Friday, September 12, 2008

What about our Seniors??

What about our seniors???
This question came in to my mind in the last time. The weather was very nice last week, allowing us to go out for walks and to go to the playground. In fact, whenever you pass by a park you will see a lot of seniors either walking around or sitting on banks and reading. Actually sometimes i see them even doing sports like jogging or cycling. I am speaking about the ages starting from 60+.
It is true that the social system in a country like Canada is not so family oriented, often you find elderly people living alone and taking care of their own, without anyone even cheking on them from time to time. However, they stay active till the end, they keep themselves busy and healthy. They don't sit down and wait for their time to come.
While in Libya, the social system is more family oriented. You would almost never find an elderly one living alone. If someone gets older his sons/daughters will take full care of him. But they are not active, they are sitting, watching TV, you find some sitting in the streets playing cards. In some cases you will even find an old man cycling, but not because he wants to stay active, instead he is in need and doesn't have a car to move around.
Overall, i find it sad that there are no activities for seniors in Libya. The only thing that i can think of is that some families go all together to their farms or the beach for some change.