Good Life for how many?

Old age is a bonus or a curse? Depends who you are and where you are placed. By the way is it really worth-living at a ripe and helpless age?

Look at Anne DeAngelis who, originally a resident of Sicily (Italy) but now settled in the Holiday City Carefree in Toms River township in New Jersey State of USA, is living alone, after her husband's death six years ago, with her only companions, namely, her piano and her dog Chico, although she has been blessed with four children, nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Unable to drive the car herself she is prepared to entertain other seniors on piano every Monday and tries to meet her fellow country persons speaking Italian once in a month and revive the language in the vicinity. A fellow resident (84 yrs) helps her with food shopping once in a while.

The Toms River Times of September 8, 2010 carries a 'Featured Letter' from Yeranuhi Gidikoglu of Ocean Gate with a caption "Governor's Cuts Put All Seniors In Same Boat". It refers to two more seniors in a similar predicament and virtually living on a Social Security of $602 without property tax rebate ($3668) and unable to meet expenses on home insurance, sewer, water, car insurance, telephone, electricity , gas etc. This is the state of affairs in a developed nation like USA. What about India? Leave alone the people living below the poverty line who have been served with lip sympathy with name-sake cash doles by the rulers of the day, even the salaried and pension-receiving seniors are going to get a similar treatment very soon with life expectancy going higher and higher these days.

Unless a massive program is taken up and paid old age homes are set up soon , things are going to take a very bad shape and put the whole nation into shame.

Democracy Faltering?

USA is one of the oldest and wealthiest democracies while India is currently the largest democracy in the world. But look at the fate or similarity in one hugely-infamous feature of these two democracies. In both these countries, the Parliament is supposed to be the supreme authority in conducting and supervising the day-to-day functioning of their governments by enacting legislations and passing annual budgets every now and then. They are in fact the watch-dogs of their rulers and the spokespersons of the citizens they represent for a fixed tenure either by direct or indirect elections.

The parliamentarians or these law makers are notorious for two things: 1) Too much of or total dependence on donations from rich individuals or corporate entities to fight elections and get into the Parliament.2) they collect illegal fees and gifts for raising questions or abstaining from the house to protect the concerned parties from embarrassment or collect funds in the name of their charities or their political parties.

The working of democracies for 234 years in USA and 63 years in India has failed to devise a method by which these law makers can be spared from the ignominy of collecting money from rich donors. The Fair Elections Now Act that would allow qualified candidates public subsidies to compete free from lobbyist-designed bundles from influential donors is still pending for consideration and passing in the Capitol Hill at Washington D.C. India is still to contemplate such a measure and place a piece of similar bill on the anvil for consideration in the near future. Looking to the mood and movement of our representatives in New Delhi at the moment we can hardly expect such a gesture soon.

BUGS OR THUGS -- NO REMEDY?

Thugs were the way-side robbers/killers in Central India (under British rule) who were annihilated and removed from public scene with a lot of difficulties by the then government and the people.

Now a different kind of menace in the form of bedbugs has sent shock waves across the city dwellers of New York, Boston and other urban areas. Its reach and the spread has almost threatened the living style of people in USA - not just where people sleep like hotels and residential units, but also in the occasional movie house or clothing store. People are almost forced to think of reusing the long-abandoned DDT (with less effective control thanks to bug’s ability to resist) or the inevitable propoxur, a highly toxic chemical (found injurious to children) .

Isn't it a paradox to find a nation that could devise nuclear war-heads for destroying vast tracts of land mass and population and a land which could enable the landing of humanbeings on moon some forty years ago are struggling hard to find a solution for bedbugs?

Bug-bite, although not a disease-carrier, triggers an allergic reaction at times causing fatal shocks including emotional and psychological disturbances. The editorial of the New York Times (Sunday, September 5, 2010) expects government and industry to expedite the search for better solutions.

What a tragedy?