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Thursday, April 26, 2012

Thoughts on ageing...


"We should so provide for old age that it may have no urgent wants of this world to absorb it from meditation on the next." ~Pearl S. Buck 

This Saturday is my birthday. Yesterday, I had lunch with one of the girl people and talked about life and parents. Today, I had a meeting with persons who are somewhat older than my parents and who raised various points about the ageing population in Trinidad and Tobago (though that wasn't the reason for that meeting at all). 

It's just stuff that makes me think. 

I'm going to be 29 this Saturday. I'm thinking about where I'm going and where I've been and the different stages in one's life. 

I've mentioned in passing that I live with my parents - it's kinda the norm here. I have cousins older than I am that live with their parents. It's, I think, partly due to tradition and partly to cost of living. In my case, there's the fact that I can't afford any place by myself... hmm perhaps I can... maybe? I'm not 100% sure... The other factor: whilst I know that I'd like my own place, I also know that I'd worry about the parents (especially the mother) being on their own - just this morning my mom was speaking about the possible need for a companion if ever any of us (the brother and I) aren't at home. What will parents do if I'm not here? Who will take care of them? Who can I trust to take care of/just generally be around them? Oy.

Points that came up in my meeting today were that Trinidad and Tobago's population is ageing - persons don't know what's being done about that and there's apparently a lot of old people's homes (I'm not sure what the correct terminology is for this) springing up that do not conform to any kind of regulations (regulations? there are regulations?). I must do research. There's a Division of Ageing in Trinidad and Tobago. I'm somewhat grumpy because I can't find the National Policy for Ageing anywhere online. I'd like to know what's being put in place for our ageing population. I'd like to know how the workforce would be affected. I'd like to know that something is actually being done. 

I think I need to do more research into this. Ageing is something that we're all facing. 

What do you think?

peace,
Ren


Edited to add:



1 comment:

guaicotamana said...

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Tobago_cancer_patient__burns_himself_to_death-149177665.html

Some of us are choosing not to grow old.

As my cousin says, A long life is not necessary it is a nice to have.

As for the policy document, I think I have a copy somewhere, hardcopy unfortunately.