Japan's Ageless Society

“The general trend of uniformly seeing those aged 65 or over as elderly is losing credibility. The government will review the (current) standardization by age bracket and aim to create an ageless society where people of all generations can be active according to their wishes.” (via)



The General Principles Concerning Measures for the Aging Society emphasise independence, participation and choices of the elderly by, for instance, securing employment and working opportunities, offering ability development throughout their lives, promoting lifelong health improvement and creating a lifelong learning system, promoting the involvement of the elderly in social activities, ensuring stable and comfortable housing and community development for the elderly, protecting them from traffic accidents, crimes and disasters, and promoting research. One goal is to create a society "where people are respected as important members throughout their lives" (via).



Japan's policy on the elderly aims to create an ageless society by giving people the opportunity to choose to start receiving pensions at any time between the ages 60 and 70. There is the target to increase the rate of employment among people aged 60 to 64 to 67% by 2020. In addition, measures to enhance well-being and reduce the need for nursing care and the prevention of isolation are included (via).

“Expansion of the right to choose when to receive a public pension has great significance in our changing society. If individuals can choose to delay retirement and get more money on a monthly basis later in life, it could give them a feeling of security about living longer.”
Yoshikazu Kenjo

"Japan has one of the longest longevities in the world. It is expected that Japan’s population will age even more rapidly and the total population will continue to decline.
Under such circumstances, those who reached their advanced ages nowadays remain motivated to work. Taking into consideration also that their stamina and physical fitness have been improving consistently, it is important to realize a society where people of all generations, including the elderly, can take full advantage of their skills and abilities to play an active role in a range of areas. At the same time, we must provide sufficient assistance and a safety net for people to lead a fulfilling life in their golden years, safely and securely.
Therefore, the new General Principles Concerning Measures for the Aged Society has the following pillars: aim to develop an ageless society where people of all generations can play an active role based on their desires; create local communities where people can clearly envision their livelihoods in the golden years at any stage of their life; and intend to utilize new measures enabled by the achievements of technological innovation to deal with an aging society.
I would like all of you to use this General Principles Concerning Measures for the Aged Society as a guideline for taking steps toward building a Japanese society which provides an environment for people of all generations to lead a fulfilling life, along with the initiatives under the Plan to Realize the Dynamic Engagement of All Citizens."
Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister (2018)

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photographs via and via and via

You Usually Find them with One of Those Lady Drinks

Many women don't find whiskey very likeable.
In fact, they find it hard to take.
So you usually find them with gin or vodka, or one of those lady drinks.



But we've changed all that. We've given whiskey more appeal.
A lady can even drink Soft Whiskey straight. Without batting an eyelash. Soft Whiskey swallows nice and easy, treating her ever so tenderly.
But don't get the wrong idea. Soft Whiskey is not softie. It's 86 proof. And does exactly what any 86 proof does. It just does it softer. So lady, be discreet.
Now, about the softening process. All we can tell you is, some of Calvert Extra is distilled in small batches instead of huge ones. Forgive our being so closemouthed. But we fell flat on our faces in year after year of experiments before we found the formula.
After all that, we're not going to make it easy for anyone to steal our women.

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image via

David Bowie Watches MTV (1983)

"It occurred to me, having watched MTV over the last few months, that’s it’s a solid enterprise, really. It’s got a lot going for it. I’m just floored by the fact that there are so few black artists featured on it. Why is that?"



G: I think we’re trying to move in that direction. We want to play artists that seem to be doing music that fits into what we want to play for MTV. The company is thinking in terms of narrow-casting.

Bowie: That’s evident. It’s evident in the fact that the only few black artists that one does see are on about 2:30 in the morning to around 6. Very few are featured predominantly during the day.



G: It’s funny, I think people have different perceptions. When you wind up watching -- let’s say you watch an hour or two or even three a day, people somehow come away with different ideas about what we are doing. We don’t have any kind of day-parting for anything, let alone for black artists, day-parted out of what would be “prime time.” We don’t have that.

Bowie: Because one sees a lot on -- there’s one black station on television that I keep picking up. I’m not sure which station it’s on. But there seem to be a lot of black artists making very good videos that I’m surprised aren’t used on MTV.



G: Of course, also, we have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angles will appreciate, but also Poughkeepsie or Midwest -- pick some town in the Midwest -- that would be scared to death by Prince, which we’re playing, or a string of other black faces and black music.

Bowie: That’s very interesting. Isn’t that interesting?

Via/Whole interview: LINK

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David Bowie YouTube Link Pack:

::: Life on Mars? WATCH/LISTEN
::: Ashes to Ashes: WATCH/LISTEN
::: The Man Who Sold the World: LISTEN
::: Space Oddity: WATCH/LISTEN
::: This Is Not America: WATCH/LISTEN
::: Changes: WATCH/LISTEN
::: Heroes: WATCH/LISTEN
::: Time: WATCH/LISTEN
::: When I Live My Dream: LISTEN
::: Wild is the Wind: WATCH/LISTEN
::: Love You Till Tuesday: LISTEN
::: In the Heat of the Morning: LISTEN
::: John, I'm Only Dancing: WATCH/LISTEN
::: Oh, You Pretty Things: WATCH/LISTEN

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photographs of David Bowie (London, Manchester Street, 1967) via and via and via

Dementia, Depression, Unattractive, Selfish. Younger People's Stereotypical Perceptions of Older People

According to a survey (n = 2.000) carried out in the U.K., "millennials" (here defined as people aged 18 to 34) have the most negative attitudes to older people and ageing in general. The findings showed a clear pattern indicating that attitudes to ageing become more positive as the age of respondent increases. Or: It becomes more negative as their age decreases. 40% of those age 18 to 34 believe "there isn't any way to escape getting dementia as you age", 25% think "it is normal to be unhappy and depressed when you are old" and 24% believe "older people can never really be thought of as attractive". 44% of 18-24 year olds agreed that in "elections, most older people just vote for their own selfish interests rather than the wellbeing of the younger generation and society as a whole". Respondents aged 18-34 said "old age" would begin at 53, those over 65 said it would start at 64.



People also seem to be living in age segregated places as 64% don't have a single friendship with an age gap of 30 years or more. Cultural or ethnic backgrounds play a major role since those identifying as from a black ethnic background showed an "overwhelmingly more positive" attitude.
Another finding was the "general perception that women faced more barriers growing older than men" as their physical attractiveness allegedly deteriorated more with age (Royal Society for Public Health, 2018).

- Royal Society for Public Health (2018). That Age Old Question. How Attitudes to Ageing Affect Our Health and Wellbeing. London, LINK
- photographs by Vivian Maier via (1977) and via (Chicago 1975)

The -ism Series (34): Inclusive Tourism

According to the World Tourism Organization, inclusive tourism has the potential to contribute to gender equality and reduce poverty. Tourism can take place "in a variety of environments, including rural or underdeveloped areas", hence its capacity to promote a more inclusive development. It can, theoretically (tourism employment tends to be unstable), create jobs in underdeveloped rural areas and by doing so reduce poverty. More than in any other sector, women develop as entrepreneurs (via) ...



... , however, there is still - like in many other business sectors - the problem of horizontal and vertical gender segregation of the labour market:

Horizontally, women and men are placed in different occupations - women are being employed as waitresses, cleaners, travel agencies sales persons, flight attendants, etc., whereas men are being employed as gardeners, construction workers, drivers, pilots, etc. Vertically, the typical "gender pyramid" is prevalent in the tourism sector - lower levels and occupations with few career development opportunities are being dominated by women and key managerial positions dominated by men. (Ramchurje, 2011)

Apart from the labour market, women play a role as travellers and face specific problems (mainly concerns for personal safety) when, for instance, travelling alone (Jordan & Aitchison, 2008). Inclusive tourism is not only about gender and socioeconomics. Sexual orientation, disability, and age are further dimensions that need to be considered.

One in three LGBT travellers (32%) feels they are treated differently due to their sexuality when on holiday. This was a key finding of research conducted in September 2016 by British-owned tour operator Virgin Holidays. The study – a survey of 1,000 adults who identified at LGBT conducted by OnePoll – also highlighted the fact that sexuality had a major influence on where LGBT British adults travelled, with two thirds (63%) refusing to visit somewhere with an unwelcoming attitude towards the LGBT community. It is clearly important for people to be able to feel comfortable when they travel, yet apparently almost a quarter (23%) of LGBT travellers change the way they act and try to camouflage their sexuality when on holiday.
UNWTO

Solo travelling "no longer lies with the 20-something backpacker that stereotypes suggest". In a survey, the highest percentage of people who would travel alone was found among 55-64-year-olds (35%) and over 65s (31%) which again means that the tourism industry needs to react to these travel habits (via) and to "demographic challenges" (as an ageing society is constantly called a "challenge") in general (Nikitina & Vorontsova, 2015). So far, only "very little attention" has been given  to senior tourists in literature (Patterson & Balderas, 2018).
For people with disabilities, tourism can still be a challenge (via). In many Western industrialised countries, discussions on Accessible Tourism for All started in the late 1970s and intensified in the past twenty years. Nevertheless, this approach is far from being widespread and still a niche segment (Kagermeier, n.d.) with a lack of products and services (Özogul & Baran, 2016).

‘Inclusive Tourism’ is often referred to as ‘Accessible Tourism’ or even ‘Disabled Tourism’. Disabled people were used to be and still are partially excluded from the leisure activities offered to people without mobility problems. Therefore accessible tourism is about making it easy for all people, irrespective of their gender, age or physical status, to enjoy tourism experiences. It is a set of services and facilities for individuals with special needs, who are for example disabled, elderly travellers, pregnant women, parents pushing their children in strollers or even people with temporary injuries, such as a broken leg or chronic ailments. All these people need to be particularly enabled during their travel. Thus, accessible tourism is the ongoing attempt to ensure that tourist destinations, products and services around the world are accessible to all people, regardless of their physical limitations, disabilities or age. (...) Not only the mobility-impaired people benefit from the improvements, but also their relatives, friends and other companions. Accessibility in tourism is a social right which concerns all citizens. It is often limited to a certain group of people but it should be seen in a more holistic approach (...).
Münch & Ulrich (2011)

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- Jordan, F. & Aitchison, C. (2008). Tourism and the sexualisation of the gaze: Solo female tourists' experiences of gendered power, surveillance and embodiment. Leisure Studies, 27(3), 329-349.
- Kagermeier, A. (n.d.). Challenges to attaining "Acessible Tourism for All" in German destinations as part of a CSR-oriented approach. BEST EN Think Tank XVI. Building Escellence in Sustainable Tourim Education Network.
- Özogul, G. & Baran, G. G. (2016). Accessible tourism: the golden key in the future for the specialized travel agencies. Journal of Tourism Futures, LINK
- Patterson, I. & Balderas, A. (2018). Continuing and Emerging Trends of Senior Tourism: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Population Ageing, LINK
- Ramchurje, N. A. (2011). "Tourism" a Vehicle for Women's Empowerment: Prospect and Challenges, LINK
- Nikitina, O. & Vorontsova, G. (2015). Aging Population and Tourism: Socially Determined Model of Consumer Behavior in the "Senior Tourism" Segment. Procedia - Social and Behavior Sciences, 214, 845-851.
- photograph by Vivian Maier via

Quoting John W. Fields

"In most of us colored folks was the great desire to [be] able to read and write. We took advantage of every opportunity to educate ourselves. The greater part of the plantation owners were very harsh if we were caught trying to learn or write. It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence. We were never allowed to go to town and it was not until after I ran away that I knew that they sold anything but slaves, tobacco, and wiskey. Our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us. We knew we could run away, but what then?"
John W. Fields



The collection "Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938" has preserved hundreds of life stories of former slaves "that would otherwise have been lost" (via). It is digitised and can be accessed online.

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photograph of John W. Fields taken between 1936 and 1938 via

Captain of Dance

In January 2019, Andrew Self - a "Captain of Dance" - competed on BBC's show "The Greatest Dancer", a competition "open to children from 7 years and above, with no upper age limit" (via). Andrew fell in love with dance when he was 11 (via) and taught himself to dance (via). Having Down Syndrome does not stop him from doing anything.



::: The "No, I don't cry, you cry"-audition: WATCH

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photograph of Andrew Self via

Abraham, Martin and John

"The country was in a very restless period."
Dion DiMucci

The title "Abraham, Martin and John" refers to Abraham Lincoln (assassinated on 14 April 1865), Martin Luther King, Jr. (assassinated on 4 April 1968), John F. Kennedy (assassinated on 22 November 1963), and Robert F. Kennedy (assassinated on 5 June 1968). The song - written by Dick Holler, sung by Dion DiMucci and released in August 1968 - is a tribute to their battle for civil rights and has been covered by Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Kenny Roghers, Mahalia Jackson and many more (via and via).


"A sailor weeps as the caisson bearing the body of President Kennedy travels past him and other mourners in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on the way to the burial site." (via)


"A woman in New York reacts to the news of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Nov. 22, 1963." (via)

Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he's gone.
Has anybody here seen my old friend John,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he's gone.
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lotta people, but it seems the good die young
But I just looked around and he's gone.
Didn't you love the things they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?
And we'll be free,
Someday soon it's gonna be one day.
Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby,
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin and John.

::: sung by Dion: LISTEN
::: covered by Marvin Gaye: LISTEN



"The telephone rang, a secretary in guerrilla garb announced that Mr. Dorticós, President of the Cuban Republic, had an urgent communication for the Prime Minister. Fidel picked up the phone and I heard him say: “Como? Un atentado?” (“What’s that? An attempted assassination?”) He then turned to us to say that Kennedy had just been struck down in Dallas. Then he went back to the telephone and exclaimed in a loud voice “Herido? Muy gravemente?” (“Wounded? Very seriously?”)
He came back, sat down, and repeated three times the words: “Es una mala noticia.” (“This is bad news.”) He remained silent for a moment, awaiting another call with further news. He remarked while we waited that there was an alarmingly sizable lunatic fringe in American society and that this deed could equally well have been the work of a madman or of a terrorist. Perhaps a Vietnamese? Or a member of the Ku Klux Klan?"
Jean Daniel


"Original black and white photographic negative taken by an unidentified Dallas Times Herald staff photographer. This image shows members of the crowd outside Parkland Hospital reacting to the news of President Kennedy's death." (via)


"St. Louis cries in the rain after news of Kennedy assassination." (via)


"A young girl cried outside a memorial service being helf for President Kennedy at Harvard University the day he was killed." (via)


"A tearful woman is comforted by a companion as the horse-drawn caisson bearing the body of President John F. Kennedy passes on way to the Capitol, Washington, Nov. 24, 1963." (via)


"Two unidentified women burst into tears outside Parkland Hospital on hearing that President John F. Kennedy died from the bullet fired by an assassin while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Nov. 22, 1963." (via)


"One section of the street-lined crowd becomes emotional as the body of the President John F. Kennedy, borne upon a horse-drawn caisson, passes on the way to the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 24, 1963." (via)


"People react to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in New York, NY.Wayne Miller/Magnum" (via)

As one writer of the time suggested, the funeral was attended by 180 million Americans — the entire stunned populace. Only 50,300,000 American households had televisions in 1963, and it was estimated that 41,553,000 sets were tuned into the funeral. (via)

"Where were you when JFK was shot?" is a popular question showing to what extent the event "weighed on American consciousness" (via).

I was 12. We were sat in front of a small television screen in a big brown box, me and my father. I remember the atmosphere suddenly changed. My father became grim faced and sat hunched forward with his forearms on his thighs, staring, listening intently. My mother, still in her pinny, stood by his side, her hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes. I remember she gasped and looked wide-eyed and fearful at my father, who shook his head slowly. I remember his words because I didn't really grasp what was happening. 'It's the end,' he said. 'The world will never be the same.' Just a flicker of memory of a world changing event.
Sue Campbell

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- photographs via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via
- Dutch reaction to Kennedy's assassination: WATCH
- French reaction to Kennedy's assassination: WATCH
- Yarmey, A. D. & Bull, M. (1978). Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated? Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 11(2), 133-135.

Born this day ... James Alan McPherson

James Alan McPherson (1943-2016) was born in segregated Savannah, Georgia, on 16 September 1943. He was an "oberservant, unsparing critic of the powerful" and a "compassionate sympathizer with the disadvantaged", graduated at Harvard University, and in 1978 became the the first black author to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (via).



"I’m going to be called a black writer until I die. But the point is that when I write at my best I try to look for the human situation, and I think whites have an obligation to do the same when writing about black folk, if they choose to write about black folk. W hat I’m trying to say is that there’s an institutionalized classification. I used the phrase “greedy institution” a while back. That’s really what those classifications come down to - institutions. They tend to define general groups in the population and assign character traits to them."
James Alan McPherson

“It is my hope that this collection of stories can be read as a book about people, all kinds of people. Certain of these people happen to be black, and certain of them happen to be white; but I have tried to keep the color part of most of them far in the background, where these things should rightly be kept.”
James Alan McPherson

"I think that if you look at the society in terms of an ongoing social drama, then you see that certain groups have been assigned certain roles. Black Americans have been assigned the roles of being perpetually needy. The ones who have a moral claim on white man’s compassion. The ones that they always trot out to show you how far you’ve got to go. And so, I can imagine all these ethnic groups saying, “Look at this. I had to break my balls to get this little house here. They don’t give a damn about me.” Reagan built a coalition of ethnics because he said, “I feel sorry for you.” They say, “The system treats me like a nigger, but I don’t get any kind of compassion for it.” And so, here’s some guy that’s going to say he understands the pain. Well, Reagan fooled all of them. But that was the appeal I think."
James Alan McPherson

"It was acceptable to be overtly racist, but it’s more complex than that. I think that if you study the first generation of slaves out of slavery, you find that they were artisans, they were brick masons, they built all the plantation houses in the South. They weren’t just field hands, they were architects. That threatened the power structure, and so from 1896 until the early ’50s, there was an attempt to suppress any evidence of black intelligence. It was aimed at making sure black laborers never competed with white laborers. That accounted for the mass wave of migration out of the South. In Ellison’s Invisible Man, there’s a segment called “Golden Day.” Those guys are old professionals. The whites feel threatened by them and the black people feel threatened by the whites."
James Alan McPherson

"But you don’t achieve mass acceptance in this culture without being diffused. Unless you are diffused, then you’re likely to be limited in your appeal. It’s so easy, you know. But then you end up without your self. That’s the way the whole thing is set up. It’s not just blacks, it’s anybody. They’ve got to be diffused. If you can’t be, then you’ve got a price to pay just because you question w hat’s normal, what’s right and w hat’s wrong, what’s the truth and what’s a lie. But in the case of black Americans, I think, asking those basic questions is almost obligatory. In a sense, your life depends on it. You’re living in a crazy country that’s paranoid, in a large part because of your presence in it, and if you have a view of the whole thing, it’s because you’re outside, and you say “This is where I fit in, and this is where things get warped."
James Alan McPherson

"I don’t see myself as a token. I fought - I had too many fights with certain people. I’ll say this, the people I fought with I wound up respecting, although I might not agree with them. But if I were a token, I’d be much more at ease and comfortable than I am now. But beyond that, Bob, my work is good. W hat I do is good. I teach, I write - nobody gave that to me. As for the responses of black people, no, surprisingly enough, the best review I ever got was in Essence and a black woman said, “Somebody out there’s watching us, somebody out there’s on to us.” I’m in the tradition, I’m still in the core culture. I’m not explaining it to white folk. I don’t think I m using it to titillate whites. I’ve never gotten any negative criticism from black people - I never have.
(...) But I can’t say I’ve gotten that much negative feedback from white people. Usually the response is indifference. People have been gracious to me, all down the line. I’ve been lucky in that respect. I never wrote for money. I never wrote for propaganda purposes. Well, to go back to your question about my feelings about the marketplace and my color, I will just say that there are very few short story writers who end up in paperback, and very few who get a Pulitzer Prize, and very, very few who ever get popular. So I ain’t complaining, I ain’t complaining."
James Alan McPherson

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photograph via

Free to Be ... You and Me

"Feminism... I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, 'Free to be You and Me'."
Ruth Bader Ginsburg



"Free to Be ... You and Me" was a children's entertainment project starting in 1972 including a record album, an illustrated book, and an ABC special using poetry, songs and sketches to encourage gender neutrality (via).

The idea for Free to Be came to Marlo Thomas - then most famous for her starring role on That Girl, in which she played Ann Marie, a career girl who didn’t want to get married - as she was reading a bedtime story to her 5-year-old niece Dionne. Thomas was shocked to discover all the books available to her niece were the same books she had been read when she was a little girl, and “it had taken me 30 years to get over them.” When Thomas went to the bookstore the next day in search of better fare, she found the state of children’s fiction was “worse than I thought.” On the shelves she discovered the especially abyssmal I’m Glad I’m A Boy, I’m Glad I’m A Girl. Sample text: “Boys invent things, girls use what boys invent.” Says Thomas: “I almost had a heart attack right there.”

According to Thomas, there were three pieces the TV powers-that-be wanted to cut from the special. The first two were "William Wants A Doll" and "It’s Alright to Cry," because the network was worried showing them “would make every boy in America a sissy…that wasn’t the word they used.”

They also had a problem with "Parents are People," not because of the lyrics, says Thomas, but because there was concern that the scene featuring her and Harry Belafonte wheeling their own baby buggies down a sidewalk made it seem as though the two were married. The network told Thomas they “couldn’t put that out and certainly couldn’t play it in the South.” (via)

"When We Grow Up" by Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson:



When we grow up will I be pretty?
Will you be big and strong?
Will I wear dresses that show off my knees?
Will you wear trousers twice as long?

Well, I don't care if I'm pretty at all
And I don't care if you never get tall
I like what I look like and you're nice small
We don't have to change at all.

When we grow up will I be a lady?
Will you be on the moon?
Well, it might be all right to dance by its light
But I'm gonna get up there soon.

Well, I don't care if I'm pretty at all
And I don't care if you never get tall
I like what I look like and you're nice small
We don't have to change at all.

When I grow up I'm going to be happy
And do what I like to do,
Like making noise and making faces
And making friends like you.

And when we grow up do you think we'll see
That I'm still like you
And you're still like me?
I might be pretty
You might grow tall
But we don't have to change at all.
(via)

More "Free to Be You and Me" on YouTube:

::: Parents are People (Harry Belafonte): LISTEN/WATCH
::: Sisters and Brothers (song starts at 2.29): LISTEN/WATCH
::: William Wants a Doll: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Princess Atalantis: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Ladies First: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Boy Meets Girl: LISTEN/WATCH
::: It's Alright to Cry: LISTEN/WATCH

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image via

Old + Female + Poor

"Older women are at greater risk of poverty than older men in all countries where breakdowns are available. The average poverty rate for men equals 8.4% and 12.4% for women."
OECD, 2015:170



In the US, 16% of women over 65 live either at or below poverty versus 12% of older men. Significant factors are discrimination in hiring and salaries, wage and wealth gap, higher health care costs for women, caregiving, part-time jobs, marital status, domestic violence, LGBTQ-status, education, and ethnicity. Black, Hispanic, and Native American older women are two times mor likely to be hit by poverty (via).

In Austria, 16% of women over 65 live at or below poverty in contrast to 10% of men over 65. (Figures are probably higher since statistics only consider people aged 65+, a criterion chosen on the fact that men usually retire at 65. Women, however, often retire at 60 and are not included in statistical data looking at 65+ only.) Living in poverty means that older people have difficulties to make ends meet; it means poor health, substandard housing, and low life satisfaction (via). In Italy, one in four people over the age of 65 are at risk of poverty (via), in Germany one in five (via), and in the UK one in six (via).

Older workers who are laid off still too often enter into early-retirement programmes. This approach, which is internalised by both employers and employees, gives older workers little opportunity to re-train and acquire new skills in order to strengthen their employability. Early retirement also exposes individuals to future poverty as income needs at a much higher age are often underestimated. Early retirement systems should be eliminated, and employment difficulties faced by the elderly should be dealt with by unemployment systems that promote activity as a way to protect and help people remain on the labour market longer. Beyond this, with the tightening of benefit eligibility criteria in most OECD pension systems, ensuring that the labour market is conducive to longer working lives is vital. In that respect, increases in the labour supply of older workers have to be met by a higher demand. Upgrading of skills and lifelong learning will therefore become important to retain older workers in the labour market.
OECD, 2015:32

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- Justice in Aging. (2018). Older Women & Poverty. Special report, December 2018, link
- photograph by Nick Hedges (Brent, 1969)  via

The World of Yesterday: Memories of a European, by Stefan Zweig

"Completed less than a year before Zweig killed himself, “The World of Yesterday” is less an autobiography- he mentions his two marriages only in passing - than a manifesto about his era. He portrays himself as an idealist, devoted to the cause of international brotherhood, even as Europe collapses around him."
Leo Carey, The New Yorker



“For I have indeed been torn from all my roots, even from the earth that nourished them, more entirely than most in our times. I was born in 1881 in the great and mighty empire of the Habsburg Monarchy, but you would look for it in vain on the map today; it has vanished without trace. I grew up in Vienna, an international metropolis for two thousand years, and had to steal away from it like a thief in the night before it was demoted to the status of a provincial German town. My literary work, in the language in which I wrote it, has been burnt to ashes in the country where my books made millions of readers their friends. So I belong nowhere now, I am a stranger or at the most a guest everywhere. Even the true home of my heart’s desire, Europe, is lost to me after twice tearing itself suicidally to pieces in fratricidal wars. Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most savage triumph of brutality in the chronicles of time. Never - and I say so not with pride but with shame - has a generation fallen from such intellectual heights as ours to such moral depths.”

“Nationalism emerged to agitate the world only after the war, and the first visible phenomenon which this intellectual epidemic of our century brought about was xenophobia; morbid dislike of the foreigner, or at least fear of the foreigner. The world was on the defensive against strangers, everywhere they got short shrift. The humiliations which once had been devised with criminals alone in mind now were imposed upon the traveler, before and during every journey. There had to be photographs from right and left, in profile and full face, one’s hair had to be cropped sufficiently to make the ears visible; fingerprints were taken, at first only the thumb but later all ten fingers; furthermore, certificates of health, of vaccination, police certificates of good standing, had to be shown; letters of recommendation were required, invitations to visit a country had to be procured; they asked for the addresses of relatives, for moral and financial guarantees, questionnaires, and forms in triplicate and quadruplicate needed to be filled out.”

“It is generally accepted that getting rich is the only and typical goal of the Jew. Nothing could be further from the truth. Riches are to him merely a stepping stone, a means to the true end, and in no sense the real goal. The real determination of the Jew is to rise to a higher cultural plane in the intellectual world.”

“In 1938, after Austria, our universe had become accustomed to inhumanity, to lawlessness, and brutality as never in centuries before. In a former day the occurrences in unhappy Vienna alone would have been sufficient to cause international proscription, but in 1938 the world conscience was silent or merely muttered surlily before it forgot and forgave.”

“The Nazis no longer resorted to hypocritical pretexts about the urgency of opposing and eliminating Marxism. They did not just rob and steal, they gave free rein to every kind of private vengeful instinct. University professors were forced to scrub the streets with their bare hands; devout, white-bearded Jews were hauled into the synagogues by young men bawling with glee, and made to perform knee-bends while shouting “Heil Hitler!” in chorus. They rounded up innocent citizens in the streets like rabbits and dragged them away to sweep the steps of the SA barracks. All the sick, perverted fantasies they had thought up over many nights of sadistic imaginings were now put into practice in broad daylight. They broke into apartments and tore the jewels out of the ears of trembling women—it was the kind of thing that might have happened when cities were plundered hundreds of years ago in medieval wars, but the shameless pleasure they took in the public infliction of pain, psychological torture and all the refinements of humiliation was something new. All this has been described not by one victim but by thousands, and a more peaceful age, not morally exhausted like our own, will shudder some day to read what horrors were inflicted on that cultured city in the twentieth century by a single half-deranged man. For in the midst of his military and political victories, that was Hitler’s most diabolical triumph - one man succeeded in deadening every idea of what is just and right by the constant attrition of excess.”
Stefan Zweig

::: Link to the whole book: READ

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photographs via

Caged Bird, by Maya Angelou

"Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird,” published in 1983, is a celebration of African American resilience and dignity. Employing a simple metaphor — birds — Angelou powerfully evokes the pain and rage of one who is oppressed by contrasting it with the carefree and willful ignorance of one who is free." (via)



The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

Maya Angelou

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photograph via

Hensol Castle: Hiding Away People with Learning Disabilities

Hensol Castle, located in the Welsh Vale of Glamorgan, was built in the 17th and early 18th century.Sir Francis Caradoc Rose Price (1880-1949) inherited the Hensol estate and put it up for sale in 1923 since "the old place" would require too much money to be maintained which again had become difficult as income-tax and supertax had risen considerably in the years before. The castle was sold in 1926 to Glamorgan County Council for use as a County mental hospital. Hensol hospital was opened in 1930 as a "colony" for 100 men with learning disabilities. New blocks were added to accommodate up to 460 persons. In 2003, the hospital was closed (via).



Patients were branded "mental defectives". Many children and adults with autism and Down's Syndrome were hidden away at this institution turning Hensol into "a hidden and often painful part of Wales' history". A great many others were misdiagnosed and lived in this institution completely isolated from society (via)




In 1967, South African photographer Jürgen Schadeberg visited Hensol hospital.

Schadeberg’s Welsh photographs range from the surprising to the thought-provoking and the unsettling. They focus on individual faces and personalities at a time when people with learning disabilities were invisible, herded into high-walled hospitals, hidden away for years. (via)

Schadeberg's photographs were exhibited a few years ago.

As I walked onto the ‘Nightingale ward’ all those years ago, with beds either side of a very long corridor, I noticed shapes laying in the beds that were moving.
I didn’t realise these were actually people until I was introduced to one patient. I can still see the young woman’s beautiful smile and really bright, brown eyes looking at me with affection and acceptance. I remember talking to her – she communicated back non-verbally yet we could understand each other perfectly.
The exhibition room made me feel absurdly calm and safe as I was transported back to that little girl. I say absurdly, as it was a frightening, imposing, institution wheredoors locked, people screamed and scary people wore white coats and starched uniforms.
Carol Davies (who was five and her mother a staff nurse)

photographs by Jürgen Schadeberg via