, dysthymic disorders and alcohol dependence than urban residents, according to the survey.

Ninety cities and 267 villages in Zhejiang, Shandong, Qinghai, and Gansu provinces were chosen as primary sampling points. The sampling frame covered 113 million people above the age of 18.

As can be seen from the aforementioned figures, more attention should be paid to the mental health of Chinese adults. The survey found that predominant mental disorders vary in different areas. Alcohol abuse has become particularly prevalent in parts of China, generalized anxiety disorders and dysthymic disorders have also become major mental health problems among adults. Mental disorders can produce really adverse effects, but few sufferers seek treatment.

This was China's third large-scale epidemiological survey on mental disorders since 1993 and it adopted a multi-stage stratified random sampling method. [rc]

By People's Daily Online

USA: Educational film producer Milan Herzog, 101, has died

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LOS ANGELES, California / The Los Angeles Times /  Obituaries / April 29, 2010

Milan Herzog, seen with his wife, Shanta Gidwani, produced hundreds of films for Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Milan Herzog, 101, who produced hundreds of educational films for Encyclopaedia Britannica that were viewed in classrooms across the country, died April 20 at his home in Los Angeles.

Herzog was born Aug. 23, 1908, in Croatia and rode out World War I with his family in Yugoslavia. From there, he pursued a law degree in Paris and later worked as a translator, journalist and judge.

Alarmed by the rise of Adolf Hitler, Herzog fled with his family to the United States. By that time, he had mastered five languages: Serbo-Croatian, French, Spanish, English and German.

In the late 1940s while living in Chicago, he began producing films for Encyclopaedia Britannica on such subjects as photosynthesis and Christopher Columbus.

After moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, Herzog was an independent film producer for more than 20 years.

His first wife, Roni, died in the late 1970s. He married Shanta Gidwani, an Indian filmmaker, in 1979.
[rc]

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

Seniors World Chronicle adds:
The Los Angeles based Gerontogical Research Group (http://www.grg.org/) has recorded Dr. Milan Herzog under Centenarians. An autopsy was performed on Dr. Milan Herzog in Los Angeles on April 21, GRG says.

PHOTO ON LEFT: Dr. Stephen Coles is seen here with Dr. Milan Herzog on March 26, 2010.

PHOTO ON RIGHT: Shanta and Milan Herzog.

 

JAPAN: Aging not good for happiness as pension anxiety grows

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TOKYO, Japan /  The Japan Times / Life in Japan / April 29, 2010

Kyodo News

The older Japanese people are the less happy they feel, due mainly to anxieties over the government-run pension and medical insurance systems, according to a recent survey.

The first government survey on people's perceptions of their degree of happiness found that only 44 percent of people aged 70 to 79 said they felt happy, compared with 61 percent of people in their 30s, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday.

By gender, only 48 percent of men said they felt happy, compared with 59 percent of women.

The results reveal high levels of anxiety regarding the employment situation and social conditions related to raising children, officials said.

The survey was conducted at the initiative of the Democratic Party of Japan-led government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, which has criticized previous governments led by the Liberal Democratic Party for overemphasizing economic growth.

Who will provide for them tomorrow?  Photo courtesy: BBC News

The survey was conducted in March and covered 4,000 people aged 15 to 79, of whom 2,900 responded.

Respondents were asked to grade their degree of happiness on a scale of one to 10. They were asked to give 10 points if they felt "very happy" and zero if they felt "very unhappy."

Among those aged 15 to 29, 55 percent gave seven points or more, as did 61 percent of those in their 30s. But the proportion fell to 55 percent among those in their 40s and 50s, 51 percent among those in their 60s and 44 percent among those in their 70s.

The average score for all respondents was 6.47.

The Cabinet Office compared the Japanese average with those revealed in European surveys conducted in 2008 that used the same point system.

The average was 8.4 in Denmark, 7.4 in Britain, 7.1 in France and 6.0 in Russia.

Denmark and other Scandinavian countries that provide high levels of social security benefits generally fared well while Russia and Eastern European countries generally did poorly.

Asked about policies to make them happier, 69.2 percent of the Japanese respondents said they would like the government to "devise a pension system that could make them feel more secure" after retirement.

The survey, in which respondents were allowed to submit multiple responses from a prepared list of answers, also found that 64.9 percent would like the government to create a society in which they can bring up children with a greater sense of security.  [rc]

(C) The Japan Times

CHINA: Chinese man eats 1,500 light bulbs over 42 years

. BEIJING, China / The People's Daily / Life & Culture / April 28, 2010 Wang Xianjun, living in the Xitan community in Linshui County, Sichuan province, is a complete and total "eccentric" in the eyes of his neighbors. It is common for people to have rice or steamed buns for the breakfast, but Wang likes to eat an extra light bulb. The 54-year-old man started eating light bulbs at the age of 12, and has eaten approximately 1,500 bulbs over the past 42 years. Wang regards himself as open-minded. When he was 12 years old, he accidentally swallowed a fish bone, and his parents became very worried. To their surprise, Wang did not feel uncomfortable at all. Then out of curiosity, he boldly picked up a piece of broken glass, and felt no adverse effects after eating it. href=""> Believe It Or Not? It was on YouTube From then on, he began practicing eating light bulbs. He only dared to eat a small piece of glass at the beginning, but as time passed, he became addicted to eating bulbs. However, he does not eat bulbs every day. He sometimes only eats bulb splinters at breakfast, and at most, one bulb each time. [rc] By People's Daily Online

USA: Still a strong kick at age 90

. OMAHA, Nebraska / The Omaha World-Herald / Community News / April 28, 2010 By Melissa Anderson, World-Herald News Service Mary Skaggs will celebrate her 90th birthday Thursday doing what she does every morning: the splits. She's been doing the splits since she was a child; she thinks she began doing them around the time she was in kindergarten. She remembers that her sisters couldn't do the splits. And she said that once her parents put her in a dance school, she learned to toe-dance and do chest rolls, backbends and flips. She married Jess Skaggs and lived in Papillion during the 1940s. The couple moved to the Twin Cities in Minnesota for a time, then returned to Papillion in 1963 and raised five children. Mary Skaggs of Papillion is nearly 90 years old and still can do the splits. Photo: Kent Sievers / The World-Herald She held many jobs: camp counselor at Camp Kiwanis in Minnesota, a model in the late 1930s until she became too busy with her children, and in the Treasurer's Office at the Sarpy County Courthouse for 25 years before retiring at age 71. That's when she got back into doing the splits. “When I had all the children at home yet, and I wasn't working, I didn't have time to be doing that,” she said. “But then after I retired ... I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I should have done some exercise.' ” So Skaggs started doing the splits every morning. “She has made comments in the past that she likes to inspire elderly Americans to exercise,” her son Dick Skaggs said. “She was going around to the nursing homes, and she would show these people how they should move and stretch and try and keep their bodies mobile.” He said his mother has stayed healthy throughout her life because she “seldom drank, never smoked.” Now widowed, she occasionally gives in to her arthritis by using a cane but otherwise continues to clean her house, volunteer at Midlands Hospital and work in her “Garden of Eden” as she calls her yard. Son Dick walks Mary back to her house. Kent Sievers/The World-Herald “It's the best therapy there is,” she said. “It makes you forget about worrying about something or somebody when you're concentrating on the flowers.” Skaggs has had some national recognition over the years for her ability to do the splits. Just before her 85th birthday, Jay Leno invited her to “The Tonight Show.” Dick Skaggs said both Ellen DeGeneres and David Letterman also invited her to their shows, but his mother said she had already “made a promise to Jay” to be on his show. Skaggs said Leno was very considerate and good to his mother when she was on the show. “He's a wonderful person,” Mary Skaggs said. “All of his employees said, ‘You couldn't work for anybody nicer.' He's a very, very nice person.” Award-winning actor Denzel Washington was a guest on the Leno show the night she was there. “I had never heard of him,” she said. “He was very nice. When I came off the stage, he patted me and said, ‘Good job, good job.'” Skaggs said she tries to live by the two things her father always told his children: The best things in life are the small things, and the greatest wealth you can achieve is good health. “If you don't have good health, what good is money?” she said. [rc] Copyright ©2010 Omaha World-Herald®.

MALAYSIA: Helping them should be govt policy

. KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia / The New Straits Times / Letters / April 28, 2010 M.G.D. of Kuala Lumpur, in his letter "Group can help get better deals" (NST, April 22), has highlighted the plight of retirees and senior citizens. He said: "The rising cost of living is especially distressing to senior citizens who depend on their fast depleting life savings to survive." He suggested that "Nascom, the umbrella body for senior citizens' organisations in this country, may be in a position to bring some relief to members of these affiliated organisations" by negotiating with corporations to offer discounts to senior citizens. However, in light of the gov-ernment's pronouncements to make our nation a high-income society, asking Nascom to beg for discounts is inadequate. In our push to attain a level of high income, the plight of senior citizens would be ignored. Furthermore, the population of the aged is increasing fast. Driving the nation to attain high income and a developed status would only alienate and push the senior citizens further below the poverty line. Providing amenities, discounts and other assistance to the elderly should be part of government policy. It should not be a matter of choice but it should be a subject of social conscience for the government and companies claiming to practise social and corporate responsibility. Only then can we say "People First, Performance Now". [rc] Tam Yeng Siang Petaling Jaya Copyright © 2009 NST

USA: In 'Daze,' you're never too old for childish things

. WASHINGTON, DC / The Washington Post / Arts & Living / Television / April 28, 2010 TV PREVIEW Hank Stuever previews WEtv's 'Sunset Daze' By Hank Stuever, Washington Post Staff Writer Deep within that fiercely gated community known as the state of Arizona, eight senior citizens who live in a comfortable retirement enclave have submitted themselves to the indignities of reality television on WEtv's wretched new series "Sunset Daze," where we learn that old people are just as shallow as the rest of us.

"Sunset Daze" is a new reality series that follows a feisty group of senior citizens living in one of the country's largest retirement communities. The series debuts April 28 at 10 p.m. ET on We TV. Launch video player

Which means their blind dates also involve the tacky quasi-tranquillity of hot-air balloon rides; they, too, live in a world where skydiving is the surest path to self-determination; where groups of women get louder and bawdier in direct relation to the size of their margaritas and the sparkle of their blouses; where Jacuzzis roil and bubble like chlorinated vats of aphrodisiac; and where you're never too old to regard the presence of television cameras in your everyday life as a sort of long-awaited entitlement. Here in Sun City (reportedly one of the world's largest retirement communities, outside Phoenix in Surprise, Ariz.), they're good at this -- a little too good. They've mastered the stagey repetition of reality TV's easiest tropes, as "Sunset Daze" makes clear that Nana and Peepaw are along for the national narcissist ride, too. They know the drill: If you shake it a little and play along, your show will get renewed, which ought to help with the whole fixed-income problem. They must have been watching a lot of "Real Housewives" between bridge games. Oh, but these seniors aren't Barcalounger-bound grandparents, as "Sunset Daze" continually reminds us. In Wednesday night's double-episode premiere, producers veer away from casinos, undetected tumors, big diapers, depleted retirement accounts, neglectful children and emergency 911 beepers worn about the neck. We are not here to gripe about taxes and Obamacare, no siree. Fundamentally, "Sunset Daze" is about unleashed libidos. It has long been a curious feature of modern popular culture -- from ribald birthday cards to Rodney Dangerfield's entire oeuvre -- to squeeze some laughs out of the fact that elderly people have sex, or would like to. America loves a dirty grandma, whom we egg on until she actually goes there, and then we are repulsed, scandalized. Thus the show opens with its star, Sandy Miracle Jones, a 68-year-old widow with Heidi Montag's hair and Heidi Montag's nothing else. Instead of belonging to the Red Hat Society, Sandy has chosen to align herself with the facetiously named Blue Thong Society. She's decided it's time to date again, telling her lady gaggle that she's grown tired of "BOB" (her "battery-operated boyfriend"). While shooting skeet at the local rifle range (every last event documented in "Sunset Daze" feels entirely arranged by the producers), Sandy gets a little hubba-hubba for Mark, her Eastwood-esque shooting instructor. After a blase balloon ride with another paramour named Dick ("I've been trying to get into [Sandy's] pants for five or six years," he tells us), she finally gets up the courage to ask Mark over to her place, to grill some steaks. And by "grill some steaks," she means grill some steaks. But don't fear, elderphiles: The entendres double every 30 seconds in this place. If it could let go of the demands of being just another bad reality show, "Sunset Daze" could possibly become a revealing documentary about the present mood of America's AARP set. Some of the characters have potentially deeper thoughts and concerns, including Ann, 61, a former Catholic nun who is worried about her husband's impending blindness, and Gail Leibovitz (age "70-plus"), a nice Jewish mother whose hairdresser son devotedly styles her fiery-red Lesley Gore flip 'do every Saturday morning while they chat. The camera never lingers enough to convey any sense of true narrative or emotion; it is too transfixed by quips, sass and sexy liver spots. About halfway through, "Sunset Daze" might be a helpful way to get your bearings on who's actually old now. After a decade or more of genuflecting before the "Greatest Generation," it's interesting to do the math and realize that a fair number of "Sunset Daze's" characters come after that -- they are too young for World War II and too old to have burned draft cards and bras. Instead of belonging to some sepia-toned ideal of the past, they come to us as people who matured and lived most fully in the 1970s, mainly. They are wrinkled hedonists from the Me Decade who've washed ashore in the Me-Me-Me! Decade. Now it all makes sense. [rc] Sunset Daze (one hour, two episodes) premieres at 10 p.m. Wednesday on WEtv. © Copyright 1996-2010 The Washington Post Company

USA: Green tea helps you fight cancer and is good for your heart

NEW YORK, NY / WebMD / Health & Cooking / April 28, 2010

Health Benefits of Green Tea

By Julie Edgar, WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

It's difficult not to gush about green tea.

More than a decade's worth of research about green tea's health benefits -- particularly its potential to fight cancer and heart disease -- has been more than intriguing, as have limited studies about green tea's role in lowering cholesterol, burning fat, preventing diabetes and stroke, and staving off dementia. "I believe in green tea based on everything written about it," says Katherine Tallmadge, RD, LD, a nutritionist and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

"Green tea, white tea, black tea -- I like all of them." Still, real-world evidence is lacking; most of the consistent findings about green tea's health benefits have come out of the lab. The few large-scale human studies that have focused on green tea's impact on heart disease and cancer are promising, but many of those were conducted in the East, where green tea is a dietary mainstay. The outcomes are likely influenced by other lifestyle factors such as high consumption of fish and soy protein, says cardiologist Nieca Goldberg, MD, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association and medical director of the New York University Women's Heart Center. But Goldberg agrees with other health professionals: green tea has important antioxidants and compounds that help in maintaining good health.

Skinny Sipping: Best and Worst Drinks for Weight Loss

Green Tea's Powerful Antioxidants

Green tea's antioxidants, called catechins, scavenge for free radicals that can damage DNA and contribute to cancer, blood clots, and atherosclerosis. Grapes and berries, red wine, and dark chocolate also have potent antioxidants. Because of green tea's minimal processing -- its leaves are withered and steamed, not fermented like black and oolong teas -- green tea's unique catechins, especially epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), are more concentrated. But there's still a question of how much green tea you need to drink to reap its health benefits. EGCG is not readily "available" to the body; in other words, EGCG is not always fully used by the body.

"We must overcome the issue of poor bioavailability [and other issues] in order to get the most out of their benefits," says Tak-Hang Chan, PhD, professor emeritus in the department of chemistry at McGill University in Montreal. Chan has studied the use of a synthetic form of EGCG in shrinking prostate cancer tumors in mice, with success.

Green Tea vs. Cancer

Marji McCullough, ScD, RD, the American Cancer Society's strategic director of nutritional epidemiology, says human studies haven't yet proven what researchers like Chan have discovered in the lab: green tea's EGCG regulates and inhibits cancer growth and kills cells that are growing inappropriately.

"Epidemiologically, one of the challenges is finding populations that drink enough green tea and have for a long time," she says. "With cancer, it's always difficult to find the exposure time," or the point at which cancer cells begin to develop.

Still, it's difficult not to be intrigued by a few human studies that have shown that drinking at least two cups of green tea daily inhibits cancer growth.

One of them, a study conducted in Japan that involved nearly 500 Japanese women with Stage I and Stage II breast cancer, found that increased green tea consumption before and after surgery was associated with lower recurrence of the cancers.

Studies in China have shown that the more green tea that participants drank, the less the risk of developing stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and colorectal cancer.

Finally, a recent analysis of 22 studies that probed the correlation between high tea consumption and reduced risk for lung cancer concluded that by increasing your daily intake of green (not black) tea by two cups may reduce the risk of developing lung cancer by 18%.

Is Green Tea Good for Your Heart?

It seems to be, but there are conflicting results of a few epidemiological studies conducted in the East and West.

In a study that involved 500 Japanese men and women, researchers found that drinking at least four cups of green tea every day may be related to the reduced severity of coronary heart disease among the male participants.

A Dutch study of more than 3,000 men and women found that the more tea consumed, the less severe the clogging of the heart's blood vessels, especially in women. As Goldberg suggests, lifestyle and overall diet are critical to the outcomes of these studies.

But green tea's antioxidants are dilators, she says, because they improve the flexibility of blood vessels and make them less vulnerable to clogging -- and antioxidant-rich blueberries and pomegranates do the same.

"I think people should know these are important studies, that everyday foods that are an option may actually have health benefits," Goldberg says. "I think green tea, because of its antioxidant value, may have heart benefits, but it's not something we regularly prescribe to people, because there isn't as much evidence as there is in exercise's ability to improve heart health."

Green Tea and Weight

Green tea and its extract have been shown to fight obesity and lower LDL "bad" cholesterol -- two risk factors for heart disease and diabetes -- but in very limited studies. One study in the Netherlands and a study in Japan showed that green tea did both.

In the Dutch study, participants who drank caffeinated green tea lost more weight, but even those who typically drank the decaf variety saw a decrease in their waistlines and body weight. Researchers speculated that the caffeine helps with fat oxidation.

In the Japanese study, 240 men and women were given varying amounts of green tea extract for three months. Those who got the highest amount lost fat and weight and had lower blood pressure and lower LDL "bad" cholesterol.

Green Tea Straight Up

Taking weight loss supplements that contain green tea extract probably won't hurt, unless you have liver problems.

But the best way to get the most out of green tea -- even if your main goal is losing weight -- is to drink it. "Taken altogether, the evidence certainly suggests that incorporating at least a few cups of green tea every day will positively affect your health," says Diane McKay, PhD, a Tufts University scientist who studies antioxidants. "It's not going to cure anything and it shouldn't be consumed as a drug, but it can complement the rest of the diet."

McCullough bears the same reminder: eat your fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, and nuts -- and go ahead, drink as much green tea as you want.

"I don't think it can hurt to drink it. I'd focus on dietary sources rather than supplements because there are several compounds in green tea that might need to be consumed together. We just don't know yet," she says. [rc]

© 2009 WebMD, LLC.

UK: Pensioners pay a third of income in tax, research shows

. LONDON, England / The Telegraph / Personal Finance / Pensions / April 28, 2010 Pensioners end up paying back a third of their income to the Government through taxes, new research has revealed. By Myra Butterworth, Personal Finance Correspondent A typical retired household has an income of £17,727, but £5,315 of this is paid out in direct and indirect tax, according to financial services group MetLife Europe. Income tax accounts for the biggest share of the money that is handed over to HM Revenue & Customs at nearly £1,500, followed by VAT, which costs an average pensioner household £1,229 a year. Related Article New tax to pay for National Care Service Overall, an average of 13.4 per cent of retired households’ income is paid out in direct taxes, such as income tax, with a further 16.6 per cent paid in indirect taxes, such as VAT, duty on tobacco, alcohol and petrol, and road tax and the TV licence. Less well off pensioners pay out an even higher proportion of their income in tax, with the poorest fifth of retired households handing over 40 per cent of their £8,390 income to HM Revenue & Customs. Dominic Grinstead, managing director of MetLife's UK branch, said: “Pensioners need to be aware of the effects of direct and indirect tax on their retirement income and to plan accordingly. “Tax does not end when you stop working and clearly 30 per cent of gross retirement income being swallowed up by tax is a major factor to consider when planning for retirement.” Pensions experts warned pensioners are disproportionately hit by taxes. Money down the drain. Photo courtesy: Hargreaves Lansdown Laith Khalaf, a pensions expert at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Pensioners generally pay low rates of tax on their income but can be hit hard by other taxes. In particular council tax is one expense which continues into retirement after you have paid off your mortgage.” [rc] © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2010

CHINA: The wisdom of Walden Pond applies today

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SHANGHAI, China / The Shanghai Daily / Opinion / April 28, 2010

By Wan Lixin

Illustration by Zhou Tao

Copyright © 2001-2010 Shanghai Daily Publishing House

INDIA: Senior citizens seek separate department

. KOZHIKODE, Kerala / The Hindu / April 28, 2010 'Nothing much done by the government in recent years' Government's policy for the elderly was announced in 2006 By Special Correspondent The Kerala Senior Citizens Forum, which has nearly 1,000 units across the State, has demanded a separate department for looking after the welfare of senior citizens in view of the severity of hardships facing a majority of them. P. Balakrishnan, president, K. Madhavan, general secretary, and M.K. Sathyapalan, general convener, told presspersons here on Tuesday that the demand was being raised since nothing much had been done by the State government for senior citizens in recent years though Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had announced the government's policy for the aged people. They said the announcement of the policy itself was a major achievement for the organisation since it had been pressing for it from various public platforms since 1997. The forum had prepared a 35-point action plan and submitted it to the government in 1998. After it became the subject of a debate, in November 2004, the government published a draft policy for the aged. After discussions, it was finalised and the government came out with a policy announcement on December 5, 2006. State convention: The forum would raise the demand for a separate department at its 13th State convention to be held at Sree Narayana Centenary Hall in Kozhikode on April 29. Nearly 2,000 delegates were expected to participate in the event. “Many people from villages will attend the convention in Kozhikode. About 75 per cent of the nearly 40 lakh senior citizens in the State live in villages. Among women, 70 per cent are widows, According to one estimate, nearly 89 per cent of the aged people are financially insecure. The forum is working for the welfare of this group. That is why our mission is so important,” they said. [rc] Elderly woman in Kozhikode street. Photo courtesy: Tarun Saldhana Copyright © 2010, The Hindu.

USA: Colleges see non-traditional students - These new grads are grandparents

. KANSAS City, Missouri / The Kansas Star / April 27, 2010 By Lisa Wade McCormick Special to The Star Some couples golf together. Others dance together. But how many couples go back to college together, especially after they’ve raised three children and become grandparents? Meet Peggy and Larry Rotert. This Northland couple recently earned their bachelors’ degrees together, finishing an academic journey that started in 2007 when they both enrolled at Park University. “I had my associate’s degree,” said Peggy, 51. “But I wanted to make myself more marketable.” So did Larry, a retired Navy E6 petty officer. He’d taken a hodgepodge of classes during his 20 years in the military but didn’t have enough credits for an undergraduate degree. He worried that his career opportunities in this post 9/11 world might be in jeopardy without a bachelor’s degree. “After Sept. 11, the job situation changed,” said Larry, 51. “It was not as stable. That forced me to re-evaluate my need to get a bachelor’s degree … in the quickest way possible.” Park University’s Accelerated Degree Program seemed like a perfect fit for the couple’s educational goals. Students in the program take eight-week courses, meeting for four hours and 20 minutes once a week. Peggy had her sights on a BA in management and accounting. Larry pursued his undergraduate degree in computer-based information systems. “We took two classes at a time — five sessions a year,” Peggy said. The couple juggled their rigorous class loads between ful-ltime jobs. Peggy, a former homemaker, is a senior accounting clerk at Ferrellgas. Larry works at Travelport, which supplies software for travel agencies. Their “back to school” pace was grueling. Homework absorbed most of their free time. “There were a lot of times we were glued to the couch or the kitchen table because of homework,” Peggy says. “We had 15 hours of homework in one weekend. We even took our laptops to our son’s wedding and got up early to study.” But all their hard work finally paid off. In December, the Roterts graduated with honors from Park. Peggy graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 grade point average. Larry graduated magna cum laude with a 3.89. “Oh, yes, we competed for the higher GPA,” Larry said when asked if he’s taken any ribbing about his wife’s higher grades. “We are competitive. You ought to see us when we’re bowling.” Peggy, he concedes, has the higher average there, too. The couple’s academic achievements, though, aren’t the only factors that made their commencement noteworthy. Four generations of family members saw them receive their diplomas. “We graduated on my father’s 80th birthday,” Peggy said. “Larry’s 84-year-old aunt was there, too. Two of our kids were there, and so were our grandkids.” Their youngest son, David, missed the ceremony. But the 21-year-old had a good reason. He’s finishing his bachelor’s degree at Iowa State University. Larry is technically wrapping up his degree, too. He’s still taking one last class, business communications, but Park let him graduate in December to ensure he could attend his son’s commencement in May. “We didn’t want anything to interfere with David’s graduation,” Larry said. Graduations, after all, are a big deal in the Rotert household. The couple’s twin sons, Chris and Kevin, already have graduated with bachelor’s degrees. Kevin also has a master’s degree in journalism. He and his brothers admire their parents’ determination to earn their degrees. “We really encouraged them to go back to school,” Kevin said, adding that was a goal his dad set after he retired from the Navy. “It was pretty exciting and meant a lot to us to see them graduate.” Any chance Kevin and his brothers will see their parents graduate with advanced degrees? The Roterts shake their heads and say their college days are officially over. “A master’s degree is not cost effective at my age,” Peggy said. “I’m also tired of homework, and I missed my extra family time. But I don’t regret doing this. It gives me a sense of accomplishment that I didn’t have. I’ve increased my knowledge and my manager now comes to me to get my opinions.” The Roterts encourage other adults — regardless of their age – to pursue their degrees. “It was intimidating at first to be in a class with younger kids, but after that, it wasn’t a problem,” Peggy said. “And just because you’re older doesn’t mean you can’t do this.” [rc] The Kansas City Star

SPAIN: "Life Begins Today" At Malaga Film Festival

. MADRID, Spain / Variety / Film Review / April 27, 2010 Malaga Life Begins Today La vida empieza hoy (Spain) By Jonathan Holland A Filmax release of an Ovideo production with the collaboration of TVE, TVC. (International sales: Filmax, Barcelona.) Executive producer, Quique Camin. Directed by Laura Mana. Screenplay, Alicia Luna, Mana. With: Pilar Bardem, Rosa Maria Sarda, Mariana Cordero, Luis Marco, Sonsoles Benedicto, Osvaldo Santoro, Maria Barranco, Eduardo Blanco, Fernando Tielve. Elderly people falling in love is a feel-good cinematic cliche, but that they also have sex remains largely taboo -- an oversight rectified by the feel-good if uneven comedy "Life Begins Today." A celluloid invitation for the over-60 set to trade in bifocals for vibrators, pic has a lively, sympathetic script brought to bubbling life by fine perfs, agile scripting and a shot of social critique, making this helmer Laura Mana's most commercial effort to date. Though nobody under the age of 30 need apply, offshore play is likely for an item that's uplifting in more ways than one. Pilar Bardem in “La vida empieza hoy.” Photo courtesy: © 2010 Ovideo Olga (Rosa Maria Sarda) teaches a sex class for senior citizens. Among her students are cantankerous widow Juanita (Pilar Bardem), longing for death; Pepe (Luis Marco), obsessed with staying in shape and thinking of divorcing his wife, Rosa (Mariana Cordero); and Herminia (Sonsoles Benedicto), who lives with her daughter Nina (Maria Barranco). Meanwhile, Julian (tubby, terrific Osvaldo Santoro) has flown in from Argentina to visit his son Alfredo (Eduardo Blanco) and family, though it soon becomes clear he's planning a longer stay. Seeing Herminia in the street, he follows her to the sex class. Elsewhere, Pepe's affair with his secretary ends, plunging him further into crisis; Juanita starts to detect unusual stirrings as she's examined by her doctor (Francesc Garrido); and geriatric hijinks ensue. Perfs are understated and naturalistic from a cast with the combined experience of Methuselah. Shuttling easy between the lyrical and the comically crude, the busy script keeps things moving with a vigor wholly appropriate to a movie that's selling vigor as a lifestyle choice. Dialogue is sometimes quite funny, especially when the seniors are criticizing the political correctness of their offspring, who come in for some stinging satire in terms of their generation's hypocritical attitudes to the old. Pic is strongest when focusing on the oldsters. One particularly well-judged thread is the relationship between Julian and his grandson Kim (Fernando Tielve), who end up gratifying themselves, side by side: It's a sign of the helmer's skill that, far from being offensive, the scene is both comic and celebratory. The script rarely fails to hit the comic G-spot, but some of the comedy is still based on the oddity of seeing the elderly having sex. Particularly patronizing -- and cheap, given what the pic is capable of -- are later scenes featuring Rosa in dominatrix gear. (Indeed, the entire Pepe-Rosa strand is likely to raise feminist eyebrows.) Xavier Capellas' attractive score, though overused, is well deployed in the wonderful final sequence. Camera (color, widescreen), Mario Montero; editor, Lucas Nolla; music, Xavier Capellas; art director, Balter Gallart; sound (Dolby Digital), Dani Fontrodona. Reviewed at Malaga Film Festival (competing), April 22, 2010. Running time: 91 MIN. [rc] © Copyright 2010 RBL

UK: Let the sunshine in

. LONDON, England / The Times / Life & Style / Health / April 27, 2010 Our fear of skin cancer is blinding us to our need for sunlight. Bring on the rays . . . By John Naish “Sunlight is like a good champagne,” wrote Sir Henry Gauvain, an eminent British surgeon in the 1920s. “It invigorates and stimulates; indulged in to excess, it intoxicates and poisons.” Sadly in the UK in recent years our attitude to the sun has leant distinctly towards the latter state. Thanks to the insistent focus on the rise of skin cancer and our love affair with the tanning salon we are constantly exhorted to cover up at all costs and slather ourselves with factor 50 even in the shade. Photo courtesy: British Skin Foundation In fact, the risks of shunning life-giving sun were highlighted last week by research linking lack of sunlight to higher rates of prostate disease in northern countries. Poor exposure to sunshine can lead to vitamin D deficiency, which may increase prostate cancer risk, suggest scientists at Idaho State University. Lack of vitamin D is blamed for many other illnesses, from heart disease to osteoporosis. The obvious answer is to swallow supplements — and this month, the US Government said that most American children should do so. Photo by courtesy: Idaho State University But a raft of new research shows that to stay healthy and sane, we actually need full-spectrum sun rather than supplement pills. Sunshine is far better for us than we think. We evolved to absorb healthily moderate amounts of full-spectrum sunlight, and not only for its vitamin D-producing powers. For example, an important study this month indicates that the ultra-violet part of sunlight plays a bigger role than vitamin D in limiting multiple sclerosis. The disease is more common in the north than the tropics, so researchers had blamed the rise of MS on lack of vitamin D. A new study by Hector DeLuca, a biochemistry professor at Wisconsin-Madison University, confounds this. When people have high blood-levels of vitamin D, they also have high blood-levels of calcium. But DeLuca found that people at the Equator have low blood calcium and hence low vitamin D. So what is going on? Photo credit: madison.com DeLuca’s tests reveal ultra-violet light as the critical factor. His studies show that exposure to it reduces the symptoms of MS. The same sort of effect may also occur in diseases such as kidney cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which are lower in men who work outdoors — even in Britain. “We are looking to identify compounds produced in the skin that might play a role,” Deluca says in a paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work may create new types of light therapy, especially if research finds specific beneficial wavelengths in sunlight. Scientists are also beginning to reveal sunlight’s benefits for our brains. Last month, research reported how modern adolescents are increasingly sluggish because they spend too much time indoors. “They miss out on essential morning light needed to stimulate the body’s 24-hour biological system, which regulates the sleep-wake cycle,” says Mariana Figueiro, of the Lighting Research Centre at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York state, who led the study. Exposure to morning short-wavelength blue light is crucial to our body clocks, Figueiro says. It helps our bodies to time the release of the hormone melatonin, which signals when to sleep later on. Figueiro got a group of 14-year-olds to wear glasses that blocked blue light. By the end of the five-day study, they were going to bed an average of half an hour later than usual. “Melatonin onset was delayed by about six minutes each day,” Figueiro says. Lack of sunlight has physical effects on kids, too. The Centre of Excellence in Vision Science at the Australian Research Council last year found that those who spend most of their day indoors, have far more “high myopia” — severe short-sightedness that has a 50-50 chance of blindness in middle-age. The researchers think the neurotransmitter dopamine is involved. It inhibits the excessive eyeball growth that causes myopia. Sunshine causes the retina to release more dopamine. Sun deprivation is not just an issue for teenage computer addicts. British adults dedicate less than 30 minutes in an average day to outdoor activity, says the Government’s UK 2000 Time Use Survey. Urbanisation, long work days and the tendency to sit gazing at screens indoors are all linked to the emergence of conditions such as malillumination syndrome (MIS), which involves depression, fatigue and aggression. The problem is not so much an illness, more a natural adaptation. When we deprive ourselves of sunlight, the pituitary gland in the brain is stimulated less. Our brains respond as if they are in the depths of a dark, perilous winter and prompt us to adopt survival tactics: grab more sleep, stay inside, be less sociable and eat whatever is available. Lack of sunlight interferes with the hormone leptin, which tells us when the stomach is full. We feel compelled to eat more, while exercising less. We pile on pounds. A University of Aberdeen study of 3,100 women in the northeast of Scotland, where one in five is overweight, found that the clinically obese have 10 per cent less vitamin D than those of healthy size. Dr Helen Macdonald, of Aberdeen University, says “The link is significant. We think obese people are not getting enough sunshine.” Sun exposure also helps to regulate two mood-controlling hormones, melatonin and serotonin, which play a crucial role in depression and seasonal-affective disorder. Levels of feel-good serotonin particularly dip in winter. Research by Lance Workman, a biological psychologist at Bath Spa University, suggests that more than 90 per cent of people feel more joyful when they enter periods of increased sunlight. So if we want to be happily efficient office bunnies, we need to get out more. However, the average UK lunch break has shrunk to 27 minutes (if we take one at all). Rather than taking sandwiches to the park, we gobble antidepressants indoors. For a solution we may be inspired by our great-grandparents’ passion for heliotherapy — or sunshine therapy. This was popularised in the early 1900s by a Swiss doctor, Auguste Rollier, who founded his work on discoveries that solar radiation could help to treat smallpox. Rollier opened solaria, with south-facing balconies and retractable roofs, across Switzerland. Soon the sun was touted throughout Europe as a balm for lupus, cuts, burns, arthritis and nerve damage. Tans became trendy. In Twenties Britain, respected physicians formed the Sunlight League to lobby for sun-therapy to become central to public health. They believed that “the practice of air bathing” gave greatest benefit — nudism was born. So, too, were lidos — open-air swimming pools — the first in Hyde Park, then they spread across England. By the Second World War, the craze had died down. Newly discovered antibiotics worked better against germs. Doctors were learning how excess sun did more harm than good. Sir Henry Gauvain, Britain’s leading heliotherapist and tuberculosis specialist, foresaw the problem in 1922. Now, thanks to new appreciation of sunlight, the balance needs redressing in healthy moderation. A few are starting to suggest that we should rethink our vampiric paranoia. Dr Veronique Bataille is among a group of scientists who report in the journal Nature Genetics, that the sun’s link with skin cancer has been overstated. “There has been so much effort put into telling people about the damaging effects of ultra-violet light from sunshine, many now take extreme measures by wearing factor 15 moisturisers all year round,” she says. “People do need a bit of sunshine to stay healthy.” After a long, miserable winter, what more excuse do we need to lighten up and brighten up? Decent exposure How much sun is sufficient to ensure we gain the benefits of full-spectrum sunlight? Advice varies — and is all dependent on the time of year, the weather and the lightness or darkness of our skin. The British Association of Dermatologists has issued guidance with the National Osteoporosis Society that recommends that we should get 15 to 20 minutes of sun exposure a day. But Bevis Man, of the British Skin Foundation, says that we should learn to judge our own limits of safe exposure: “It’s about being aware and literate about your own skin,” he says. “People with light skin should not stay in the sun as long as others with darker skin. The main thing is not to burn. I suggest people err on the side of caution and avoid being in the sun between 11am and 3pm. We should get into the habit of reading the UV-light forecasts.” The Met Office website carries a daily UV forecast, in which the scores go up to 11 — 1 and 2 are the lowest and you need not take precautions; from 3 to 5, you should seek shade in the midday hours and wear sunscreen; from 8 to 11, stay indoors during the midday hours but outside always wear a hat, sunscreen and shirt. The Met Office says the solar index does not exceed 8 in the UK. [rc] Copyright 2010 Times Newspapers Ltd. Illustrative photos and links added by Seniors World Chronicle

AUSTRALIA: Older Australians have costlier healthcare

. SYDNEY, NSW / Australian Aging Agenda / Health Care / April 27, 2010 More money is spent on health for older Australians than other age groups because they are more likely to have chronic diseases and life-threatening illnesses. An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report on health expenditure for disease and injury in 2004-05 found that more than a fifth of health spending, or $11 billion, was directed towards people aged 75 and over. Those aged 75 to 84 made up the costliest age group, with $8 billion allocated to managing their diseases and injuries. Only $3 billion was spent on the health care needs of people aged 85 and over but this was because there was a smaller number of people in that age group. At $7.9 billion, health expenditure for people aged 65 to 74 was only marginally higher than healthcare costs of those aged 55 to 64, which reached $7.5 billion. But on a per person basis, healthcare spending on those aged 65 to 74 was 66 per cent higher than the younger age group. Healthcare costs for males aged 55 and over were higher than those for females. This was partly because older men were more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease, the report said. The AIHW’s report on health expenditure in 2004-05 did not include data from residents in high level residential aged care. [rc] © The Intermedia Group. Illustrative photo courtesy WA Government

CHINA: Teahouse and truths about life

. SHANGHAI, China / The Shanghai Daily / Living in Shanghai / April 27, 2010 By Wang Yong A piece of fallen wood is not dead. "String" it, and its life springs back in the form of music. I had heard the Buddhist expression ku mu feng chun (spring breezes life back into withered wood) in archaic Chinese literature, but never before had I understood melodies from a fallen piece of wood with strings as a living thing. I gained this enlightening perception of life in a trip last month to a Buddhist monastery in the wooded hills in Hangzhou, a bucolic city just about an hour from Shanghai by bullet train. Visitors relax at the Fuquan Teahouse and terrace on the grounds of Yongfu Monastery. Photo: Shanghai Daily My wife and I were taking a leisurely walk and appreciating the scenery, as we often do in Hangzhou, when we chanced upon a lecture on guqin music and Buddhism in the Pathaka Hall of Yongfu Monastery. It was almost dusk when we found ourselves in this graceful Buddhist music hall, where master Nian Shun happened to be playing guqin, a seven-stringed traditional instrument. The performance was part of a lecture to visiting scholars of Buddhism from Shanghai. Guqin has a history of more than 3,000 years; there is no comparable instrument in the West (the closest may be a zither). It came into vogue in Confucius' lifetime (551?479 BC), and has since become a musical carrier of Confucian values for its soft, solemn and soothing tunes. Confucius himself was a great guqin player and composer. Over time, with increased interaction between Confucian scholars, Buddhist monks and Taoist thinkers, guqin became a favorite of all. Master Nian Shun played two songs: "Gui Qu Lai Ci" ("Away From the Crowd") and "Jing Guan Yin" ("Observation in Peace"). The first is about retiring from the hustle and bustle of mundane politics into the quiet of farmland, while the second is about the merits of a tranquil mind. As master Nian Shun played, I marveled at how close Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism could be - you couldn't tell whether these two songs were actually Confucian, Buddhist or Taoist. They both produce peace in the hall and in the heart. At that moment, any distinction between "isms" would be meaningless. All that mattered was a sudden revelation that life in a different shape was still life. A piece of fallen wood, as master Nian Shun explained before his performance, was not dead. It could be turned into a guqin. Without the casual encounter with master Nian Shun, we might have taken Yongfu Monastery as another tranquil Buddhist temple where you normally would just bow, burn incense, pray and listen to Buddhist chants. In Yongfu, you bow, pray and listen - not just to chanting, but also to guqin music that transcends "isms" in its delivery of peace. A few days later, I told my guqin teacher in Shanghai that we had met a monk who plays guqin very well. She asked: "Was it master Nian Shun?" Surprised, I asked how she knew. She said he had invited her to perform in the monastery some time before. She praised him as both a master player and a master craftsman of guqin. Entranced, my wife and I visited Yongfu Monastery again on April 3. The music hall was closed that day and I felt a stab of loss in my heart. But then, imagine this - we found master Nian Shun in the Hall for Three Saints of the West. Many people were gathered there in prayer to celebrate the birth of Avalokiteshvara, a Buddha who is said to deliver people from misery. Was it luck or fate? Or was it rather guqin that brought us together twice in a fortnight? On spotting master Nian Shun in the crowd, my wife was delighted but hung back. I decided to strike up a conversation. "Are you master Nian Shun?" I approached and asked. "Yes," he said, beaming. "I listened to your guqin music on March 20," I continued, beaming back. "Really?" his smile became broader. "And my teacher said she knows you. She said you play very well." "Your teacher is?" "Qiao Shan." "Ah, she is really a guqin master. She is professional. How can I compare to her?" he said modestly, his ever-shier smile attesting to his sincere modesty. After a few more polite words our first brief conversation ended. As I tried to shake hands before parting, he folded his hands before his chest in the typical Buddhist gesture of farewell, and of greeting. I withdrew my hand, a bit embarrassed at my lack of knowledge about Buddhist rituals. He graciously overlooked my awkwardness, bidding me farewell with a delicate bow and beaming smile. Rituals, like "isms," are indeed secondary to a good soul, a soul searching for peace through understanding. I haven't learned to play "Gui Qu Lai Ci" or "Jing Guan Yin" yet, but it doesn't matter. As long as I understand the transformation of a fallen piece of wood, master Nian Shun would love to hear any guqin music flowing from my heart and that wonderful piece of wood. Certainly you don't have to be a guqin player to appreciate the beauty of 1,600-year-old Yongfu Monastery. Most first-time visitors are impressed by its garden-style landscape. The monastery is unlike most others in which buildings are strictly symmetrical and placed close together in a compact setting. In Yongfu, temples and other buildings are scattered about the scenery, like hermit poets. "It's more like prose," master Nian Shun said in his lecture last month. "People in different buildings do not disturb each other." Prose indeed. Prose on hills. One place in the "prose-monastery" one must visit is the Fuquan Teahouse on a hilltop near the Pathaka Hall ("Fuquan" means "spring of fortune" in Chinese). A large terrace, shaded by lush trees and overlooking mountains near and far, assures a cool and quiet place to relax on a weekend trip. As you sip tea in this beautiful tea garden and appreciate nature all around you, the trees, the birds, the flowers, bear in mind that these are not the only living things. Consider the stones beneath your feet, the soil itself and the fallen wooden branches and leaves. [rc] The newly opened Yangzhou Buddhist Culture Museum, so far China's biggest museum of its kind, is a combination of the magnificent Tianning and Chongning temples. Photo: Shanghai Daily Copyright © 2001-2010 Shanghai Daily Publishing House

BANGLADESH: Seniors complain of waiting days for old age allowance

. DHAKA, Bangladesh / The Daily Star / Front Page / April 27, 2010 Doing a slow burn Seniors complain of waiting days for old age allowance Elderly persons from Kamrangirchar in the capital waiting on the premises of Sonali Bank's Lalbagh branch yesterday to receive old-age allowances. Photo:Shawkat Jamil By Shahnaz Parveen Maqbul Hossain is 64 but looks 10 years older. Suffering from prostate cancer, he was standing in the crowd outside the Lalbagh branch of Sonali Bank on a recent noon, competing with scores of other senior citizens trying to push their way inside. “They treat us like beggars,” said Maqbul sputtering paan juice and leaning on his cane. “No one tells us when our names will be called. They do not give us any information either. “We stand at the bank entrance for the whole day starting early morning and go back empty-handed.” Maqbul is just one in the army of 22. 5 lakh elderly people that descend every three months on their local bank to collect 900 taka in their old age allowance, a government programme that started in 1997. They complained bitterly about waiting long hours for their names to be called. Sometimes the waiting period at the bank lasts up to four or five days. The government says that it is trying to fix the problem as the number of eligible continues to increase. This financial year the government is paying Tk. 810 crore as old age allowance. “Work is currently in progress to introduce friendly, easier and fast distribution system,” said Enamul Haque Mostafa Shahid Moni, the minister for social welfare. “There is a plan to deliver the allowance directly to the house of the recipient instead of troubling the ailing senior citizens to come to the bank”, he said, adding that a computerised database system will also be introduced to keep records of the participants. For many though the government's current plan does not bring a ready solution to their misery. Even the bank officials say it is a mess. “No matter how hard we try, we cannot restore order among the crowd coming for the allowance”, said Deepak Kumar Das, Manager, Lalbagh Branch of Sonali Bank. “We have tried to introduce separate days for different areas but they all come on the same day” At Das's branch yesterday many elderly citizens were standing on the street. Many of them were either walking with support from someone or being carried by relatives like babies. One woman was so confused that she was crying on the stairs. Some of them were simply tired of waiting. “I have been coming to the bank for the last four days in a row”, said Mosammat Momtaj, a 70-year-old hunchbacked woman in her threadbare sari. The Kamrangir Char resident said she skipped her work as a maid to stand in line to get the allowance. “I even spent my own money for food while I am waiting”, she said. “I know that the meagre amount will only last a few days. But it is better than having nothing” Recipients also complained that becoming eligible through the selection process is another ordeal. Beneficiaries are selected by a Boishko Bhata committee consisting of local ward commissioner, chairman and local social welfare officers in each Ward and Union Parishad. Some senior citizens complained that the committee members sometimes prefer their relatives for the eligibility list, often excluding the real needy ones. “It took me many visits to the ward commissioner's office to qualify for the allowance”, said Tajul Islam from Tejkuni para waiting at the Tejgaon Sonali Bank branch. “Sometimes a little bribe helps.” [rc] © thedailystar.net, 1991-2008.

CHINA: Time to shape up and shed pounds

. SHANGHAI, China / The Shanghai Daily / Health / April 27, 2010 Time to shape up and shed pounds By Zhang Qian EAT less, take in fewer calories and exercise. That's the way to lose weight - there are no shortcuts. Zhang Qian weighs in. As temperatures rise, people are shedding clothes and showing off their bodies. More show up at the gym to shape up, and watch their diet. We all know how to lose weight: take in fewer calories than you burn. Do this by eating less overall, eating fewer fats, carbohydrates and sweets - but eating a nutritious diet. And exercise regularly. Women are especially concerned about having a nice figure and many are obsessed with body image. Many women who are not fat think that they are obese. Many healthy women with a normal BMI (body mass index) want to get rid of fat. "All ladies hate fat arms, fat around their waist, a fat backside and 'elephant legs,' even though their BMI is in the normal range," says Sarah Shen, a beauty counselor at the Shanghai branch of the Hong Kong Sau San Tong Healthy Trim Institute. Fat around the middle and bottom are especially common among women office workers who spend most of their time sitting and get little exercise, she says. The female body naturally has more fat in the belly to protect the uterus and support pregnancy. Stress and irregular eating habits can aggravate the problem. Skipping meals leaves people hungry so they often overeat at the next meal. "Not eating and then eating a big meal is the most terrible thing for your figure," says Shen. Eating less and exercising more to burn fat is good way to lose weight. Eat less and exercise more is the golden rule for weight loss. "People gain fat because they have taken in more nutrition than they can burn, and the excess is stored as fat," says Shen. "They should eat less and exercise more to burn existing fat." There are many misconceptions about how best to lose weight. Many women think they should not eat protein, so they don't eat any meat or chicken; some say rice and flour are the arch fat-gain criminals; some eliminate almost everything but some fruits. Some hardly eat at all, starving their bodies. None of this is correct. Protein, carbohydrates (which are mainly sugars and starches), fats, vitamins, and microelements are all necessary. The body burns carbohydrates and fats for energy. Carbohydrates help accelerate metabolism. Protein is necessary for good muscle (that doesn't mean bulging) and muscle cells burn more calories than other tissue. Muscle weighs more than fat, so it's possible to lose fat and look much better, but also build some muscle for a better shape. This can mean a net weight gain, though fat is lost. Protein is necessary for good skin and to keep skin from sagging a lot after significant weight loss. Yet to achieve the trimming goal, it is advised to reduce the amount of each category but still have a balanced diet with all elements. Diet counsellor Shen suggests an oil-free breakfast mainly of carbohydrates and protein, and lunch and dinner with a little oil, including carbohydrates, protein and vegetables. It's all right to eat a late supper but you should not eat within three hours of going to sleep. Eating healthy foods such as tomatoes, cucumber, pearl barley and turnips can help in weight loss. Yoko Lino, a nutritionist with Japanese juice company Kagome, says eating tomatoes at night helps accelerate secretion of growth hormone during sleep, thus boosting metabolism. The fiber and pectin in tomatoes contribute to a full feeling and reduce the desire for food. Lycopene in tomatoes is an anti-oxidant that helps delay signs of aging. Moderate to intense aerobic exercise (cardio, huffing and puffing) is better than anaerobic exercise (weights, sprinting) for losing fat, says Shen. Sustained swimming, using a treadmill, jogging, quick walking and hot yoga are effective aerobic exercise. Shen advises at least 30-40 minutes a session as frequently as possible to lose fat. More frequent exercise results in greater fat burning and weight loss. [rc] Copyright © 2001-2010 Shanghai Daily Publishing House