Elder abuse.

A few days ago I noticed an ABC news item that struck me as relevant. It dealt with the growing queues of elderly people missing out on levels of subsidised in-home care. Often people need respite and care either for themselves or another person such as a partner or family members. A segment on TV news dealt with same issue.

Footage was shown of an elderly woman hoisting her severely affected Alzheimer  and Parkinson husband up in a sling from one side of the house to the other. A steel beam was bolted onto the ceiling and an electric block and tackle system was used to move her husband about the house. Another case was how a woman needed to be helped from her bed into the electric chair in which she could perform most house-hold duties. It is the relentless care day in day out that many need respite from. But, as always the money for those essential services is lacking. Yet we talk about tax cuts!

The article is here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-03/govt-scrambles-amid-growing-queue-for-home-care-packages/9387692

Here is a sample of the article; “The latest figures reveal there are now 101,508 people in the queue for appropriate home-care packages.More than 60,000 have no package at all, and 40,000 have a package at a lower level than what they need”.

And then this morning on the TV, ( where else)? The Prime Minister being interviewed, waxing lyrically how tax cuts to corporate Australia was going to help employment and profits. He followed this up with while looking up,   prophesying by seemingly divine inspiration, that this would then guarantee increased wages to the workers. Surely he must have felt thickening of his insincerity.

I mean, look at America. Do the wages there go in tandem with corporate profits? In Australia profits in businesses between 2016/17 went up 20%, yet wages a mere 1%. The trickle down effect is a huge joke.

 

It seems a logical conclusion, that if countries keep giving tax cuts, it eventually means no tax will be raised at all. Pity for those that are waiting for home-care packages.

If you want to take an example to follow. Look at Northern Europe ,especially the Scandinavian countries were taxes are very high, but so are  welfare levels. AND, their economies are booming. Our Prime Mister, Mr Turnbull, should try and raise revenue. A sugar tax alone would bring in hundreds of millions a year and save billions on health care. Our GST could be raised on a level with overseas countries. Why does the government never mention raising revenue and income?.

And right on the heels of the above article, another one popped up this morning about elder abuse which now seem more often than not to come from within the family.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-04/the-silent-epidemic-of-elder-abuse-in-our-suburbs/9383812

I know if I get ripped off by own family or need to be moved around in a sling suspended from a steel beam, totally gaga, I will, before that arrives, have the sanity and means to get-out-of-here-quick smart.

The Christmas Present

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Each year we face the challenges of Christmas presents. Already featured on the news, amazing tales of spending are spun. 'Billions in the next few days,' an announcer declares standing in front of an apartment store. Beads of triumphal materialism are glistening on his face. He mops his brows. His hands gesticulate and give emphasis to his prophesies of enormous spending. This is expected to be seen by the viewer of proof of our wellbeing. Shop till you drop is now going like wildfire, ambulances are heard screaming their way to those that have dropped. Many shoppers are on the streets carrying large bags emblazed by large letters. A man is sitting near the corner holding a sign, 'I am homeless.' His head is down.

One can't buy that on E-Bay.
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There is also a war to the death being fought. E-Bay is the Trojan horse that has entered our shopping habits. Apparently many now shop in front of a screen and rarely move outside. Wardrobes are piling out with bargains. Anything under $1000.- is GST or VAT free. A dream come true. And we don't have to go anywhere! Beauty. It just seems odd to buy clothes and not then go outside to show them around. What is it all about?

Men are buying computers or E-Pods/pads/tablets/routers/ and tweet to the world of their prudent shopping, all on E-Bay. Fishing rods with spinners, even leather jackets and bike helmets. The electronics bought from E-bay can then be used to ferret out even more E-Bay bargains. So it goes on. I wonder what I have done wrong to be totally outside the loupe of the E-Bay world of excitement.

For years now I have often missed out buying cheap things. I just can’t for the life of me think up something that I might like. My E-reader is lost somewhere.After all that concern about my eyes deterioration I still prefer a normal book. The E-book reader was about the last ‘thing’ I bought. I downloaded ‘War and Peace’ just to prove I still had the technical nous.

I don’t wear ties and only use paper handkerchiefs. Who wants to put a used hanky back in one’s pocket? That leaves socks or a meccano set. I bought Norwegian socks that are life long wearing. After 16 years of wear I darned one hole in each sock near the heel, using a hard boiled egg. Afterwards I ate the egg with a little salt.

With the meccano set I lost the Alan Key. I don’t normally skateboard or do twirls on a bicycle which seat has been lowered to the frame. I have become a man without wanting presents. I really would not know what I could still want to buy. I like a hug or a nice compliment, an unexpected kiss, a pat or stroke. Who doesn’t? I get all that and more. Why want to shop for an E-Bay gadget or tool. Should I buy a Pierre Cardin suit? I would look silly and self conscious. I am happy in jeans.

A garden for both of us is the ultimate gift and is free. Here is our garden that Helvi has managed to transform from an original bit of wasteland with ugly exposed paling fences. Have a look at it now. How can an E-pad or Louis Vuitton handbag compete with this?

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A normal Phone with gin and tonic Apps for the Aged

You can never be sure of how society will move forward but I am glad that I most likely won’t be around to find out how the grandchildren will fare in a world that now seems to connect mainly by pushing little buttons on a  plastic-metal box with a small coloured screen.

We are facing a friendless world with ‘face-book’ friends but with the chances of meeting in the real flesh diminishing as years go by. When did you last actually go outside to shop for a dress or box of veggies or was that done with the help of those little buttons as well?

I remember my parents were quick of the mark with being one of the first to have a telephone back in 1946 or so. It was a large black glimmering device bolted onto the floral wallpapered wall of our lounge room.  This telephone would give off a loud ring and when telephoning someone it was done by a rotating disc with the numbers being large and clearly written on them. It was a gadget that would reassure us in its reliable functionality and simplicity. It was clearly a telephone.

The telephone book of Rotterdam then was very thin. Most just used to walk across the road or around the block to visit friends and family. We lived close by to family and friends. If not we would send a letter.

Now, the phone as a telephone has just about disappeared. I am driven beyond sanity when trying to have just a phone. The land-line is prohibitively expensive and now includes all sorts of extras that I don’t want. We now pay line rentals and GST (vat) plus options for complicated ‘menus of retrievals and voice banking.’ I just want what my parents had; a normal phone that has a reassuring ring.  It was life affirming and did not give attacks of anxiety as phone calls seem to do now. They now seem to have a sense of dread and foreboding of possible grief and immense sadness.

I now just want a device that is called ‘mobile phone’ (or cell phone in the US). It is far from mobile as it seems to imprison more than liberate. Just look at the anxiety written all over those hapless souls on street corners or shopping malls, trains and busses. All tapping away or glued to this mobile phone. ‘I am going shopping to Aldi” I overheard one of those tappers saying.

I was so desperately pleading with one of those cell-phone franchises; “please can I just have a cell phone that is a phone”. Incredibility staring back at me with total incomprehension as an extra. “What do you mean?”  “I mean a phone as a phone.” “I don’t normally have an urge to take a photo when I want to just telephone someone, nor do I have a burning need to listen to a radio or save messages, bank voice mail or retrieve last week’s riveting event at the shopping mall.” I also don’t normally play games such as chess, monopoly or want a weather report on the phone.”

“I sometimes just want to make a simple telephone call to my friend who is in hospital with a knee replacement.” “I don’t want messages of missed calls or reminders about credit,” nor send e-mail or want face-bookings with Russian sex Goddesses.

“Can’t you just sell me a phone that I can carry around?”

She, the franchise lady, smiled. “You are an old man and grump around that fact”. She could have said, but she didn’t. “Your parents despaired when the ball-point was invented and people started slurping Coke”. Did it ruin you, she continued? No, but that was different. We still did our tables and could write and spell. Now it is all “C U in 2 mnts, r u ok?” and the supermarket girl can’t figure out the cost of butter of $2. -, and give the change from $20. – without checking the electronic screen.

“You are still a curmudgeon and at the end of your miserable life”, she could also have added. (but didn’t)

It is true; I had some sad and unfortunate life changing experiences that you will experience as well. That is if you don’t get hit by a truck while sending text messages to your ring-nosed boyfriend in the meantime, I added smugly.

By now, the franchise girl became agitated and called the manager. He comes up; looks me over while rocking on his heels. “You sound as if you want one of our new models for the hard of hearing and blind”.  “It also has a handy Velcro strap to put on your walking frame and a clip-on for the outside rim of a commode, (just in case of a bout of intestinal hurry).  It comes with Galaxy Apps for the aged, he added with a smile. Gt fkd, C U at the Crmtrium, ashes to ashes. (I so wished…)

I just want a phone.