What I never considered was that my grandparents might actually have slang of their own. Or at least, I never considered it until my most recent trip to their humble abode. One day during my stay, my grandma informed me that we needed to go “marketing.” Hmmm, marketing eh? What product could my grandma possibly need to market? And to whom? But then she explained: marketing is what she calls grocery shopping. The arrangement does make logical sense. Marketing, or the act of going to the market. Much to my surprise, it had absolutely nothing to do with the advertising.

Thus through one short word I was reminded of language’s fluctuations; and much to the chagrin of my ego, realized that my generation did not invent slang.

Aerial picture of the proposed development (Vancouver Sun)

Among the residents voicing their opposition to the proposed Rize development in the Mt. Pleasant neighbourhood of Vancouver is a 94-year-old man who lives in a senior care facility near the intersection of Broadway and Kingsway streets. According to the Vancouver Courier, Woodrow Coward feels that the intersection is already too congested: “This is the Achille’s heel of the whole project, in my opinion,” Coward said. “The project is simply in the wrong place and I think it is the wrong use for that particular piece of land.”

Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera

Just posted a link to this article on Twitter and Facebook, but could not help expanding a little bit. Azad Essa of Al Jazeera notes in this article how youth have attracted the majority of attention in recent political events world-wide. With this as his baseline, he reports from Senegal with a a pertinent question: “with all of this focus on youth, what about the elderly in Senegal?”

He talks to five people between the ages of 66 and 90. Their answers are as diverse as they are fascinating. But two recurrent themes are the duties and obligations of citizenship and dissatisfaction with the current government. Definitely worth a read!

Will the recommendations make it to the legislature?

The Office of the Ombudsperson in B.C. recently released a massive report (400 pages!) on the care of seniors in the province. Andrew MacLeod’s write-up in The Tyee provides some insightful analysis.

I took a quick look through some of the documents and it is clear that the report recognizes pressing issues. It is certainly not short on recommendations. But as with most things political, implementation often lags far behind. We will not know for some time how serious the government is about changing policy.

In the meantime, hopefully this report will serve as a starting point for a wider conversation on senior care.

(image via cbc.ca)

Stanley Fischer in 2000

The race to replace the IMF’s managing director wrapped up last year, with French lawyer and politician Christine Lagarde taking the reins of the organization. But there was some controversy when another candidate, Stanley Fischer, was ruled ineligible because of his age. Fischer was 67 at the time, making him two years too old for the position of IMF Managing Director.

As stated in the IMF’s by-laws: ” no person shall be initially appointed to the post of Managing Director after he has reached his sixty-fifth birthday and…no Managing Director shall hold such post beyond his seventieth birthday.”

When the warm summer months give way to the frost, not only the birds fly South
Manimals, it seems, also seek shelter where they can’t see exhaust, or the breath from their mouth
Usually the young ones, with robust circulation, will brave the wind and the sleet and the snow
But as old age sets in, these wintery battles become the ultimate, unbeatable foe
So with no job to hold them, the retirees flock, to places where the palm trees grow
Golf can be played the entire year ’round – below 15, thermometers rarely go
Oh what it must be, for kids in these lands, I feel that it’s almost unfair
Because over and over they are constantly told, “you’re from Boca? My grandparents live there!”

Lorne Green gives safe holiday driving advice in a voice we wouldn’t dare to disobey, nurses at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children sing (and giggle) in perfect white-hatted formation, and Toronto winds up for its 1957 annual Eaton’s Santa Parade.