By Raffique Shah
February 08, 2025
Old age is a B!!ch. Growing up as a boy in rural Trinidad, I would often hear that refrain coming from the mouths of people who were, well, old. In those times, anyone who had a couple grey hairs or whose skin looked like leather, or who walked around seeming to have difficulty in making their next step, was classified as old.
They may have been 40 or thereabouts and would utter such refrains when commenting on some inadequacies they experienced. And, I would think, what are they complaining about? They should be happy. Mostly, they had retired from some job they held so they did not have to commute to work every day. They lived seemingly relaxed lives. Except for some infirmities, they looked in pretty good shape, so why the complaints?
As the years rolled by and I got to 40, then to 60, I still questioned people who lived by that mantra, and I asked myself why are they complaining? They should be happy. They lived in Trinidad and Tobago where people over 60 were classified as pensioners whether or not they received a pension. They enjoyed free medical attention, close to free education, riding on public transport buses free, paying subsidised fares on the inter-island ferries, etc.
As I myself saw more grey hairs invade my once lush, black crown, and a wrinkle here and there, I thought about the complaints of other old people, now numbering more as the nation aged. I felt little different when I turned 60 to when I had hurdled across 40. Physically, I was in good shape. I exercised regularly. I kept my brain active by reading and learning anything I could.
I was adept at technology, being one of the earliest journalists to move around with a laptop. I had owned a house in which my family could live comfortably. My wife and I enjoyed an annual vacation, my children were reasonably educated and when I started receiving my little pension—I had never worked for government so I had no entitlements there—I thought I would be comfortable, living on to 70 or so, which is when I expected to move on to another dimension. Surely, I would not live to beyond 75.
I had made all these calculations on the premise that my life was normal. I never factored in disease because I had lived a healthy lifestyle. So, imagine my shock when several doctors diagnosed me as being in the early stage of Parkinson’s disease at 65. Still, with my mindset being that of a soldier, trained to take on the adversities life throws my way, I battled on. Now that I was battling a disease for which there is no cure, a number of realities literally and figuratively shook me. Now all of my ramblings above are written in the wake of a startling revelation made by Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh that younger people presumably are abandoning their older family members in the nation’s hospitals over the long Carnival weekend. I couldn’t believe what I heard.
On TV6’s Morning Edition with Marlan Hopkinson, he said close to 200 old people who suffered diseases that required they get personal attention were abandoned in hospitals over Carnival. I was appalled. What manner of beast would do something like that to the persons who raised and nurtured them?
This is a sickening reflection of what our society has degenerated to. So you must enjoy Carnival, its gay abandon to the fullest. The shows, the fetes, the mas, the pan, all of it. And, you are prepared to abandon your infirm elders. Forget hiring private caregivers, that is the cost of two fete tickets. And, I mean, palancing comes before grandpa in their priorities list.
Minister Deyalsingh was, in this case, noting only those relatives who had been abandoned in hospitals. What of those left alone at home to fend for themselves where crime is rampant and they can easily become victims of ghastly violence? Let’s not forget the children who, much like the elderly, are often abandoned in their homes in squalid conditions while mommy, daddy, aunty, nenen and nani enjoy themselves in the stupor of alcohol and Carnival.
Minister of Tourism Randall Mitchell has once again boasted that this will be the biggest and best Carnival since pre-Covid. It is supposed to cement our Carnival as the best in the world. So, while tourists and the diaspora flock to the country to celebrate the reign of the Merry Monarch, the revelry on the streets serves as a façade of universal happiness. Behind that, and wherever we may stand on the human development index that measures happiness, there is growing inhumanity towards the elderly, children and women that we have actively chosen to overlook.
What ah thing!