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LONDON, England / BBC News / UK / Technology / March 16, 2010

By Jane Wakefield
Technology reporter, BBC News

Ten years ago a job seeker would have gone to a job centre to find work, a hobbyist might have joined an evening class to pursue a love of art and a person struggling to pay their bills may have turned to social services. Now they go online.

There is still a digital divide in the UK with 20% of the population - about 10 million people - still having no experience of using computers or the internet.

But increasingly people are seeing a value in technology and many are getting their first taste of the internet at one of 6,000 UK Online centres dotted around the country.

Heeley Online Centre in Sheffield is typical, and its daily sessions are always busy.

John Smylie, an 80-year-old retired engineer, is a frequent visitor.

He bought a computer in December after "negotiating" with his wife but quickly realised he didn't really know how to use it.

"I was at the wheelbarrow stage. It was going in every direction apart from the one I wanted it to go in," he said.

What he wanted to do was some quite sophisticated web browsing.

"I wanted to look at work from the Whitbread Gallery and the Louvre and I'd heard about a man on YouTube who did practical art demonstrations," he said.

He is now learning how to use e-mail and wants to be able to send pictures to his two sons in Australia.

"I've discovered it isn't called a photograph, it is called an attachment. You have to learn a whole new vocabulary," he said.

But it is worth it, he thinks.

"It opens up a lot of windows on the world. I am not just looking at art galleries but other information on the cultures in other countries. It was a narrow world that I was brought up in and now I have a much wider picture of the world," he said.

Suzanne Gambles has more dramatic praise for the centre, claiming it has "saved her life".

Initially it provided her with an e-mail account which allowed her to communicate with her utility company over bills she was unable to pay.

But, after years out of work and without any self-confidence, she also used it to build social skills and find a job. She has recently started work as a cleaner.

"It has changed my life amazingly. Without it I wouldn't have sorted out the bills, I wouldn't have got a job. For me it's the best thing in the area," she said.

And it hasn't just been the big things in her life that the net has helped with.

"I saw a bird on my doorstep and I came here and we typed in the details and found out it was a woodpecker," she said.

Social help

----------------------------------------------------


A season of reports exploring the extraordinary power of the internet, including:

* Digital giants - top thinkers in the business on the future of the web

* Mapping the internet - a visual representation of the spread of the web over the last 20 years

* Global Voices - the BBC links up with an online community of bloggers around the world

* What is SuperPower?

-------------------------------------------------
Maxine Bowler runs the Heeley online centre and has recently successfully bid for an extra £45,000 in funding out of a pot of £32 million made available to UK Online centres.

She plans to use the money to extend the number of outreach projects she does in the area.

Currently she works with 15 sheltered housing units in the city as well as running classes for people with learning difficulties on a nearby estate.

These classes are not without their difficulties - laptops do not always work, access is not easy to get and, currently the centre is relying on a set of dongles - devices which allow machines to connect to the internet over a 3G mobile connection - which don't always connect.

The BBC went with Ms Bowler on her first visit to the Park View Lodge sheltered housing unit.

The new recruits were keen but the registration process - to a course known as myguide - was very slow and in the hour's session none of them actually got beyond the myguide site.

The myguide course has been criticised by some as not being the best introduction to the web although UK Online Centres report a 98% satisfaction rate among those who use the training scheme.

Getting older people online is one of the main priorities of the UK's Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox. It is estimated that only 30% of those of retirement age are online.

Residents of sheltered housing units in Sheffield actively voted to boost their computer literacy skills which illustrates how computers are starting to have an impact on the traditional turned-off older generation.

"The reps from each centre had to vote for which activity they wanted. We were up against chairobic classes and Age Concern who were offering day trips and other activities. I thought trips out would win but they chose us," explained Ms Bowler.

One resident, 63 year old Chris Garrett, is very computer-literate and has his own PC on which he is writing about his life as a singer with sixties rock and roll group Raye Duvall and the Rockmates. But others had never touched a computer in their lives.

Irene struggled to see the screen

Mr Garrett is keen to persuade his partner, Kathy Skinner, to give it a go and both of them see the internet as a powerful tool in their campaign to get better living conditions for older people.

82-year-old John Beachell has several good reasons to go online. He wants to e-mail his sister in Melbourne who he is no longer able to visit in person as well as explore his own colourful past as an actor with parts in films including the British comedy Brassed Off.

He doesn't seem particularly impressed by his first taste of computers.

"What I've learnt today is not a lot and I'll have forgotten it again in 24 hours," he said.

85-year-old Irene Thorpe has never used a computer but comes with her own set of skills as she used to be a typist.

Her issue is that she "can't see the screen very well" and she finds the keyboard fiddly.

She is not entirely sure why she wants to go online although contact with her grandson, a footballer with Sheffield Wednesday's youth team, is a big incentive.

For residents in the sheltering housing unit as well as at the day centre which caters for people with learning difficulties, the classes have a value beyond the key skills they are teaching.

"Loneliness is one of our biggest problems. This doesn't replace face to face contact but it makes a huge difference to people's lives," said Ms Bowler. [rc]

© BBC MMX

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LONDON, England / The Guardian / Society / Care / March 16, 2010

Universal system paid for by taxation would disproportionately benefit the very wealthy, thinktank warns

By Randeep Ramesh,
Social affairs editor, The Guardian

The government has been told not to consider setting up a tax funded universal personal care service for older people, because it would disproportionately benefit the very wealthy.

Related news report
'Middle class pensioners will be spared spiralling care bills'

Currently, pensioners with more than £23,000 in savings and assets have to pay the full cost with no financial help from the state. Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY/Telegraph

The King's Fund thinktank has waded into the minefield which has seen angry exchanges between all three parties, by arguing for a "partnership" where the Treasury funds half of old age care costs, and the remaining bill is paid for by "a £1 matching government contribution for every £2 individuals pay themselves".

The system would also have a safety net for the poor. It would not be cheap, and is projected to cost the government £10.1bn in 2015, rising to £15.5bn by 2026 – 90% more than the existing system would cost in 2015. But it would benefit people with modest means, the fund said, "as they would no longer face the 'cliff-edge' of the current means-tested system if they have savings or assets of £23,000 or more".

Since 1997 adult social care has enjoyed a 53% real-terms increase in resources, yet the impact of demographic and funding pressures has meant an ever tighter rationing of services, with the "safety net of public support cast even higher".

Richard Humphries, the lead author of a King's Fund report, Securing Good Care for More People, published today, said that the existing system was a bargain-basement version of care which had seen councils contain demand by restricting access. By 2006, fewer households were receiving supported home care than in 1997, and fewer older people got publicly funded care at home than did in 2003. Three-quarters of councils now treat old people only if they have "substantial or critical" needs. "We have means-tested the soul out of the system," said Humphries. "The debate has become about the 45,000 people forced to sell their homes to get care, but there are 1.8 million people who use adult social services."

The report says that Britain is now the only rich country to "restrict access to publicly funded social care only to poorer people"; reforms in Austria, Germany and Japan have widened access to their provision. However, Humphries said it would be wrong to assume that this meant Britain needed universal free care funded out of taxation. This, the report says, would "disproportionately benefit wealthier people at the point of need". The question was a political and moral one, he argued. "Why should a cleaner on £8,000 a year pay taxes to fund the care of a person who lives in a £400,000 property that will be left to their children but does not have to find a penny?"

The fund says individuals should contribute to cost of care in old age, as there is a "growing awareness" of the affluence of the newly retiring baby-boomer generation who will control £2tr in housing wealth by 2026; otherwise we would have "by far the richest cohort in history becoming the first to receive universal free care ... paid for, to a significant extent, by the most indebted cohort in modern times". [rc]

© Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

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MUMBAI, Maharashtra / The Sunday Times / City - Mumbai / February 21, 2010

To GRANDMA with LOVE

Seniors can now get a slew of services from medicare to entertainment, thanks to the nascent homecare industry

By Joeanna Rebello Fernandes | Times News Network

Not for nothing has old age been called the outpatients department of purgatory. In cities guilty of crimes against the elderly, deficient welfare schemes and a lackadaisical attitude to this demographic, old age is hell itself. Over the last few years, however, people on both sides of 60 have jumpstarted a slew of services that make life’s fourth phase a bit easier.

An under-marketed analgesic is the homecare industry, where service providers show up at the door to fix anything from a broken bulb to a bruise. Sometimes the need of the hour is simply company, and that solitary end too is met by these institutions. Their raison d’etre is typically summarised in taglines that read, ‘Taking care of your beloved elders’ or ‘Your concern is our responsibility’. Outsourcing parent care may have its ethical arguments, but for practical purposes, it turns out such intermediaries are just what the NRI ordered.

SILVER LINING

Roopesh Kumar, who ushered his company Eldess into Mumbai late last year, is an NRI himself who knew firsthand about the guilt and anxiety that torment children living outside the orbit of aging parents. When he drew up the template for his company, he consulted friends like himself. “We knew that relatives couldn’t always be expected to rush to our parents when they needed help,” he says in a phone interview from London. Their yearning for “a service they could call”— long popular in the West — had Kumar building just the thing. “In India, the options available for elderly assistance are either charity or dollar-driven. There’s nothing affordable for the middle classes,” he says, adding that his company is “that friendly relative” who will do everything from running errands to accompanying seniors to the doctor and even playing escort to a film or play. Eldess has already affiliated with A-grade healthcare providers, and is in the process of tying up with a range of servicemen, from plumbers to handymen. “And because we offer bulk business, our clients will actually pay less,” he says.

Outside actuals — the handyman’s charges or the price of a movie ticket — the client pays for the service of the company rep. Standard packages with a preprogrammed line-up of services can cost about Rs 2,000 a month. If a client needs an arid tap repaired, the rep will source a legitimate plumber in the neighbourhood, supervise his work, and leave only after the problem is solved. At Eldess the reps, young graduates for now, are vetted by the company; their credentials verified by a security firm and their data registered with the police. Later, Kumar hopes to hire retired senior citizens themselves.

While Eldess currently only operates in Mumbai, a company called NRI Parental Care India has been working to bring the joy back to Kolkata. The company estimates there are at least 5,000 seniors in Kolkata who need and can afford this service. However, although established in 2008, they have only 12 committed clients to date. “I’m not entirely sure why this is so,” muses Animesh Chowdhury, the US-residing CEO. “It could be partly due to our meagre advertising budget. Part of it has to do with the general scepticism seniors have towards any company that promises to help them. Part of it is that many seniors are in denial that they need help. There’s also the fact that the cost of living is lower in Kolkata than other metros, and when people see that they are paying a few hundred rupees for a day’s work, they think it’s too much.”

Surveys reveal that security, finances and healthcare are the three apical concerns of the aging. Doorstep Doctor, a Noida-based service provider has made the third concern its business. Its preventive and proactive healthcare plans span the whole body of benefits from home visits by a physician, emergency assistance, maintenance of medical records, telephonic medical advice and free ambulance services. In addition to these are routine investigations familiar to that age group, like screening for arthritis and gout, liver disorders, diabetes, prostate cancer and such other body blows. Doorstep Doctor has a network that covers the country, with affiliates like Fortis, Max Healthcare Apollo, Jaslok, Wockhardt and others.

While gerontology throws up bright business opportunities for some, others view it less lasciviously. Dignity Foundation’s Companion Services for Senior Citizens has been dispatching volunteers to the homes of those over 50 since 1997. “A distress call is answered within 24 hours,” says Neha Shah, GM of Dignity’s Social Support Services. “Loneliness is a common complaint; people just want someone to talk to.” And that’s what they get. Dignity has about 100 volunteers on its roster (mostly seniors themselves), who are happy to do pretty much everything for free that private companies charge for. “A Gujarati writer whose vision was failing wanted someone to read her old works aloud to her and even take dictation. One of our volunteers visited her very week, and engaged her in stimulating discussions until the end,” recalls Shah. “Another visually impaired woman wanted someone to sing bhajans with her. We satisfied that request too; an 88-yearold man wanted help transferring all his physical photographs to the computer. We sent two volunteers over.”

With doorstep deliverance, old age or retirement homes may soon be considered last choice, not sole option. Ravi Chawla, 73, who runs and writes for the blog Seniors World Chronicle, has this to say about this emergent trend. “The upside is the convenience to senior citizens, and also the tremendous scope it offers to professional voluntarism. People trained at places like TISS can develop a career out of it. And here’s the downside: the advent of such add-on services for seniors means more people will make money out of the elderly. Service providers will make old folk give more than they should for what’s offered. And they’ll do it through emotional atyachar.” For a little more than a song. [rc]

Copyright © 2010 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.

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BEIJING, China / The People's Daily / Life & Culture / February 8, 2010

Recently, a new phrase "children's slaves" has become popular among the post 80's generation. To live well or to give birth to a child? That is the question has perplexed many young parents in many countries.

"Children's slaves" means parents spare no effort to raise their children all their life even losing their self-worth. Now being "children's slaves" has become a kind of panic disorder that is spreading among young parents in China. Being afraid of giving birth to children has become a social phenomenon. The phenomenon also exists in other countries. However, more foreign parents consider enjoying life with their children as the most important thing rather than investing in their children.

Bearing children is becoming costly to a generation

Mrs. Huang, who was born in the 1980s, has just given birth to a baby. At the mention of taking care of her 2-month baby, she said, "it's really not easy to raise a child." Huang has also found many ways to save money. For example, her baby's clothes and toys are all from her relatives' elder children. She uses cheaper diapers for her baby during the daytime. She added that now one child in China is raised by 6 adults so it wouldn't be too hard.

To Huang, shopping for her child is the main cost. However, Sabina considered hiring a nurse for children is the most expensive part. 120 U.S. dollars per month for food, 50 U.S. dollars per month for clothes, 100 U.S. dollars per month for toys and books, 100 U.S. dollars per month for health care, 200 U.S. dollars per month for other daily necessities, 50 U.S. dollars for children's party, 100 U.S. dollars per month for swimming lessons and 300 U.S. dollars for hiring a nurse. Sabina also told the reporter that the normal salaries can afford the fees for raising children in America. The food and clothes are cheap, but the labor is expensive in the U.S.

When entering into the education phase, it's harder for parents in many countries. 41 year old Stephen is now living in London. He has an 8-year-old daughter. He told the reporter that he paid more attention on his daughter rather than his career. Her 10,000 pound tuition fee makes Stephen feel under pressure. In other words, Stephen is a "children's slave".

"Children's slaves" phenomenon has incurred many other social phenomenon

The "18 independence" is a tradition in western countries. People would be puzzled as to why there are "Children's slaves" in western countries.

In fact, the tradition is fading away gradually. A children's charity organization in Britain pointed out that middle class families in Britain are fostering the "spoiled generation".

In America, delaying pregnancy is becoming a trend. Influenced by the financial crisis, many American families are afraid of giving birth to more children.

Notion is the main problem

It's obviously that the "children's slaves" phenomenon is not so serious in western countries when comparing to China. Zhou Ning, the dean of the Humanity College in Xiamen University, believes that the main cause of the phenomenon is the notion.

Chinese culture considers family as the center. Although society has changed, the tradition of considering family as the center is still prominent. Considering children as the center of the family is the upgrading of the traditional notion. Secondly, financial care is always believed to be the main form of expressing love. While education in their personality, values and respect are ignored.

Illustrative photo courtesy: mongabay/china

Many conditions in European countries can prove Professor Zhou's view. As "developing by themselves" is adopted as the golden rule in education, children in Holland are regarded as the happiest children in Europe. Parents in Switzerland and Norway choose to cultivate their children's ability of independence as early as junior high. It's even the same in Japan.

"Children's slaves" need help from society

In fact, the phenomenon mainly occurs in cities.

Most parents hope that their children can make their own dream come true. At the same time, with improving living standards, the foundation of consumption can not satisfy well-off families. The parents would like to invest more on their only child.

Professor Zhou believes that the institutional guarantee is the most important part in solving the problem. Secondly, the old notion needs to be change. Young parents should learn to be parents and express their love.

Once parents have adjusted their attitude and change the way they educate their children, their children will see benefits and parents can be relaxed. [rc]

Lu Le, Ji Shuangcheng, Lin Xueyuan, Duan Congcong and Chen Yi contributed to the story

Copyright by People's Daily / Global Times

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SURAT, Gujarat / The Times of India / February 7, 2010

By Himanshu Bhatt, Times News Network

Over 150 senior citizens gathered at a house in Adajan here on Sunday where they sang and danced and gorged on undhiya, puri, dhokla and gajar ka halwa. The occasion was celebration of marriage of Nakum Thakkar, 69, and Pravina Thakkar, 59, who got married on January 26,2010 in Ahmedabad ignoring opposition from family members and relatives.

Adajan in Surat is famous for this temple.

The next day the couple had showered their blessings on actor Shahrukh Khan at a five star hotel before returning to Surat where they plan to spend the remaining years of their life supporting each other.

Talking to TOI Pravina said she spent 15 years of her life to fulfill her responsibilities and realised the need for support in the remaining years of her life.

She said, "My first husband died when my son Hemant (name changed) was 12-year-old and studying in class VII. I had to raise him single-handedly and so I took over my husband's business of bath tub and counter wash manufacturing and trading."

She ran the business successfully and ensured that her son became a computer engineer. "I settled him in business and got him married a few years ago. Now, he is happy in his life and runs the trading business successfully. Unfortunately, he doesn't have time for his old mother," Pravina said.

"I felt the need of someone with whom I could share my feelings. When I came across Nakum, I found him to be compatible in thinking, beliefs, living style and culture. Therefore, I decided to remarry and am quite happy in my 10 days of married life," she added.

Nakum Thakkar, a pharmaceutical company owner, was feeling lonely after 40 years of married life with Pushpa, who died of heart attack four months ago.

He said, "I needed some emotional support and wanted to lead a peaceful life till the end."

Nakum has no children from his first marriage and has sufficient bank balance to ensure a good life for both of them.

He said, "It is a social service, if you find a right partner in later part of life. It is always better than living a lonely life. Every senior citizen who is alone should find a suitable partner for self."

Nakum is healthy for his age, an active member of Laughing Club, Senior Citizens' Club and South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce. [rc]

Copyright © 2010 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.

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LONDON, England / The Times / Columnists / February 7, 2010

By India Knight

Baroness Deech, one of Britain’s most influential family lawyers and chairwoman of the Bar Standards Board, said last week that we should be duty-bound to look after our parents in their old age. “In return for all that grandparents do, should there not be an obligation to keep them, and to keep parents, and reciprocate the care that was given by them to children and grandchildren in their youth?” she said. She also pointed out that grandparents provided free childcare.

Baroness Ruth Deech

Deech invoked the Elizabethan poor law, which required sons to support their parents and grandparents throughout their lives (for daughters the obligation lasted only until they married). The duty was repealed in England and Wales in 1948, with the rest of the poor law, but lasted in Scotland until 1985. She pointed out that legal obligations existed in other countries — in France, for instance, there is a limited duty to support members of the wider family, known as l’obligation alimentaire. In Singapore, the Maintenance of Parents Act of 1995 means that anyone over 60 who can’t maintain themselves adequately “can apply for an order that their child should do so”.

Deech admitted that making it law to care for one’s parents would bring problems with it — inter-family bickering about whose turn it was to look after the aged parent and so on, and that a legal obligation “would certainly become a burden on the women in the family, whose independence and career progression would take a setback”.

When I was growing up, my maternal grandmother lived with us for years, which appeared to work well and to enhance everyone’s life — our granny had masses of company and felt useful and needed, we children forged a proper relationship with her, she was full of interesting stories and so on.

Nevertheless, I don’t understand how forcing people to look after their elderly relatives would work. For a start, Deech seems to put too much emphasis on the question of free childcare: for the baby-boomer generation, “old age” is late youth, and I know plenty of grandparents who love their grandchildren but have no interest in being their nanny. If you want them to babysit, you have to ask weeks in advance and comparing diaries often makes you feel like a social pariah. Secondly, women are having children so much later in life that their parents are older, too: babysitting your boisterous grandchildren works better at 50 than at 72.

The extended family — three generations under one roof, jostling along amiably — works beautifully in all sorts of cultures, from India to Africa to parts of Europe. But those are all cultures that venerate the elderly. This is, sadly, not true of Britain, where old people have a tough time of it: we are all familiar with the scenario where a pensioner who has been put in a “home” is lucky if his family visit once a year.

More than half of British people aged over 75 live alone, many on pitiful pensions, and 400,000 more live in “homes”. A recent poll showed that more than a million of them felt lonely “often or always”. And then there are the horrific stories of abuse in old people’s homes that pop up with depressing regularity.

Clearly something’s got to give — tax breaks would be a start, and paying the babysitting OAPs — but legally forcing people to become carers is not the answer. It appeals to me on sentimental grounds, because it would be a beautiful thing to care for those who spent so many decades of their life caring for you. Morally, it makes absolute sense.

Then I apply my sentimentality closer to home — to my late father, who had cancer and Alzheimer’s, the extra-horrible kind where, instead of being absent but at least reasonably content, he was absent and raging, roaring, terrified and terrifying. And doubly incontinent. Not an unusual situation — and neither was our personal circumstance, which is that my parents separated when I was small. I wasn’t raised by my father and although I loved him, I didn’t know him in the way that people who have two parents under the same roof know their father. At the time that his illness set in, I was barely 30 and at home with two small children; I had no income because I stopped work to look after them and relied entirely on my husband for money.

I would love to say that I was the kind of person who hopped on a plane and brought him to my house to soothe his last years. But I wasn’t. He was looked after by family members in Brussels, where he lived, and eventually — some years later — I went back to work and earned enough to pay for him to end his days in a clinic in the Ardennes. The last time I saw him alive, he was tied to a chair in something resembling a straitjacket; when I asked why, I was told that his rages made him want to run away — and who could blame him? The clinic had glass doors; he would run through the glass and injure himself, hence the restraints. It does not make me feel good. But neither does it make me regret that he never ran through the glass doors in my house instead. Aside from anything else, he was 6ft 2in and strong as an ox: I’d have had enormous difficulty looking after him physically.

It’s all incredibly sad. The way we treat old people is incredibly sad; the fact that we’re going to be old people treated the same way is incredibly sad, too. But the model Deech proposes relies on the functioning nuclear family as a model and nuclear families are thin on the ground. What’s the only child, now a single woman earning her own living, supposed to do with someone like my dad? What are the children of someone who got their mother pregnant and then waltzed off supposed to do when he comes back decades later — give up the life they have carefully mended for themselves in the name of duty and the law?

And of course, even in the rosiest situation — no dementia, physical wellness — it will, as Deech rather afterthought-ishly points out, usually fall to women to do the extra work. Women who are knackered, who work, whose brains sometimes can’t cope with the endless juggling, who don’t see enough of their children as it is, who are no longer living in the 1930s. So, no. Wonderful idea, and hats off to the thousands of people who live with their parents or grandparents and care for them, but you can’t legislate wishful thinking about filial duty into being. In Britain, at least, that particular horse bolted some time ago.

+ Apparently the time for the swine flu “epidemic” has passed. The latest figures show that the number of reported cases of H1N1 in England is near its lowest weekly level since the disease first came to the UK, and the number of people receiving antivirals through the National Pandemic Flu Service has declined sharply. The 24-hour helpline will close next Thursday. All cheering until you remember that 19 people have died in the past fortnight.

I caught a cold three weeks ago and have been feeling horrendous since — days in bed barely able to move or speak, uncomfortable furniture hurting my bones, random temperatures followed by random shivering, constant nausea and so on. I stopped talking about it about 10 days in, because I felt slightly embarrassed still to be ill.

It occurred to me only last Tuesday, comparing notes with a friend who is similarly afflicted, that we may well have had swine flu without knowing it — I never made it to the doctor’s because I thought I just had a super-hideous cold that went on for a freakishly long time. I think I’m on the mend, so I guess I’ll never know, but the thought that I might have been part of the pandemic without realising is peculiar. I have to lie down again now. [rc]

India Knight was born in 1965 and lives in London with her three children. She writes a weekly column for The Sunday Times; her novels and non-fiction are published by Penguin. She has blogged about bringing up a child with special needs and her personal blog is here.

Copyright 2010 Times Newspapers Ltd.

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LONDON, England / The Daily Mail / Health / Debate / February 6, 2010

A civilised society regards killing your fellow man as the most heinous of crimes. Yet suddenly, it is being suggested that there are circumstances in which it should be legally acceptable.

A battery of liberal lobbyists is pleading the merits of euthanasia. Their demands follow a spate of cases in which family members have faced trial for assisting the deaths of gravely stricken relatives.

Frances Inglis of Dagenham was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for giving an overdose of heroin to her 22-year-old brain-damaged son, Tom.

Kay Gilderdale, by contrast, was acquitted by a jury following her trial for assisting the suicide of her 31-year-old daughter Lynn, a chronic ME sufferer.
Both trials, some people argue, inflicted inhumane suffering on the accused, and in the first case possibly an unjust verdict. These were two mothers who sought only to do what was best for their beloved children.

Final wishes: Anne Scott James - Max Hastings's mother - who passed away last May asked not to be resuscitated if she lost consciousness

Even as their cases were making news, novelist Martin Amis, never fearful of stirring sensation, gave a newspaper interview in which he called for the establishment of euthanasia booths on street corners for pensioners to end their lives with 'a martini and a medal'.

Then, in the BBC Richard Dimbleby Lecture, best- selling writer Sir Terry Pratchett revealed that he intends to end his own life when the Alzheimer's from which he suffers becomes unbearable, and called for the introduction of special tribunals to rule on cases of planned assisted suicides.

A growing body of opinion is pressing for changes in the law to permit assisted suicide. The crusaders make two related points. First, there is a suggested 'right to choose death'. Second, medical science is extending life at a phenomenal rate. Only this week, it was reported that a span of 120 years may soon become commonplace, just as 100 is not unusual today.

Yet, while science gets cleverer at prolonging existence, much less progress is being made in improving quality of life.

Terry Pratchett revealed that he intends to end his own life when the Alzheimer's from which he suffers becomes unbearable

The 'reformers' argue: why should the state insist unwanted longevity is protracted, at vast and maybe unsustainable cost to society?

These issues deserve the widest discussion. But nobody should pretend the answers are easy or that the case in favour of euthanasia has been settled.
To read the views of some zealots, you might suppose that 'mercy killing' was a simple matter of decency, like helping old ladies across the street or having sick dogs put down.

In truth, of course, human life and death is the greatest of all issues. Only fools suggest the choices are obvious.

As it happens, I have some recent experience of extreme old age. My mother, the writer Anne Scott-James, lived to be 96.

She was unusually lucky in that until her last day her mind was razor sharp. A classical scholar in her youth, in her late 80s she returned to reading Virgil in Latin to assuage chronic boredom.

But in her last years, she became fed up, weary of increasingly acute physical infirmities and indignities.

'I've lived too long,' she often said. 'All my life I've liked to think of myself as a contributor. Now I'm just a passenger and I hate it. I want to go.'

She made a 'living will', and wrote letters to me and my sister Clare, giving strict instructions that, in the event that she suffered some mishap which caused her to lose consciousness, she was not to be resuscitated.

Click here to continue reading this article


Martin Amis has called for euthanasia booths
on street corners, where elderly people can end their lives
with a martini and a medal
[rc]

© Associated Newspapers Ltd

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NEW YORK, NY / The New York Times / Opinion / February 5, 2010

Letters
What Do the Elderly Owe the Young?

David Brooks points to the incongruity of grandparents’ giving generously to their grandchildren while at the same time taking money away from them in the public sphere (“The Geezers’ Crusade,” column, Feb. 2).

We seniors are probably the last generation that will enjoy generous, assured pensions as well as unlimited access to medical procedures and treatments.

Any society that spends seven times as much on its elders as on its young has its priorities backward and eventually risks a backlash from the frustrated young. Mr. Brooks rightly points out that because seniors hold far greater political power than the young, only seniors can create the political climate in which fairness can be brought about.

Illustration by Leif Parsons
We seniors have a moral obligation to see that the young are as well cared for as ourselves and must give our members of Congress permission to make the hard choices necessary to balance the nation’s resources fairly among the generations. [rc]

Heather Sterner
San Francisco, Feb. 3, 2010

More Letters

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

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DUBLIN, Ireland / The Irish Times / Life / Society / January 26, 2010

By Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent

THERE WILL be more than 8,500 people over the age of 100 living in Ireland in 30 years’ time, according to a report published yesterday.

The Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (Cardi) says that while there were 620 centenarians in Ireland in 2006, this is expected to rise to more than 8,500 by 2041.

And there won’t be just a bigger demand for cheques from the President to mark these birthdays, there will also be a greater need for pensions, with the number of people aged 65 and over projected to rise from about 700,000 to 1.89 million by 2041, an increase of 169 per cent.

Photo credit: friendsoftheelderly.ie

Furthermore, the number of people aged 75 and over will reach almost one million by 2041, three times the number living now. And even more dramatic is the change projected in the 85-plus population, which will rise almost fivefold from 74,000 in 2006 to 356,000 in 2041.

The Cardi document points out though that as older people live longer they can expect to spend more of their later years in poor health. It says while in 1999 Irish men aged 65 could expect to live another 14 years with 4.7 of these in poorer health, by 2007 their life expectancy had increased by 17 years, but they could expect to experience ill health for 7.5 of these.

The pattern is similar for women. In 1999, Irish women aged 65 could expect to live another 17.6 years with 6.6 of these in poor health, while their life expectancy had increased by 20 years by 2007 but with 9.7 of these in bad health.

Some differences in trends among older people on different sides of the Border are noted in the report, Illustrating Ageing in Ireland North and South . It shows the number of people over the age of 60 in work in the North continued to rise, but that the corresponding figure fell by 7,000 in the Republic. [rc]

© 2010 irishtimes.com

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SOFIA, Bulgaria / FOCUS / Society / January 23, 2010

Centenarians in villages are more than in cities: national statistics

By Vesela Baramova, Focus News Agency

Out of all 347 centenarians in Bulgaria as of 2008, 166 live in cities and 181 – in villages. Out of all 226 women centenarians 105 live in cities and 121 – in villages. 61 out of 121 men who are older than 100 years of age live in cities and 60 – in villages.

Yordan Kalchev, head of Demographic Statistics Department in the National Statistical Institute, said this in an interview with FOCUS News Agency.

He says the district of Sofia, which is the most populous one, has the highest number of centenarians – 44. It is followed by the districts of Plovdiv (24 centenarians), Blagoevgrad (23), Pleven and Varna (21 each), and then Haskovo, Pazardzhik and Vratsa (between 10 and 19 centenarians).

Kalchev says many factors influence life expectancy.

“On the one hand, cities offer better and accessible healthcare, but probably the conditions, diet, daily way of living in villages play a role too,” he said.

The least populous districts in Bulgaria have the smallest number of centenarians – Yambol, Lovech, Targovishte. [rc]

© 2009 FOCUS Information Agency

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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Japan Life / January 12, 2010

Japan life: Etiquette by the numbers
Bowing, bathing, greeting, eating — all manners of established codes of conduct

By Mariko Kato, Staff writer

Have you ever tried to shake hands with a Japanese only to be bowed at instead?

Or have you suffered disdainful looks when you blew your nose in public, or dunked your towel in a hot springs bath, unaware you are breaking social codes?

Japan's many rules of etiquette may bemuse foreign visitors, while for long-term residents mastering them is a key part of embracing the culture.

When in Tokyo: President Barack Obama shakes hands with and bows to Emperor Akihito at the same time at the Imperial Palace on Nov. 14. Some American critics accused the U.S. commander in chief of groveling to a foreign leader. AP Photo

So what constitutes Japanese etiquette, and how do foreign residents and experts view such manners? Following are questions and answers:

What is included in everyday etiquette?

Posted notices and warnings against various perceived antisocial behavior are commonplace. People riding trains are advised not to take up more than one seat and are urged to refrain from talking on a cell phone or playing loud music.

Most "onsen" (hot springs baths) ban swimsuits, advise guests to rinse themselves off before entering the bath and in cases of mixed bathing not to stare or flash oneself in front of others.

But many basic social codes provide no posted directions, requiring foreigners to learn by observation and that old standby, trial and error.

The handling of chopsticks can be a minefield of faux pas.

A guide put out by JAL Academy, a firm created by Japan Airlines to coach businesses on etiquette, directs users to first "hold the chopsticks horizontally and pull the chopsticks apart slowly, over your knees."

The book "Japanese Manners Read in English" advises never to use a chopstick to impale a food item, pass it from chopsticks to chopsticks or stick chopsticks into food in a bowl so the ends are pointing up. The latter is associated with the dead and food for the final journey.

Licking one's chopsticks is also taboo, as is waving them over food while deciding what to eat, or around while talking, the guide says.

Bowing is also a key practice, and the degree of bending depends on the occasion.

According to JAL Academy, a 45-degree bow is customary when meeting someone deemed to be superior, or to show gratitude or to apologize. A 30-degree bow is appropriate for greeting visitors or first-time acquaintances, while a 15-degree dip will suffice for a casual hello in the hallway, the book says.

Other advice found in the guide includes keeping conversations short during initial greetings and, when visiting someone's home, refraining from poking around in cupboards, bookcases and other personal areas — the latter taboos not being so uniquely Japanese.

What constitutes formal etiquette?

In addition to social codes of behavior for formal dinners and religious ceremonies, there is the practice by adults of gift-giving, which many in Japan actually consider a headache. Gourmet food, sweets or alcohol may be given to relatives and colleagues at the turning of seasons and on special occasions. There are informal guidelines on how much money to spend on initial offerings based on the importance of the recipient, and then on return gifts.

Gift-giving is not always simply a gesture of gratitude or thoughtfulness, as it can have parallels with bribery, according to Katherine Rupp, a lecturer in anthropology at Yale University.

"Not only do individual Japanese people spend a lot of time, worry and money on gift-giving, but gift-giving is also a crucial part of the overall workings of the macro-economy," she writes in "Gift-giving in Japan."

Tsk, tsk, tsk: Sticking chopsticks vertically into food is considered extremely bad form. It is associated with death. Yoshiaki Miura Photo

Rupp points to the subtle undertones that personal gifts to bosses or doctors, or presents given by industries to bureaucrats or politicians, may have in persuading the recipient to act to the giver's advantage.

How would social codes be characterized?

Like other countries, Japan's social codes "lie somewhere between conscience or self-expression and the law," according to Isao Kumakura, a professor emeritus at the research institute of the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka.

"Even if you are alone, there is a feeling that somewhere someone might be watching," and this feeling is particularly strong in Japanese, he writes in "Manners as Culture" ("Bunka to Shite no Manaa").

According to Kumakura, Japanese etiquette has roots in the rituals of tea ceremony and martial and creative arts, although such customs were exclusive to the upper class until Japan opened its doors to the West in the mid-19th century.

To appear sophisticated in Western eyes, commercial centers like Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka established regional laws that imposed codes of conduct between samurai and commoners, he writes.

These laws prevented men from urinating in public, and workers from walking naked to public baths carrying a change of clothes, a common habit as they did not want to change while they were still dirty from the day's work, Kumakura explains.

In modern times, instruction manuals on manners tend to focus on business situations rather than the home or society.

How do foreign residents and experts view Japanese manners?

Helmut Morsbach, an adjunct professor of psychology at Temple University Japan Campus and a long-term resident, writes in his book "Customs & Etiquette of Japan" that many Japanese drastically change their attitudes once they are outside their comfort zone.

Such a strict adherence to social codes may indicate that, as Morsbach says, "traditional etiquette continues to be extremely important, despite whatever outward appearances of 'Westernization' the visitor may experience."

But Ronald Dore, a professor at the London School of Economics specializing in Japanese society, stresses that foreigners should not feel compelled to master Japanese etiquette, only demonstrate an attempt at it in a relaxed, open manner.

"It is a perfectly viable strategy to profess a combination of total ignorance of Japanese manners and a total willingness to be instructed, and sometimes it can even be the best strategy," rather than becoming anxious and creating tension, he says in the foreword to Morsbach's book.

For business settings, a common scenario for foreign visitors, Morsbach's tips include don't make eye contact too strong during a conversation, don't point with a finger and don't mistake a smile camouflaging hesitation to mean an agreement.

Does everyone adhere to these codes?

No, says columnist Takashi Matsuo, who insists many Japanese find such strict rules stifling.

"Although it's a country that values manners, many Japanese themselves in fact feel a kind of stiffness, and perhaps (Morsbach) isn't aware that there are many people who want to forget such social rules and interact with people in a frank and open way," he writes in a commentary inside Morsbach's book.

But some observers see an antisocial side to this relaxed mind-set, and claim anonymity in large cities and online is making people less concerned about appearing rude.

"Modern Japan has been eliminating society from around them," Kumakura says.

"The fun of anonymity and the fear of losing manners are in conflict with each other. Now this has become a daily norm, and with the rise of the Internet, we ignore manners because of anonymity and abuse our rights." [rc]

(C) The Japan Times Ltd

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SYDNEY, NSW, Australia / The Sydney Morning Herald / World / January 5, 2010

Wearing leopard skins and carrying a Zulu shield in a traditional ceremony in his remote hometown, South Africa's polygamous President Jacob Zuma has married for the fifth time.

The 67-year-old and his new bride, Thobeka Madiba, 30 years his junior, danced in an open field at his homestead in Nkandla, a village deep in the countryside of KwaZulu-Natal province.

Married again ... South African President Jacob Zuma sings and dances with his new wife Thobeka Madiba. Photo: AFP

The two formally wed when a tribal elder asked Madiba if she accepted to join the Zuma family. When she agreed, he pronounced her Zuma's third current wife.

His first wife, Sizakele Khumalo, whom he married in 1973, attended the ceremony. His second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma, was at the homestead preparing for the reception in a massive tent, where guests will celebrate through the night.

One of Zuma's earlier wives committed suicide in 2000, while in 1998 he divorced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who remains in his inner circle and is the home affairs minister.

The guests included the political and business elite, including Mandla Mandela, a grandson of the nation's first black president, Nelson Mandela.

Local celebrities and music stars such as Yvonne Chaka Chaka also attended the ceremony under overcast skies, with a gentle drizzle seen as a sign of blessing in African culture.

After initially declaring the ceremony would be private, it was opened to the public under heavy police presence. Local villagers, many dressed in animal skins and African cloth, trekked through muddy trails to attend.

Madiba, who reportedly has three children with Zuma, attended the president's inauguration in May, where she was treated as one of three first ladies.

Since then, she has attended official functions and is referred to in the media as Thobeka Madiba-Zuma.

Even while preparations for this wedding were under way, Zuma is reportedly preparing for his sixth marriage.

Earlier this week, a gift-giving ceremony was held signalling he had paid the traditional dowry, or ilobolo, for his latest fiancee, Bongi Ngema.

Zuma has also been linked to a Swazi princess.

Polygamy is legal in South Africa, but mostly practised in rural areas.

The practice came under the spotlight before the 2009 presidential elections, when Zuma's lifestyle became a topic of discussion, especially among women's rights activists.

Media and political analysts also debated the issue, but their attention focused mainly on logistical matters such as security arrangements and medical costs.

Usually Zuma brings only one wife to state functions or on overseas trips.

His first wife, Khumalo, was given the place of honour at his inauguration in May, given higher prestige than Madiba or his other wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli Zuma, whom he married in 2008 in a lavish ceremony.

Zuma and Khumalo have no children together and she still lives in Nkandla, generally preferring to avoid the spotlight. He has reportedly fathered at least 18 children.[rc]

AFP

Copyright © 2010. Fairfax Digital

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SHANGHAI, China / The Shanghai Daily / Features / January 3, 2010

By Sam Riley

FOR the seemingly innocuous choice to forgo meat, it seems vegetarians are one of those groups other foodies view with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Maybe it was the tirade from Gordon Ramsey, or it could be a certain comment from the bleachers -- I once had a vegetarian berate me mid-lobster -- that has fostered the feelings.

If vegetarians have to brave the doubtful blusters of their meat-loving fellow diners, then vegans are usually viewed with incredulous wonderment.

Nothing quite riles a foodie like those deemed to be forgoing pleasure.

On telling a fellow gourmet this week's review was vegan restaurant Anna Maya he was scornful. "I can't take the no meat crowd," he said dismissively.

However, it seems the "if it tastes good run with it" philosophy goes well when delving into the world of vegan delicacies.

One of the many delights of Anna Maya, which means "you are what you eat" in Sanskrit, is that it offers much more than a niche eatery for vegans.

Its food is wholesome, thoughtful and carefully prepared using fresh natural ingredients -- a good foundation for any restaurant.

Unlike other vegetarian eateries, its menu is unapologetically a celebration of the skills and techniques of cooking with vegetables.

It has always perplexed me why vegetarian restaurants serve mock meat.

If one eats at a vegetarian restaurant one doesn't look for something that is a pale imitation of meat.

Anna Maya is the brainchild of Japanese restaurateur Kazu Koikeda, who was inspired toward a vegan lifestyle through an interest in yoga and a subsequent trip to Kerala in southern India.

Set in a homely rustic cottage on Taojiang Road, the restaurant has a warm welcoming style with an eclectic array of antique furnishings, Indian and Buddhist statues and fabrics spread around.

Koikeda is an enthusiastic proponent of macrobiotic food, where whole grains and vegetables are emphasized and the diet is constructed on balancing the yin (stagnating) and yang (stimulating) effects of food.

Subsequently, the dishes she serves have an eye to their health-giving benefits with therapeutic Chinese and Ayurvedic meals and other specials that focus on the macrobiotic theory of using seasonal produce to strengthen the body.

Koikeda also sources organic produce and gets most of her vegetables direct from a small organic farmer in Fengxian District.

Anna Maya's veggie burger might just be the best in town.

Admittedly it isn't a packed field, with few good vegetarian options in the city, but this version can hold its head high in any company.

The chickpea and bean patty is moist and flavored with aromatic fresh herbs, which is encased in rustic, homemade bread made from Indian whole wheat flour, a Mongolian buckwheat flour and oatmeal.

This nourishing, substantive burger came with a side of soft cooked slices of beet-root and was topped with generous portions of fresh ripened avocado, roasted cherry tomatoes, mixed lettuce and a tofu mayonnaise.

Prices are reasonable, with a set meal of a soup, salad and mains around 130 yuan (US$19) with mains around 50 yuan. "Things are too expensive in Shanghai. I wanted my restaurant to be cheaper, otherwise it's unfriendly," Koikeda said. Its attention to detail also makes it charming.

For those seeking little heart and soul in their food, Anna Maya has an endearing neighborly feel and is a calm, little restorative escape from Shanghai's hustle and bustle. [rc]

Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House

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TOKYO, Japan / The People's Daily - Beijing / January 2, 2010

Millions of Japanese visited shrines all over Japan on Thursday night and Friday to bid farewell to 2009 and usher in the New Year. Among the throngs of people saying their prayers and making their wishes will be sizable numbers of people with just one wish on their mind for 2010 -- to get married.

Some 3 million people were estimated to have descended on MeijiJingu Shrine, a particularly popular countdown spot in central Tokyo, to say their prayers and make wishes for 2010 and according to anthropologists, many of these wishes were to find a spouse.

The government projected Thursday that Japan's population has declined further in 2009, with the number of Japanese babies born in the country in the year estimated to have decreased from 22,000of 2008 to 1,069,000, and the number of Japanese people who died in the country in the year is estimated to have increased for the ninth consecutive year to 1,144,000.

The government said the population decline may last for the future years, as the Japanese population is getting more reluctant to marriage and giving birth, while on the other hand growing rapidly silver-haired.

THE MARRIAGE HUNTERS

The term "konkatsu" in Japanese, meaning "marriage-hunter," has been widely reported in global media and describes men and women who are tired of the peaks and troughs of the dating game and want to cut straight to the (matrimonial) chase.

Konkatsu folk have given up on traditional, time-consuming, courting rituals like wining and dining and are solely interested in meeting eligible spouses.

"I'm 32 years old now and I just want to get married, be settled and have kids," Yukari Uehara, an office worker in Tokyo, told Xinhua.

"I hoped to meet someone at work and had a few dates, but they didn't work out. Some of my friends and family tried to fix me up with guys they thought I might like, but it was the same story. It all became a big hassle and a little depressing, so I decide to take a different approach, to specifically look for a husband, not a boyfriend or a friend. I'm not embarrassed by the title "konkatsu," it just means I know what I want and I'm being honest about it," Uehara said.

Similarly Kentaro Noda, 34, a systems engineer for a multinational company in Tokyo, told Xinhua that all he wants in 2010 is a wife.

"I'll be at Meiji Jingu Shrine at midnight of New Year's Eve and of course I'll be praying for the health and happiness of my family and friends and for the prosperity of Japan, but I'll also be praying particularly hard for slightly selfish reasons," Noda explained.

"Next year I'm determined to find a great lady, get married and start a family. It's my greatest wish."

Konkatsu culture over the past two years has become increasingly popular in Japan, helped in no small part by the media and best selling books like "Konkatsu Jidai," or "The Era of Marriage Hunting," co-written by Chuo University Professor Masahiro Yamada and journalist Momoko Shiraga.

The authors of the book cite changes in Japanese society, where traditional matchmaking -- often by so-called "neighborhood aunties" -- is fading away. Bosses in Japanese companies also used to match up women and men working under them -- then force the women to quit once they were married.

This trend was altered following the equal-employment opportunity law enacted in the late 1980s and since the law was passed, sociologists have observed an increase in women seeking careers rather than marriage. Men, experts observe, have become less aggressive about finding partners because of money troubles and working in an unpredictable economic climate.

THE NEW SINGLES

Bucking the konkatsu trend are two new, but increasingly prevalent, groups of people who don't hold marriage in the esteem it was once held in Japan -- for these people it's just not a priority.

Known, quite literally, as "grass eating men," soshoku danshi, is an emerging species of Japanese men in their mid to late thirties, who take the now defunct term "meterosexual" to a whole new level, social commentators have noted.

The "male herbivore" is more likely to become a female's best friend than anything more romantic and his relationships with females are predominantly platonic, according to sociologists.

Typically speaking he has female friends, but has no interest in marriage, preferring to spend his time and money on the pursuits he enjoys, rather than expensive dates or gifts for ladies.

Paradoxically, another social phenomena being widely reported in Japan lately is the emergence of a new female group who have been dubbed "nikushoku joshi," or "meat-eating girls."

These females, often in their thirties and forties, take complete charge of their own fate. They're go-getters in the literal sense -- they know what they want and are not afraid to get it and for them, marriage is fairly low on their list of priorities.

These ladies, mockingly compared in the media to apex predators, have taken a number of cues from their male counterparts and are not afraid to make the first move if they see someone they like.

According to anthropologists, the rising numbers of nikushoku joshi can be attributed to increased financial independence and a certain resilience or immunity to existing social stigmas, sometimes attached to single women of a certain age.

THE SOCIAL REALITY

Japanese society is currently in a state of flux as its age-old homogenous culture and traditions, which historically embraced the ideologies of interdependence, oneness, family and heritage, are wrangling with modernity; westernization, economic turbulence and a shift in family, social and cultural norms and values, sociologists have noted.

Shifts in social and cultural ideology are evident in population phenomena that have, in the past 30 to 40 years, seen some monumental changes that will continue to have a profound and myriad effect on Japanese society.

In the early 1970s the annual number of marriages in Japan, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, exceeded 1million and the birthrate at this time was at a level of 19 (per 1,000 population). Fast-forward to the current day, however, and the statistics paint a very different picture indeed.

The marriage rate currently stands at 5.8 (per 1,000 population), with one in four of these unions likely to end in divorce. Coupled with this, fewer couples are procreating with the birthrate dropping from a level of 19 (per 1,000 population) in the early 1970s, to a current rate of 8.7, according to the ministry.

The declining rate of marriage, in part, accounts for the slump in birthrate, but other factors must be considered, according to anthropologists. The general decline in birth rate is also linked to the rising maternal age at childbirth, which has risen from 25.6 years old in 1970 to a current median age of 29.5 years old.

Further adding to what's being called Japan's "population crises" is the mean age of first marriages in Japan consistently rising over the past twenty years to a current average of 30.2 years old for men and 28.5 years old for women.

So it's perhaps of no wonder then that with the declining marriage rate, rising marrying age and rising maternal age at childbirth, coupled with Japan's crippling economic circumstances, that Japan's birth rate has plummeted of late, causing widely reported consternation to Japan's administration.

At the other end of the scale Japanese people have one of the longest life spans in the world, meaning as less babies are being born, the population of elderly people is spiraling to disproportionate rates.

According to Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's figures for 2008, the average life expectancy of Japanese women was 86.05 years, an increase of 0.06 years from 2007. This puts Japanese women on top of the list of the world's longest living females for the 24th year in a row, with Hong Kong at number two and France at number three.

The Ministry report says that the average life expectancy for Japanese men in 2008 was 79.29 years, an increase of 0.10 year compared with 2007. The Japanese media proclaim this as being ranked fourth among men in the world, after Iceland, Hong Kong and Switzerland.

It comes as no wonder then that Japan's current administration is so concerned about Japan's aging society and plunging birthrate, as an aging society means increased expenditure in health care and the drop in births has severe implications for the future of an extremely delicate Japanese economy.

Subsidies to encourage families to have and to help raise children is one initiative the government has considered to address the problem, however, if all the konkatsu wishes come true this New Year, the government will have nothing to worry about. [rc]

Copyright by People's Daily Online

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LONDON, England / The Times / Life & Style / Mental Health / December 31, 2009

By Joan Bakewell

Loneliness is an inner, gnawing pain born of circumstance and inertia, verging on despair. There is a higher risk the older you get, and no one talks about it. In this all-laughing, twittering world it’s assumed that we can all find a comforting voice of friendship somewhere. For increasing numbers that just isn’t so.

Bereavement is the biggest blow. It leaves an echoing void. After years of intimate closeness the individual spirit battles on wondering what has happened to its own identity. People say kind things at strategic moments — the funeral, the memorial — then vanish back into their own lives.
Retirement is a big jolt. Again, familiar structures of friendship and support fall away. Everyone promises to stay in touch, then goes on as before. Circumstances conspire: families live far apart, village shops, post offices, libraries and pubs are vanishing. Churches offer little warmth and a tired liturgy.

So what is to be done? The world doesn’t make it easy to start up new bonds. You can tell the lonely when you bump into them on trains and buses: they never stop talking, rattling away about this and that as though they’d not spoken to anyone in a week. We need interaction with others to feel fully alive. And it needs effort to take the initiative.

Related Links
The Solitary Self
Samaritans give a hearing without judgment
Loneliness epidemic sweeping through UK

There are ways to find friends: a neighbour, the doctor, the internet can all help. Join groups, volunteer, otherwise the depth of loneliness becomes self-perpetuating; we grow familiar with our isolation.

Learning to be alone is a lifetime skill. We shouldn’t always want to be part of this noisy, chattering world. But a single friendly voice is surely not too much to ask. [rc]

Copyright 2010 Times Newspapers Ltd.

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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Kyodo News / December 27, 2009

A record-high 5,400 public school teachers took sick leave due to psychological trouble in the 2008 academic year, up 405 from the previous year, and the 16th straight yearly increase, an education ministry survey showed Friday.

The figure is eight times higher than in the 1979 academic year, when the ministry started collecting the data.

The increase indicates many teachers are suffering from stress due to the demands placed on them by parents and communities, as well as the difficulties they face adjusting to changes in educational programs, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said, noting the need to improve support for teachers by, for example, enhancing the counseling system.

Teachers in their 50s accounted for 37 percent of those on leave, while those in their 40s made up 36 percent. Of the total, 44 percent were elementary school teachers, 30 percent junior high school teachers and 16 percent high school teachers, according to the survey.

In the reporting year, a record 8,578 teachers took sick leave, of whom a record 63 percent suffered psychological problems. [rc]

(C) The Japan Times

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TOKYO, Japan / The Japan Times / Life in Japan / December 19, 2009

A survey finds 40% of Tokyo residents have no burial plot

By Shigemi Kotaka, Kyodo News

About 40 percent of Tokyo residents who responded to a metro government questionnaire say they have no burial plot and their hometown is just too far away to consider as a final resting place.

In the heart of Tokyo, it costs nearly ¥10 million to purchase a 3-sq.-meter cemetery plot in perpetuity.

With the rapid influx of people into cities, the situation surrounding graves has undergone drastic change. While demand for graves has been weakening in less-populated areas of the country, it is growing in urban areas.


Side by side: A woman visits her family plot at Nerima Nemunoki Garden in Tokyo in October. Kyodo Photo

According to the questionnaire, 30 percent of respondents said they want a family plot, while 22 percent said they want a grave for use by blood relatives only. It also found 41 percent of respondents do not own a burial plot, and 61 percent would like one. The number of respondents was not provided.

In Tokyo, 18,000 new graves were needed each year for the 20 years up to 2004, but only 8,000 were available annually. There are indications that there will be a shortage of final resting places for the next 50 years or more.

A nationwide association of stone dealers said the average purchase price of a grave in fiscal 2009 hit an all-time low of about ¥1.7 million due to the recession. At the Metropolitan Aoyama Cemetery in a prime location of Tokyo, there were more than 30 times more applications than plots available for 3-sq.-meter-wide graves that can be purchased in perpetuity for prices ranging from ¥9.5 million to ¥9.8 million.

In Saitama Prefecture, graves of a similar size are available at about one-tenth the price. However, 76 percent of respondents to the questionnaire said that in selecting a burial plot, they would take into consideration proximity and convenience of access.

A Tokyo Metropolitan Government official said the number of small-scale cemeteries of 1,000 to 2,000 sq. meters in size developed on the site of former parking lots or industrial plants will increase in the future. The land can be obtained easily and the business can be put on a stable footing quickly.

The welfare ministry said that while these cemeteries are managed chiefly by municipal governments, many have actually been developed by religious organizations.

While the ministry believes cemeteries are "necessary facilities," residents living near them are less receptive, requiring closer coordination between developers and local residents.

Meanwhile, a survey by the Japan Consumers Association found that in Hokkaido, some people say a grave is not necessary as remains are customarily placed in a charnel house. On the other hand, in Okayama, Shimane and Nagano prefectures, there are many individual graves.

Then there are growing numbers of people wishing their ashes to be scattered or who favor group burial.

Taking these issues into account, and factoring in the nation's declining birthrate, it looks like getting the grave equation right will be an issue for many years to come. [rc]

(C) The Japan Times

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HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina / BlueRidgeNow.com / December 18, 2009

By Martin Fackler

SAKAI, Japan — The towering cliffs of Tojimbo, with their sheer drops into the raging, green Sea of Japan, are a top tourist destination, but Yukio Shige had no interest in the rugged scenery. Instead, he walked along the rocky crags searching for something else: a lone human figure, usually sitting hunched at the edge of the precipice.

That is one of the telltale signs in people drawn here by Tojimbo’s other, less glorious, distinction as one of the best known places to kill oneself in Japan, one of the world’s most suicide-prone nations. Mr. Shige, a 65-year-old former policeman, has spent his five years since retirement on a mission to stop those who come here from jumping. His efforts have helped draw attention to the grim fact that Japan’s suicide rate is again on the rise. Police figures show that the number of suicides this year could approach the country’s record high of 34,427, reached in 2003, almost 95 suicides a day.

Yukio Shige, a 65-year-old former policeman, has spend his five years since retirement on a mission to stop those who go to the cliffs of Tojimbo from jumping. Torin Boyd/Polaris for The New York Times

Mr. Shige and a group of volunteers he put together have saved 222 people so far, a tally that has made Mr. Shige a national figure in a country that often seems apathetic about its high rate of self-destruction. But he has also met with criticism from a conformist society that can look dimly on people who draw attention by engaging in activism, even of the most humanitarian kind.

“In Japan, we say the nail that sticks up gets hammered down,” said Mr. Shige, who says he started the patrols after he grew angry at inaction by local authorities. “But I’ll keep sticking up. I tell them, hit me if you can!”

In part, public health experts blame Japan’s romanticized image of suicide as an honorable escape, going back to ritual self-disembowelment by medieval samurai, for the high suicide rate. But the main cause, they say, is the nation’s long economic decline. Suicides first surged to their recent high levels in 1998, when traditional lifetime employment guarantees began to vanish, and they have remained high as salaries and job security continued to erode.

The situation has worsened during the recent global financial crisis, which is driving this year’s increase, experts say. While Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, in his first policy speech in October, referred to Japan’s suicide rate in calling for “mutual support” among Japanese, experts say the government’s limited steps to deal with suicide have made little difference.

While preventing suicides is a universally difficult task, it is particularly challenging in Japan. Depression remains a taboo topic here, making it hard for those most at risk to seek the help of family and friends. Many Japanese view suicide as an issue of private choice rather than public health, and there are few efforts to highlight the problem.

“Americans raise awareness with grass-roots action, but Japanese just wait for the government to take care of them,” said Yoshitomo Takahashi, a professor of behavioral science who researches suicide at the National Defense Medical College in Tokorozawa, Japan.

Officials in Sakai, the small city in Fukui Prefecture, where Tojimbo is located, have installed outdoor lighting at the cliffs along with two pay phones and plenty of the 10-yen coins needed to dial up the national suicide hot line.

Nevertheless, city officials call this the grimmest year on record, with the police saying they know of more than 140 people who came here intending to commit suicide, twice the average in recent years. Most of them were stopped by the police or nearby tourists, or decided not to jump for other reasons, the police say.

The police figure does not include the 54 people this year whom Mr. Shige says he and his group have stopped. City officials credit Mr. Shige with helping keep the number of deaths here down to 13 so far this year, about the same as the 15 suicides last year.

Mr. Shige says his approach to stopping suicides is quite simple: when he finds a likely person, he walks up and gently begins a conversation. The person, usually a man, quickly breaks down in tears, happy to find someone to listen to his problems.

“They are just sitting there, alone, hoping someone will talk to them,” Mr. Shige said.

As an officer stationed at Tojimbo at the end of his 42-year career, he said he was appalled by all the bodies he had to pluck out of the sea. He said he once stopped an elderly couple from Tokyo from jumping and turned them over to city officials who he said gave them money and told them to buy a ticket to the next town. Days later he received a letter from the couple, mailed just before they committed suicide in a neighboring prefecture.

“The authorities’ coldness outraged me,” said Mr. Shige, whose cellphone rings to the tune of “Amazing Grace,” though he is not religious. He now has 77 volunteers patrolling the cliffs and providing food, lodging and assistance in finding work to those it helps. He said they tried to patrol two or three times a day.

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Shige checked three of the most popular sites for jumpers — all with drops of at least 70 feet. He said the loners were easy to spot because most visitors moved in groups behind flag-waving guides. Speaking through bullhorns, the guides loudly describe the morbid fame of the cliffs, which were named for an evil Buddhist monk who was said to have fallen to his death there.

One of those whom Mr. Shige stopped was Yutaka Yamaoka, 29, a factory worker who tried to commit suicide last year after being laid off. Mr. Yamaoka visited Mr. Shige’s tiny office by the cliffs on a recent day to thank him and tell him that he had found a job.

When Mr. Shige found him last year, Mr. Yamaoka said, he was sitting silently near the cliffs clutching his knees. He said Mr. Shige spoke with him for two hours, then allowed him to stay in an apartment rent free for a month until he felt better.

“I felt saved. I felt I could live,” recalled Mr. Yamaoka, who spoke haltingly in a barely audible voice. “My feelings of panic and unease just built up. I had no one to talk with.”

Mr. Shige’s efforts have stirred local resentment, particularly from a local tourist association that says his activities are bad for business. But Mr. Shige is not easily deterred.

“I will continue until the government finally gets its act together and takes over,” he said. “I can’t let their inaction cost another precious life.” [rc]

Copyright © 2009 BlueRidgeNow.com

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NEW YORK, NY / Wall Street Journal / Asia News / December 16, 2009

She Campaigns Against 'Male-Centered' Society With High Profile;
Traditionalists Decry Meals With Husband, UFO Comments

By Yuka Hayashi in Tokyo

Japan's new first lady, Miyuki Hatoyama, is stepping out of the shadow long inhabited by political wives here -- way out, at times -- in her campaign to recast the role of women in Japanese society.

"This is, in some ways, still a male-centered society," she said in an interview Monday with The Wall Street Journal, her first with a non-Asian media organization since her husband took office in September. "We need to change that."

Mrs. Hatoyama is the antithesis to the virtually nameless first ladies of Japan's first century of democracy.

A 66-year-old former stage actress, she has received attention in Japan for her frequent public appearances, and for talking and writing about her supernatural experiences, such as going to Venus in a UFO. She once said that in a previous life she knew Tom Cruise, who was Japanese. She has cowritten a book titled "Mysterious Incidents I Encountered," a collection of interviews with celebrities about their supernatural experiences.

Miyuki Hatoyama. Getty Images

Hatoyama on Her Role as Japan's First Lady: WSJ's Yuka Hayashi speaks to Miyuki Hatoyama, Japan's first lady, on how she supports her husband and the role of women in Japanese society.

Mrs. Hatoyama didn't touch on these issues in her interview but spoke matter-of-factly about her unusually high profile for a Japanese politician's wife.

"Hatoyama has always encouraged me, saying, 'It's your life. You do what you want to do,' " she said, referring in a common Japanese form to her husband, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. "If people think I am different, that may be because they have noticed I go out and mingle with people and blend in without much effort."

Her assertiveness turns off some traditionalists. Conservative magazines have hounded her, criticizing how the prime minister is being "pushed around" by his wife or making fun of her comments, particularly those related to her spiritual experiences.

Such criticism so far doesn't seem to have affected her husband's career. A recent poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily showed the approval rating for Mr. Hatoyama's cabinet stood at 59%, even after slipping from 63% last month. The decline was attributed to Mr. Hatoyama's policies.

Mrs. Hatoyama embodies the changes touching Japan after her husband's Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide victory in August, breaking more than 50 years of virtually continuous rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. Mrs. Hatoyama, unlike the wives of LDP leaders, has accompanied the prime minister on every foreign visit and appeared in a fashion show holding hands with him.

While she says she doesn't discuss policies with her husband, her active role matches the image of women that the center-left party's policies envision. The DPJ has promised to eliminate a preferential tax treatment for stay-at-home wives, and to consider allowing married women to keep their maiden names.

Mrs. Hatoyama says it is still hard for Japanese women to pursue careers while raising families. Many communities face the shortage of day-care centers, and the use of private babysitters isn't widespread, she says. Even as the breakdown of the traditional family structure makes it harder for women to rely on family members for help, "the perception still is it's a woman's job to take care of the elderly parents."

Mrs. Hatoyama has a quick wit and speaks candidly about herself and her family, and regularly creates a buzz with her unique fashion sense. She recently won an annual award from the Japan Jeans Association, a trade group, for being the best dresser in jeans, and once showed off a skirt that she had made herself from a hemp coffee bean bag bought in Hawaii.

Calling herself a "life composer," she has written several books on cooking and entertaining a la Martha Stewart.

What fascinates many Japanese, particularly women, is Mrs. Hatoyama's relationship with her husband. In a society where people tend to keep work and family separate, and men and women socialize in their own circles, the Hatoyamas have made an impression by being together virtually all the time. A national daily calculated that Mrs. Hatoyama joined her husband at eight of his first 13 restaurant meals as prime minister, including four occasions with members of his cabinet.

Mrs. Hatoyama said that the seemingly equal partnership she has with her husband may flow from the years they had spent in California as a young couple. He studied operational engineering at Stanford in the 1970s and received a Ph.D. She worked at the jewelry counter at Macy's after divorcing her first husband who was a chef at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco.

"Most men think it's embarrassing to hold hands [with his wife] in public, but it comes naturally to Hatoyama," she said, seated in the lounge of the prime minister's residence, wearing a knee-length skirt puffed up at the hem like a balloon.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hatoyama, 62, is known to help out with housework, a habit considered unusual among Japanese men of his generation. Mrs. Hatoyama says even after becoming prime minister, her husband still does the dishes. She worries it will hurt her tall husband's back because the kitchen counter in the prime minister's residence -- a 1920s Art Deco building that retains original features -- is very low. [rc]

Miho Inada contributed to this article.

Yuka Hayashi
E-Mail: yuka.hayashi@wsj.com

Copyright ©2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc

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