“In a nutshell and I ask you to pay attention to this… this is the key message for my presentation: The developed world became rich before it became old. Developing Countries are becoming old before they become rich.” This statement, from Dr. Alexandre Kalache of UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) was flushed on the screen during the 2007 Active Aging Conference in Asia Pacific last month in Namhae-gun, South Korea. The conference that drew participants from the US, Japan, China and Korea was looking for ways to redesigning programme and environment for the aged. Seated among the delegates (and don’t ask me how I got there), I was startled by Dr. Kalache’s statement. For once, I realised how big the issue of aging was in the world. I had even never heard of gerontology, the study of aging that examines the biological, economic, psychological, social and health/fitness aspects of the aging process. Such topics as whether the aged are a burden or a resource was well discussed in the conference, settling for the latter, thanks to the gerontologists from Asia Pacific and the International Association of Gerontology, scholars, and field professionals. It is amazing how countries like Korea is now using technology (read computer skills) to keep the aged active, but that is a story for another day. Dr. Kalache’s keynote speech came in timely for the European and Asian nations (some of which have infertility rate below replacement). He suggested that
Africa should take caution and learn from the mistakes of the contemporary aging nations. For a moment, and the Doctor also touched on this, I thought of especially the elderly women in Africa with taxing responsibility of taking care of their grandsons and daughters. The reason is well-known; their parents have succumbed to the fangs HIV/Aids. Their surroundings characterized by poverty; meager food, leaking roofs, elusive education not to mention the state of medical care. We should be noting the inequality that exists in life expectancy. Japan has 80 years (the highest in the world) while Sierra Leone has an appalling 34 years life expectancy! Given that the total population of the world is going to increase from about six billion to about nine billion (50% increase) from 2000 and 2050, and more shocking all this increase is going to place in the developing world! The number of old people within the same 50 years will increase from 600 million to 2 billion (about350% increase) but developing countries will experience an increase from 400 million to 1.7 billion, and this is a very sharp increase of 450% compared to only 50% increase in the total world population. So how should Africa ready herself for the aging? Currently, most countries have no statistics and recorded trend. The trouble in this is the possibility of being caught off-guard. Would it be disaster? What will happen when she ages before getting rich? Where will she get the resources to support the elderly and keep the active and resourceful? And as by the way, will the retiring (from active jobs) population get activities to continue keeping the active? When all was said, the Doctor called for attention to words that he termed so important in active aging, “An active culture of aging is a culture of solidarity” said he. “Solidarity between the rich and the poor, public and private, north and south, and above all, solidarity between the young and the old.”
