We have to save old people, we can’t let them die, care for the old and the most insane “practice social distancing” because your old folks might catch coronavirus. These are some of the things being publicized in news and popular media. Do these notions even have a backbone? A society born out of tyranny and deceit practicing good deeds at the time of a pandemic just doesn’t sum up.
Some of us don’t have grandparents nor parents, we just can’t give coronavirus to anyone. The healthy are in lockdown, the economy is shut, we have already entered a recession, don’t you think the old folks are going to die even if we beat this pandemic, because the world after this ordeal will go back to its own ways or maybe the altered reality? Will we care for the elderly as much as we care now? I bet, we will not.
Let’s give things more perspective here. Do you know how many people above 60 years have pensions? Many of the old folks have worked in the same organization for the major part of their lives unlike us who shift jobs for higher pay-outs. After dedicating all of their lives to a single organization, these big corporations make sure that their loyal employees live a life of misery and die off as soon as possible. The burden of pensions on the economy is considered to be unnecessary thus countries around the world feel that it is the employer who should bear the burden of pension schemes. Apart from that debate, the pension that is granted is so meager that the old people have to choose between paying electricity bills or feeding themselves. We keep on saying on social media, news, and advertisements, eat healthily stay healthily, how are the seniors going to do that if they don’t have money or no one to bring them those amazing products that we have all the time? This is true horror and it’s going to get worse.
We want cool techs, lightning-quick internet without actually knowing the consequences of prolonged radiations to humans. We do not want to spend time with our grandparents. Never, wish them on their birthday’s or anniversaries. They go unnoticed and are not added to our WhatsApp groups. This for me is social distancing which has been happening long before this pandemic started.
Then even worse is how we treat them. There are numerous reports suggesting that the elderly are victimized more often than not. There is even a day designated for this called the World Elder Abuse Awareness observed on Day15 June by the United Nations.
A 2009 study showed that the vast majority of elder violence is perpetrated by someone known to the victim. Emotional and sexual misconduct is most often committed by a spouse or acquaintance; abandonment by a child or grandchild; and physical violence by a spouse or acquaintance.
Obviously, we are not capable of caring for the elderly and what’s more heartbreaking is the number of crimes that are inflicted on the elderly. We do not only neglect them, abuse them but commit horrific financial crimes against them. There are so many ways in which the elderly who are at the most vulnerable stages of their lives are looted of their life savings. And it’s not over. When we feel we are done with them, we throw them to the elderly care institutions.
Residents in nursing homes are also vulnerable to abuse, neglect or misuse by nursing home workers and other patients. A 2017 report focused on the best available data from 52 surveys in 28 countries from various continents, including 12 low-and middle-income nations, found that 15.7% of people aged 60 years and older experienced a form of violence in the past year. The abuse and cases might be much more because the elderly seldom report such cases out of fear of being abused in more inhuman ways.
I am not playing down on healthcare practitioners or the nurses caring for the old during the pandemic, but I want to ask a simple question to the general public. Are you sitting at home, because you love your grandparents or your parents or just because you are scared that you might get infected and die eventually?
If you do not care about the elderly then I think this lockdown isn’t meant for us, go out and work, because after this pandemic gets over you will be in a situation much worse than the old folks!
