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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (44883)	10/27/2003 3:42:27 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Multi-culturalism at work In Norway grown children may be paid to care for their elderly parents at home. Interestingly enough the proposal comes from MP Afshan Rafiq, obviously of Pakistani origin (Norway's Pakistani community is it's largest ethnic minority) and it's interesting how he is introducing a Pakistani cultural trait to Scandinavian society. The artificiality of Norweigian society is underlined when social minister Ingjerd Schou, who also hails from the Conservatives, called the proposal "interesting" because it could provide more options in dealing with the challenges of care for the elderly. It is the obvious solution to Europe's aging crisis since investing in a pension should be secondary to doing so in your children. Children, more so than pension accounts, are a more reliable bet for the future and it is only natural that as the autumn of one's life sets in then there is the instinctive need to gather with family. Hence the anamolous social condition o feurope whereby the elderly are shunted to nursing homes and forced to live "independent lives" in empty homes. The fact is that an united family is one that spans all lineal generations in one household and that is how the institution of the family can possible survive. The nuclear family is a tedious anachronism and I can surely understand why Westerners of my generation are so hesitant to start their own family. The nuke family idealised with 2.2 children, 2 cars in the garage and safely nestled in suburbia is a boring anachronism, which should be relegated to the dust of history. Far more apt is the Pakistan model with large families supported by a working parents (and in the modern age two working parents) and hearth & home often preserved by elderly matriarchs. The home is bustling with visits from the extended family and there is a positive dynamism, which encourages inclusiveness and true family values. Of course the drawback is that the home is a literal tinderbox with tensions seething underneath the surface and there has to be an accomodation of different lifestyles however ultimately these are challenges which more or less are overcome. Furthermore some may argue that it undermines the civic society by encouraging clannishness but the nature of human beings is to cohere into intimate and closely connected groups rather than merely interact dispassionately with the larger society. Hence the extended family is an asset in the Islamic world not a liability and it should be promoted despite the onset of modernisation. Human beings do not shirk from conflict rather they resolve them (which is why I think the two-state solution in Israel\Palestine is fundamentally wrong and it should bi-national) and the whole point of an extended family is to mediate conflict, ideally through dialogue. This is why divorce rates in the States are phenomenally high because at the critical age of 18, whence it is held to be impossible for a youngster to live with his parents, the child flees the coop rather than learn to exist and compromise within a parental framework. Independence is given by default through the sleigh of fate rather than achieved through negotiations and mutual understanding, which is far more critical and conducive in the long term. 18 year olds don't earn independence by accomplishment and demonstration of maturity rather merely assume it is theirs. Europe is realisng that it's population meltdown comes about because it relegates it's key demographic segment, the elderly, to futile retirement. The elderly can be productive and for millennia past in human history were key to raising future generations and inculculating in them the values and traditions of years past. Now it seems their fate is to age with their peers in secluded homes, cared for by paid personnel and cherish their "independence" to their dying day. Analogous is the treatment of children where child care (why have children if you're going to pay someone else to care for them) is advocated at the expense of the obvious solution, which is to encourage the elderly to play a part in rearing and raising their descendants. I mean for crying out loud what on earth is the "adopt the grandparent" scheme. Of course to reverse the growth rate the question of rural repopulation, as is happening in France, could prop up Europe's growth rate. Families want to raise their children in solid earthy communities (hence suburbia), not in ever-changin and cosmopolitan cities, and there should be incentives to encourage & trackback to the villages & rural regions, by rendering them family friendly (encourage a transportation grid, commuting schedules and rural school systems). I sincerely believe that the urban nuclear family is an unqualified failure hence the reason why nations as diverse from Japan to Italy are suffering drastic population meltdowns. I for one would sacrifice some of my independence in order to hear breaths, other than my own halting gasps, at my death bed. Zachary Latif 14:20 No Comment.