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Irish Times
12 hours ago
- Health
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, June 20th: Older people and language, loving your neighbour, misery and Gen Z
Sir, – A narrative of protecting our vulnerable 'elderly' has emerged following the recent RTÉ Investigates programme on the horrific treatment of older persons in nursing homes. Listening to the various debates, one is struck by the importance of language and the messaging that it conveys in the public discourse. Organisations such as the Irish Gerontological Society (IGS), devoted to the study of ageing, prohibit the use of the term 'elderly' in their publications due to negative connotations associated with dependency. Terms such as 'older persons', 'older people' or 'older adults' are encouraged by organisations such as Age Action, and Alone who seek to empower older persons and combat ageism. READ MORE Considering later life through the lens of the citizenship frames 'older persons' as citizens and rights holders, with the right to have their holistic needs met in whatever setting they may be residing. Furthermore, the lens of citizenship advocates an analysis of how policies and social structures affect our older citizens, and can challenge ageism which impacts upon the rights of older persons to participate fully in society. – Yours, etc, Dr JENNIFER ALLEN, Senior social worker, Mental Health Service for Older Persons, St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin. Sir, – In light of the disturbing findings revealed by RTÉ Investigates into the treatment of residents in some Irish nursing homes – particularly Beneavin Manor, Glasnevin and The Residence, Portlaoise – I feel compelled to share a contrasting experience. My 90-year-old mother is supported at home by a home care team. They are men and women from all over the world, and their presence brings her joy, comfort, and dignity. When one of her regular carers recently moved on, she was genuinely sad to see him go – a testament to the meaningful relationships built through consistent, person-centred care. Just this week, with some additional private hours topping up her HSE allocation, the team supported my mum to leave the house for the first time since March. She went to the hairdresser – for a perm! That small act was transformative – restoring her sense of self, and later that day, we learned she will be discharged from palliative care. This is what good care looks like. As a country, we are reeling from yet another scandal in institutional care. But we must also look to the models that are working – those rooted in respect, continuity, and human connection. Home care, when properly resourced and delivered by skilled, valued workers, can change lives. It can restore dignity. It can offer hope. We need strong oversight in nursing homes, but we also need investment and policy reform that empowers people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible – safely, and on their own terms. – Yours, etc, KATHLEEN McLOUGHLIN, Roscrea, Co Tipperary. Key observation Sir, – Reading Ray Burke's Irishman's Diary (June 18th) reminded me of a story of a local character in Athy years ago, who on seeing the fire brigade flying by with sirens blaring was heard to say: 'It's not my house anyway, I have the key in my pocket.' – Yours, etc, NUALA QUINN, Carlow. Loving God and your neighbours Sir, – As someone who has served for over 30 years until my recent retirement as a rector in the Diocese of Down and Dromore, I find Bishop David McClay's statement to the clergy and people of Down and Dromore saddening (' Bishop criticises Christ Church invite to speak at Pride service ,' June 18th). He does not speak for me, or for many members of his diocese. Many committed Christians will find what he says distressing, even hurtful. Of course, the bishop speaks for many Christians, and the issues surrounding human sexuality are currently a cause of much division and pain. People of deep faith and real integrity are on both 'sides' of the debate. I find it difficult to understand why he, and many others, place such emphasis on those few (almost certainly less than 10) scriptural passages that either disapprove of, or condemn, same-sex relationships, while ignoring passages that prohibit wearing clothes of two different types of material, cross-breeding domestic animals or planting two kinds of seed in the same field (Leviticus 19:19). If there are gradations of authority, why this one? But to me the clinching argument is this: over the centuries, and even today, gay people have been made to feel rejected, misunderstood, hurt and isolated, unable to express themselves. The church, along with society as a whole, has been complicit in this. Many have been driven to despair, even suicide. Church condemnation of same-sex relationships causes great pain to many and gives permission to an unacceptable homophobia. I know that this is not Bishop McClay's intention, but it happens. To me the call to love our neighbour demands that I do not take positions that make others feel less than worthy. Love is the supreme command – love God and neighbour as we love ourselves. That trumps any legalistic prohibitions. Let us celebrate same-sex love just as we celebrate heterosexual love. Let us affirm those who are different, those we may not understand. That is part of love, the supreme command. – Yours , etc, Rev Canon TIMOTHY KINAHAN, Northern Ireland. Trinity College and Israel Sir, – Dr David Landy states that academic freedom was 'an important consideration in the Trinity debate' that resulted in the university's decision on June to cut ties with Israeli universities (' Why academic institutions are cutting ties with Israel ,' June 19th). But there has been no debate in Trinity. The college board voted to accept the internal taskforce recommendations before referring the report for further consideration to relevant college committees in line with the terms under which the taskforce was established. Indeed, the taskforce report has not been published, so most of the faculty have been unable to scrutinise it or understand how the board came to its decision. The principle of academic freedom has been shredded by the board's decision. Academic freedom is not compatible with an institutional ban on co-operation with colleagues in Israeli universities and research units. Academic freedom gives Dr Landy the choice to personally cut ties with colleagues in Israel or any other country he chooses, but that freedom is no longer available to Trinity academics who wish to continue contacts with colleagues in Israel. As Israel is an associate country to the European Union's research and innovation funding programmes, Trinity academics are now unable to apply for EU funding for research projects which include Israeli colleagues. As an illustration, one such current project is working on a novel, off-the-shelf delivery system for mRNA-based nanomedicines to improve diagnostic and therapeutic options for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Researchers from Trinity and the University of Tel Aviv are working on this project together with colleagues from the Netherlands, Canada, France, Hungary, Sweden, Spain, Norway and Belgium. Trinity researchers are also working on trials whose objective is to improve outcomes for people with autistic spectrum disorders via a global clinical trial. Researchers from Trinity and the Israeli pharmaceutical firm Teva are two of 63 European and US participants including hospitals, universities, patient groups, pharma companies and not-for-profit organisations. While these projects will continue, Trinity academics are now locked out of all such research consortia. Years of academic endeavour will now go to waste and millions of euro of funding will be lost. Dr Landy claims that Trinity's boycott of Israel is not anti-Semitic. However, while Trinity singles out Israel alone – the only Jewish state on earth, home to half the population of the world's Jews – but maintains ties with other countries with well-documented human rights and international law violations, the charge of institutional anti-Semitism and racism is unavoidable. – Yours, etc, JANE MAHONY, PhD, TCD, Dublin 6. Misery and Gen Z Sir, – The Oxford Dictionaries define Generation Z as 'the group of people who were born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s who are regarded as being very familiar with the internet'. Finn McRedmond writes that 'it's no surprise that Gen Z are miserable' (June 19th ). Perhaps spending less time with the internet and the phone might bring less misery. – Yours, etc, PATRICK O'BYRNE, Dublin 7. Missing out on transition year Sir, – What a great idea to have a national plan to target educational disadvantage. I note the Minister for Education, Helen McEntee, plans to particularly tackle high levels of absenteeism in disadvantaged and special education settings. I wonder does always excluding children in special schools from transition year, thus missing an entire year of education that over 80 per cent of their developing peers receive, represent State-endorsed absenteeism? Transition year is never offered in any special school in the State as per Government policy or never has been in the 40 years since its inception. If Ms McEntee's genuine priority is to really target educational disadvantage, it might be useful to finally lift this rock? – Yours, etc, CAROLINE FARRELL, Dublin 3. Debating security and the EU Sir,– In the Letters page (June 17th), Senator Tom Clonan, John O'Riordan and Fintan Lane comment in different ways on Ireland's potential contribution to debates on European security and global order. Ireland has a solemn duty to speak truth to power within the EU, said Clonan. The EU should 'negotiate directly with Russia to find conditions for an immediate ceasefire and an enduring solution to the Russian-Ukrainian war', said O'Riordan. 'Instead of decoupling Irish Army deployment abroad from the UN,' the Government should argue 'for deeper reform within the UN and a greater role for the General Assembly', said Lane. Pope Leo XIV states that 'the temptation to have recourse to powerful and sophisticated weapons needs to be rejected'. From this perspective, there is a scenario that draws together the thinking of Clonan, O' Riordan, and Lane. If a mission linked to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors a future line of contact in eastern Ukraine, as happened under the Minsk agreements, a reimagined OSCE can recover the role it played in the former Helsinki process as a space for deliberation about the future. The defining goals of a new Helsinki-style dialogue can be summed up in three points: (i) recognition of the European Union as the anchor of a wider European zone of peace and economic cooperation; (ii) avoiding economic and cultural 'zero-sum games' in eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and other parts of the region: and (iii) a renewed commitment, based on the Helsinki principles, to enshrine cooperative economic relationships as a core value in international relations, and in this way to bring the European and global agendas together. In becoming the advocate and anchor of a wider European zone of peace and economic cooperation, the European Union can discover a new energy and sense of purpose. In the absence of some new departure in diplomacy, we are likely to see a hardening of the 'unquestioned assumptions and myths' referred to in Clonan's letter. In Germany, the UK, and elsewhere, the proposition that the arms industry and the arms trade are the key to 'future-proofing' the economy is mingled, not quite coherently, with arguments based on considerations of military security. A recent article by the president of the European Central Bank asserts that 'joint financing of public goods, like defence, could create more safe assets'. Christine Lagarde associates the supposed benefits of manufacturing weapons of greater and greater lethality with a further centralisation of power within the EU: 'more qualified majority voting in critical areas would enable Europe to speak with one voice.' The forthcoming international conference on financing for development in Seville will give us an indication of the extent to which the temptation to pursue growth and innovation through the arms industry is accompanied by reductions in development assistance and a loss of interest in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and international financial reform. This year, for the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, the chair-in-office of the OSCE is Finland. In 2026, it will be Switzerland. Is it unthinkable that in a spirit of solemn duty, as evoked by Clonan, Ireland could take on this burden in 2027 or 2028? We would bring to the table the values of the Good Friday agreement and Irish Aid, our peacekeeping tradition and our military neutrality, our standing as an EU member state with close links with the US, and our role in co-facilitating the negotiation of the SDGs. EU founding father Robert Schuman believed that 'the peace of the world cannot be maintained without creative efforts commensurate with the scale of the threat'. For him, the European project stood for the economics of solidarity at home and abroad. The Schuman Declaration emphasises Europe's responsibility to Africa. Let Schuman be the north star of the project I have in mind. – Yours, etc, PHILIP McDONAGH, Adjunct professor, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dublin City University. Visiting other countries Sir, – Dennis Fitzgerald suggests in his letter (June 18th) that, given the current state of the world, we might do well to visit Australia – a safe and friendly destination, with only the occasional jellyfish or mushroom to worry about. It's a tempting thought. But I wonder if we are not long past the time when choosing a holiday should simply be a matter of personal taste, budget and travel brochures? Flying halfway around the planet for a bit of sunshine and sightseeing is hard to square with the knowledge that the very act of doing so helps fuel the fire – quite literally – that is making many parts of the world increasingly uninhabitable. This isn't a question of blame, but of awareness. Perhaps instead of encouraging long-haul leisure travel, we should be asking how to make it feel less normal – and a bit less easy to justify – in a time of planetary crisis. There are worse things than jellyfish. One of them is pretending there is no climate emergency. – Yours, etc, JAMES CANDON , Brussels, Belgium.
Telegraph
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
I'm sick of old people clichés on TV – last time I checked we're living rich, fulfilled lives
Are you an older person? Do you feel 'bombarded' by adverts for funeral services, care homes and mobility aids? Ah, bless. I have every sympathy, why when I become… wait, these commercials are aimed at the over-55s? That's me! Seriously. Me! I'm not dependent and defenceless, I'm not about to cark it. And even if I were, it wouldn't give me any peace of mind knowing my casket is all paid for. I need that money for flamenco lessons and overpriced restaurants that only sell small plates. I've still got a teenager at home for pity's sake – and no, she's not my grandchild. But in the eyes of today's proverbial Mad Men, I'm fair game for both funeral plans and weaponised skincare products that promise to 'fight' sign of ageing and banish the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles – because why on earth would anyone want to look like a (whisper it) midlife woman. According to a poll by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), older people are fed up with being 'reduced to outdated stereotypes' depicting them as lonely and vulnerable. And it's not all in their (our?) minds. More than a third of the UK population believes that older people are 'negatively stereotyped' in ads which depict them as 'lonely, purposeless or powerless'. What an indictment. Maybe our contemporary Don Drapers and Peggy Olsens could remind themselves how times and generations have changed by catching up with current television shows, which have evolved – and are all the better for it. It's chastening to know that in the rebooted Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was 55, and her friends Miranda Hobbes and Charlotte York were 54, making them around the same age as Rose, Dorothy and Blanche in the early seasons of The Golden Girls. I know, right? In this new research, people of all ages said they wanted to see more 'authentic and realistic' portrayals of older people, avoiding binary depictions of pensioners as 'always being wealthy or grumpy'. Bring back the classic Renault Clio adverts, I say, where Nicole kept finding her Papa getting up to French mischief in Aix en Provence. That's how ageing ought to look – and not a Werther's Original in sight. Given that Ofcom figures show 82 per cent of Baby Boomers watch television compared with 48 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds, the whole industry needs to pivot. We need more series like the fabulous Last Tango in Halifax – would anyone dare tell the magnificent Anne Reid she was in need of a stairlift? Or what about Vera? DCI Stanhope (played by Brenda Blethyn) outwitting criminals and whippersnapper colleagues alike for 14 years. Losing her marbles? Aged 79, she had more bloomin' marbles than the British Museum. Admittedly she was a bit grumpy – but crucially, she wasn't just grumpy. And it's the retrograde one-dimensional tropes that advertising needs to axe. It seems crazy in this day and age but in mainstream commercials, an old person is still regarded as visual shorthand for 'out of touch' and 'in need of care'. That's why I hollered with joy when a friend recently sent me a video from Instagram featuring a catwalk show of stunning elderly models sashaying down the runway in jaw-dropping pleated dresses. It was, quite simply, joyful. View this post on Instagram A post shared by WAM | AI Cats, Ads & Art (@wearemidjourney) Only afterwards did we both realise it had been dreamed up by AI. It was both impressive and alarming. After all, what does it say about the creatives dominating the advertising sector when artificial intelligence has a clearer – and saliently, more creative – vision of the future than they do? Older people are quite rightly cavilling at being lazily written off as hopeless and socially isolated. And that needs to be reflected in commercials as well as in programming schedules. Think of Rip Off Britain, fronted by the redoubtable Gloria Hunniford, now 85, with a roster of other high-profile women of a certain age. And who could resist the humour and charm of Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing? Bob Mortimer is 66 and Paul Whitehouse 67. I wonder how they would react if a bloke in a cardigan turned up on the banks of the River Frome trying to flog them a couple of shower chairs? The BBC's new crime caper Death Valley, which debuted last month, has proved to be a ratings winner. Its star? Timothy Spall aged – pass the commode! – 68. I really do hope this new survey will give advertisers pause and mark a real sea change. And not just advertisers; woe betide the next politician who next describes older voters as a 'demographic time bomb' as though their very existence were a threat to the young. The 'othering' of a huge proportion of the electorate won't wash these days. It's insulting and reductive to start offering us funeral plans at 55 – and not just now and then but in every ad break on daytime telly – when many of us are immersed in the most rewarding peak of our careers and the rest are planning the next footloose-and-fancy-free chapter of our lives.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
UK watchdog criticises ‘offensive' portrayal of older people in adverts
An elderly man fires off a tirade at a child who has asked 'grandad' to return a mud-covered football that has landed on his gleaming car. He is then seen eating a microwave dinner for one and chuckling, with the now-deflated ball pinned to the table next to him by a large kitchen knife. The TV advert for the Scotland-based Strathmore Foods, maker of the McIntosh of Strathmore ready meals stocked by most big supermarket chains, has been identified in a report by the UK advertising watchdog as showing an 'offensive' portrayal of older people – by stereotyping them as grumpy and intolerant, and implying many are lonely and isolated. The report by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) says too many brands are behind the times when it comes to the issue of ageing in advertising. It says older people feel they are bombarded with adverts for funeral services, care homes and mobility aids. Many older people feel invisible because a lot of advertising reduces them to outdated stereotypes, the report says. A survey and focus groups involving 4,000 adults of all ages found that more than a third thought people over the age of 55 tended to be negatively stereotyped in ads. Almost half said ads that showed older people as unable to understand or use technology were potentially offensive. More than a fifth of those surveyed believed that depicting ageing as something to be 'fought', especially in beauty advertising, had the potential to cause harm by influencing how an older person saw themselves, or how society might view and treat them. Focus groups comprising a range of different age groups were shown 34 ads featuring older people made by brands including Amazon, Cadbury, Land Rover, L'Oréal, Pure Cremation and Tesco. An ad by the Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, which used the strapline 'Parents don't get B2B', was considered the most likely to cause harm. 'If you think other people think you are stupid and that's how you come across, I don't think that is good for self-esteem,' said one female participant. An ad for the fashion brand JD Williams that featured older women in bright, colourful and 'trendy' clothes used the strapline 'Feeling more girlfriend than grandma'. 'I can imagine some older women seeing beauty ads and thinking the goal for women is to look 20 years younger,' said one participant. 'As if that is what will make you feel happier. This could be quite harmful because it forces an ideal on older women. It is kind of pushing the idea that they should aim to look young.' Some of those surveyed felt it was a positive and atypical depiction of older women, while others felt it reinforced the idea that ageing was a negative thing and that women were not going to look or feel good unless they tried to fight the process. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Nearly half of those surveyed said ads using humour at the expense of older people were likely to cause offence. And more than a third said they found stereotypical portrayals of older people, such as always being wealthy, grumpy or only mixing with older people, to be irritating. Survey respondents also raised concerns about how ads were targeted, saying they were frequently shown promotions for 'end-of-life' services – such as funeral or cremation services, life insurance and care homes – in media that supposedly drew a higher proportion of older people than others, such as daytime TV. And 44% of those surveyed believed older people were either underrepresented or not represented at all in ads, particularly in categories such as fashion, beauty, technology and household goods. Kam Atwal, the research lead at the ASA, said: 'As a society, we're living longer, richer and more varied lives. Our research reveals that some of today's portrayals of older people in advertising are not being received positively, and that the public wants ads to better reflect the varied lives older people lead today.' Strathmore has been approached for comment.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Republicans ignore their own age issues in pursuit of Biden's frailty
One political party nominated a 78-year-old candidate for president last summer with a history of obscuring his health. The same party kept in place an octogenarian congressional leader until earlier this year, despite health battles. And that party just elevated a 91-year-old to a constitutional leadership position third in the line of presidential succession. Must be Democrats, right? No, that lineup comes from Republicans: President Donald Trump, who turns 79 this weekend; Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), 83, who stepped down as GOP leader in January; and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Senate's president pro tempore who chairs the Judiciary Committee. While Democrats are undergoing a bruising internal debate about generational change, Republicans have shown little appetite for a similar discussion. They don't want to talk about elderly politicians, just Biden's cognitive state. 'This isn't an age issue,' Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) said Thursday. 'I don't think this is so much about age as it's about cognitive ability,' Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also said Thursday. Schmitt, 49, and Cornyn, 73, are co-chairing an 'unfit to serve' hearing Wednesday before the Judiciary Committee examining how much Biden's senior aides concealed his condition. In less partisan times, senators might have used this moment to launch a sober discussion about creating transparent health and cognitive tests to ensure future presidents do not face similar allegations. 'I think for the country moving forward, it's important to understand how this could happen, or how this would have happened, and make sure it never happens again,' Schmitt said in a brief interview. But such a bipartisan effort is not likely when Republicans will not acknowledge any potential health risks for Trump, who is slated to turn 82 during his final year in office. 'This is really about Joe Biden, a man who was clearly incompetent,' Schmitt said. 'Some people like President Trump operate on all cylinders at 79, where Biden obviously was incapacitated,' Cornyn said. The former president, who was diagnosed last month with cancer, has denied that he was unfit to serve or that senior aides were running the government. But post-presidency books have revealed that Biden's mental state had clearly gotten worse over the four-year term, alleging that only a few senior aides and family members were fully aware of his condition. Democrats have responded to Biden's withdrawal from the race last July and Trump's subsequent victory in November with a furious debate about the standing of their party's elder statesmen. House Democrats pushed aside three committee leaders who were all over 75 years old in favor of younger lawmakers. And next week they will elect a new ranking member for the Oversight Committee, with a pair of second-term Democrats challenging two 70-somethings for the post. Sen. Dick Durbin (Illinois), the No. 2 Democratic leader for 20 years, announced he would retire at the end of next year. The leading candidate to replace the 80-year-old is Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who is 52. Outside liberal activists have pledged to force older Democrats into primaries next year against next-generation challengers. Any similar look in the mirror by Republicans is not in the offing. Yes, after 18 years as leader, McConnell stepped aside in January after a bad fall in 2023 caused several other health incidents. The new majority leader, 64-year-old Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), is middle-aged by Senate standards. But of the five senators who are at least 80 years old, three are Republican: Grassley, McConnell and James E. Risch (Idaho). McConnell, who is retiring the end of next year, now chairs the subcommittee in charge of almost $1 trillion in defense spending. Risch, 82, chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and announced in early April that he is running again for a term that will end when he is 89. Grassley has remained resilient despite being 91 and is an active committee chair. But by electing him as pro tem — a mostly honorific position — Republicans placed him in line to succeed Trump, creating the possibility of a nonagenarian president at a moment of national crisis if the vice president and House speaker are not able to serve. Cornyn, who is around the same age as Biden was at the end of his vice presidency in January 2017, is running for another term that, if reelected, would end when he is just shy of 81. The average Senate Democrat, at the start of this new Congress, was 66, compared to 64.5 for a Republican, according to a Pew Research study. In the House, there's no partisan difference: The average Democrat is 57.6 years old, 57.5 for Republicans, according to Pew. By later this year, after three younger Democrats are sworn in to replace three lawmakers who died in their 70s recently, their caucus will likely be a little younger than the House GOP. That's a remarkable shift considering, until two-and-a-half years ago, the image of the Democratic caucus was three 80-somethings in the top leadership posts. Until last summer, when she entered a senior living home and missed most of her final months in office, Kay Granger (R-Texas) chaired the House Appropriations Committee and oversaw its $1.7 trillion pot for federal agencies. When Rep. Virginia Foxx (North Carolina) reached the end of her term atop the education committee, House GOP leaders installed her as chair of the critical House Rules Committee. She turns 82 in two weeks. Some younger Republicans are not surprised by the head-down approach from senior Republicans in Washington. 'That's because most people are older, they don't want to talk about it,' said Rep. Wesley Hunt (R), a 43-year-old who is considering entering the race for Cornyn's seat. GOP primary voters are also itching to find new blood, Hunt said. 'There is a national conversation, I think, that's being held for younger candidates, period. And I think that's happening on both sides of the aisle.' But in a party where fealty to Trump is so critical — and securing his endorsement is considered crucial for winning a primary — Hunt talks about the president as if Trump is half his actual age. Hunt said his own travels with Trump showed that the president is 'an anomaly' who faces no health risks. 'His mental acuity and his ability to operate is unlike anything I've ever seen before,' Hunt said. Schmitt used similar bravado. 'I was just with President Trump. I played golf with President Trump. President Trump has more energy than most 21-year-olds,' he said. In his first term as president, Trump revealed less about his health than past presidents. A book by a senior aide revealed that Trump tested positive for covid days before his late September 2020 debate with Biden, but did not disclose it after getting conflicting test results. His fight with the virus in early October 2020 was much more serious than aides ever revealed. In a rare rebuke among presidential physicians, Barack Obama's White House doctor criticized Biden's doctor for not administering a cognitive test on the then-president. But Jeffrey Kuhlman, Obama's White House physician, went a step further in a book last year by specifically calling for neurocognitive tests for all national leaders over the age of 70. In a health report released this spring, Trump's doctors did perform a neurological exam. Durbin, who has said that upon reflection Biden should not have tried to run for reelection, accused the genial Cornyn of using Wednesday's hearing as a bid to appeal to conservative voters rather than a serious debate about presidential health. 'I think this has more to do with John Cornyn's primary challenge than anything else,' Durbin said. 'He has to show a fiery demeanor, so he's decided to pick on Joe Biden.' Cornyn rejected that accusation. 'Well, he must be clairvoyant if he knows what information we're going to gather beforehand,' he said. He grew angry after a question about whether the hearing would include issues related to Trump, accusing The Washington Post and the press of a broad conspiracy to benefit Biden. 'As far as I'm concerned, you're part of the conspiracy,' Cornyn said. Durbin said the real conspiracy is age, something that comes for everyone eventually, but in uneven ways. 'I think we all have to face the reality that age is unrelenting,' he said. 'It treats some people more kindly than others.'
Entrepreneur
13-06-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Grey Matters
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Imagine this: your 20-year-old niece is starting an internship as part of her sandwich degree course - just as your 51-year-old sister starts her own internship at a local law firm. Absurd? Or the future of recruitment, where midlifers' experience can be employed while meeting the growing demand for flexible, skilled talent. View any social media platform these days and you'll find a wealth of commentary on the perils of job-seeking in midlife. From senior executives being "let go" in favour of more junior (read: cheaper) staff to their roles being outsourced to low-cost countries, many midlifers are finding that the "older and wiser" label is not necessarily garnering the opportunities that it may have done in the past. Even the World Health Organization has admitted ageism is a global challenge with its report declaring that every second person in the world is believed to hold ageist attitudes. Isn't it ironic that experience can be considered irrelevant when you have so much of it later in life and yet its absence is a barrier to the newly educated struggling to get started? Just because your hair may begin to turn grey as the pigment melanin fades, it doesn't follow that the rest of you is disintegrating. Tell that to the respondents for my quick LinkedIn poll where 46% of midlifers described their job search journey as "hard work; so far unrewarding" with a further 31% saying "the worst my career has seen". It begs the question whether midlife job-seeking is less about serendipity or planning and more a matter of perspective. Relying on your grey matter Although many aspects of the brain remain a mystery, we're reliably informed that we can all benefit from neuroplasticity - an ability to rewire our brains to reorganise our thoughts and behaviours. Using smartphones, computers and the internet can also make a difference to our cognitive abilities. A meta-analysis of nearly 60 studies involving 410,000 people in people aged over 50 has found that those who spend more time using smartphones, computers and the internet are less likely to have cognitive impairment—and more likely to have slower cognitive decline—than people who spend less time using these technologies. It's a reminder of the importance of mindset in the process of being ready and resilient for work in midlife. As author of two employability courses known as 2B Ready, I see first-hand how midlifers are struggling with confidence and grit which is hindering their ability to ride the waves of difficulties and obstacles that can hamper job-seeking efforts. Redundancy and rejection are hard task masters. Yet, storytelling and narrative practice techniques can help to reinvent any career history. Midlifers have long ago embraced reliability, stickability and empathy - and in a world of artificial intelligence (AI) we all need to exploit these human capabilities. By bringing their unique qualities of ideation, innovation and intuition to the workplace, midlifers can excel and businesses can gain. A report from CapGemini found that 74% of executives believe emotional intelligence is set to be a "must have" skill in the next five years with returns on their investment in building emotional intelligence in their workforces potentially offering incremental gains of US$6.8 million. What if midlife candidates could take advantage of "silver internships" to share these hard-won qualities and improve their own health? Employers could offer temporary periods of employment for three-, six- or 12-months, to bring much-needed skills and experience at a suitable cost. Whether undertaking a one-off project or serving a broad number of departments, experienced midlifers can make an effective contribution - without a hint of age bias - that rewards companies while keeping everyone's options open. Realising the rewards of silver interns While the idea of silver internships may not be a reality, there are rich rewards, to individuals, to business and to the economy from embracing midlife skills: Benefits to individuals: Midlife candidates have so much valuable experience to bring to other generations. In research undertaken by the hotel and resort chain Hilton, 60% of over 50s said they can learn from working with those younger than themselves. And it works both ways: more than three quarters (77%) of Gen-Z respondents said they can learn from older colleagues, with leadership (44%) and problem solving (40%), communication (39%) and organisational skills (39%) being areas most cited where over 50s excel. Benefits to business: Although President Trump's recent closure of US diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes may be a blow for workforce diversity globally, DEI can lead to greater creativity, innovation and profitability. According to Forbes, firms that display culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams are 33% more likely to lead their industries in profitability. When people feel welcomed for who they are, they perform at a higher level which, in turn, enables the business to attract the best people. Benefits to the economy: By continuing to engage in the world of work, silver interns contribute to society in more ways than one. A survey from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that found that people in their 70s in 2022 had the same cognitive and physical function as people in their 50s in 2000 and their physical health was the same as 56-year-olds 25 years ago based on grip strength and lung functionality tests. Since they are sharper and stronger than they were a quarter of a century ago, midlife jobseekers could work far longer - and with an ageing global population that is projected to increase by 11 years between 2020 and the end of the century, the spending power of midlifers has positive implications for the wider economy. Instead of worrying about the grey hairs, let's put that grey matter to good use and not only refresh recruitment models, but also reinvent midlife careers with storytelling.
