Observing what has been happening in our country recently and having complete knowledge about active, healthy, and dignified aging, we express our dissatisfaction and disappointment for the racist society of which we are a part. Racist attitudes against older adults reach all levels of the republic and society.
Starting from the various Presidents of the Republic to the Ministers, Members of the Parliament, Commissioners, Mayors, Public Officers, political parties, doctors, paramedics, the family, and the candidates for the Presidency of the republic, they all get a big "F", including the best of the best. Apart from a few bright exceptions, all of them consider that people of the Third Age are Third Class citizens, a miasma and a burden to the society that causes problems in the development and prosperity of this country. They don't care how these people live. If they are well, if they age with dignity, if they can cope with this modern society, if there are structures that can serve them and if our elderly feel betrayed by the state and by the society they built with a million sacrifices. They haven't the slightest idea of what is happening next door because they have learned to function only for their interest and have not bothered to understand what the word empathy means and how a supportive environment based on the anthropocentric model works.
What should we do with the National Strategy for the Health of the Elderly, Mr. Minister of Health, when there are unacceptable and racist behaviors in our hospitals? What can we do with your declarations, Mr. President of the Republic, when you, as the head of this country, do not send home all those who blatantly trample on the fundamental human rights of a huge population group while bearing the political cost? How can we vote for you Messrs presidential candidates when you don't care (except for some) about those who will eventually go to the ballot to vote for you?
Other countries have made leaps of progress while we remain stagnated, functioning with behaviors and models of older eras. What will we do when people over 65 in a few years become a third of the population of Cyprus? Will we still be whistling indifferently?
In conclusion, the following extract from the European Charter of the Rights and Obligations of the Elderly seems unrealistic for the case of Cyprus:
"As you age and perhaps depend on others for your support and care, you still have the right to demand that others respect your human dignity, your physical and mental well-being, your freedom and security."
As Cyprus Third Age Observatory, we will never stop safeguarding the human rights of our elderly. We will give our strength so that the state and our society realize that the level of our culture relies on our behaviors towards the vulnerable groups of the population.
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