The Star Online: Lifestyle: Parenting
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Parenting |
| Posted: Many elderly folk have signed up to be instructors to teach their peers to use tech gadgets. MY 77-year-old mother taps out e-mails on her iPhone with no sweat, but she still asks me, "Will my e-mail address work on that computer?" Instead of admiring her resolve to master the smartphone, I become snarly as I try to explain the concept of portability. She happens to be the same age as Teruko Miyata, another woman who is part of a growing group of Japanese seniors who yearn to keep up with popular technology but face the humiliation of struggling to learn how to use the gadgets from people their children's or grandchildren's age. "It's hard to ask young people questions," she says. "They already assume you know a lot." But recently, Miyata was sitting at a SoftBank Mobile store counter showing customers how to use the company's latest smartphone. SoftBank, Japan's third-largest mobile phone operator, released a smartphone in May geared for seniors – with large icons and simple features – and decided to capture the grey market by training and hiring a "senior crew" to sympathetically explain the know-how to their peers. Preventing older people from digital isolation is a small but significant endeavour in a country experiencing an unprecedented and frightening pace of ageing. Almost one in four people is over age 65 – and that share is expected to approach one in three by 2030. A friend recently observed that when you see a Japanese couple pushing a stroller, there's usually a tiny dog inside instead of a baby. How the dwindling population will support its pensioners and their medical care remains the country's most pressing issue, but these days, attention is shifting to how to ensure that seniors remain happy and active. Japan is in the process of raising the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65, and beginning this year, businesses are required to keep employees on their payroll through age 65 if they request it. But with a life expectancy of 83 years, people still have nearly two decades on their hands. Last year, a cabinet-appointed study group urged the nation to stop using 65 as a benchmark and instead to plan for "an era of life into the 90s". The majority of people over 65 consider 70 the start of old age. Kumiko Yanagi, who runs a gerontology research group and who proposed the senior teaching concept to SoftBank, was surprised at the number of her elderly contacts who signed up to be trained as instructors. "They are looking for chances to learn something new and to feel useful," she observed. "Open your books to page 13," Miyata tells two female students at the SoftBank shop who flip through an 80-page glossy instruction booklet with large, colourful illustrations. "Push in," she says, explaining one of the main features of SoftBank's "Simple Smartphone". Tapping on sensitive touchscreens is usually the first hurdle for older fingers, so the Simple Smartphone is designed to respond to a firm press. A bright blue pulsating circle signals that the command was received. Other special features include a magnifying glass that can be dragged around the screen to enlarge what is on view. There's an emergency button on the side of the phone that, when pushed, sounds an alarm and sends an e-mail to registered recipients, telling them the location of the owner. Designated e-mail addressees, usually family members, also receive what SoftBank calls an "I'm fine e-mail" the first time the phone is used each day. The message notes that the phone was turned on and reports the number of steps – recorded by a pedometer application – taken by the owner on the previous day. Japan's largest mobile-phone operator, NTT DoCoMo, was the first to come out with a senior-oriented smartphone with technology developed by Fujitsu. Fujitsu recently developed an international model that went on sale in France in June. Unlike in Japan, where the phones are clearly marketed for the elderly with names like DoCoMo's "Raku-Raku" (or "Easy-Easy"), the French version dials down the grey aspect, advertising it with men and women 10 years younger than its targeted clientele. DoCoMo will soon unveil a version for the Japanese market with an enhanced screen and an improved social media app. The online community accessed from the phone is monitored round-the-clock by Fujitsu staff who protect the site from spamming and delete any personal information elderly members may have inadvertently posted. The close to 70,000 members exchange stories about their pets and grandchildren and chat about going to medical appointments. Fujitsu says that the percentage of repeat use of the app by many of its members rivals that of Facebook, suggesting that Japan's elderly are eager to venture into virtual communities. See you in the cyberworld, Mum. – IHT Kumiko Makihara is a writer and translator. |
| Posted: It is inevitable: In life, we reap what we sow. I WAS very naughty and mischievous in my teens. In fact, I committed a series of misdeeds which could be deemed downright cruel. I do not know if that had anything to do with day – or rather, night – I was born; that was in the seventh moon of the Chinese lunar year – the month of the "hungry ghosts" (perhaps hungry and angry?). My mother used to call me "little devil"; good thing it was only my mum who called me that. Fishing in rivers and ponds was not much fun when more often than not we – usually my two classmates and I – went home empty-handed. The direct opposite was poaching and it never failed to provide us with some excitement mingled with an element of fear when we played hide-and-seek (police-and-thief) with the fish farm owner and his dogs. Stealing fruits from orchards was our weekend routine. We even felled guava plants just to obtain the wood to make tops and catapults. Fishing boats ferried gunny sacks of rice from the ship anchored in the Perak River to the Teluk Anson town jetty. The rice was carried by labourers from the jetty to the waiting lorry. Hundreds of pigeons descended upon the grains fallen on the ground and a spectacular feeding frency erupted. We shot them with catapults like shooting fish in a barrel. The dead birds were thrown into the river to feed the fishes and monster lizards. The live ones, we took back to rear. One morning, my cousin brother and I were shooting mud-skippers. My niece was standing nearby, watching. Moments later she cried out in pain. There was blood on her forehead. "How come? I saw the stone hit the mud!" exclaimed my cousin. What he did not see was that I had loaded two pebbles and let fly. One hit the mud and the other flew off at a tangent and struck the poor little girl. Animals and birds which strayed into the house compound were not spared. Early one morning, I saw my back-door neighbour digging a hole under a tree to bury a dead duck. It was the duck I had shot at the evening before. Karma is a Sanskit word which means "intentional action". The law of karma is the law of cause and effect. Actions do have results or reactions; there is no question about this. And they may return to us in the form of happiness or unhappiness. "Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." This proverb aptly describes the concept of karma. Most religions of Indian origin explain the differences and discrepancies between people; why some are born rich and others poor, why some are healthy and others sickly, why some are beautiful, intelligent, famous, etc, while others are not. According to the hypothesised law of Karma, these and other conditions – upon which happiness and sorrow largely depend – are not accidents or "twists of fate", but the results of actions the people have performed in this or previous lifetimes. Though the law of karma is just supposition (a hypothesis) with no empirical evidence to support it, or something that has not been proven, it is an idea or concept worthy of some consideration. I, for one, am a staunch believer and an active advocate of this concept. The reality soon dawned on me to atone for my past bad deeds; a wake-up call to make amends and seek redemption. An accident which took place when I was a 10-year-old kid is, I think, worthy of mention. While playing in front of the house one afternoon, I chanced upon an elderly Indian man walking out from the rubber estate coolie-line, carrying a basket. Upon reaching my house, he approached me and asked for my father. He wanted to sell the five puppies in the basket. My dad was not in. Before walking off to the town he gave me an old Caravan A cigarette tin to keep for him. He would collect it on his way back. Curious, I opened it to have a look. There was some coffee powder mixed with a pinch of sugar. I somehow felt a tinge of sadness and pity for the man. I had a 10-cent note in my pocket; I put it in the tin. One Friday evening many years ago, I was in Bidor waiting for the last bus to Tanjong Malim. There was a man with only one leg, waiting for the bus to Teluk Intan. His bus arrived. A few passengers alighted. Then he began limping and hopping gingerly to board it. The bus started to depart. He could not climb the steps. I quickly dashed over, lifted him up and shoved him inside. There was this full-grown stray rabbit running free in my neighbourhood. During the day, it wandered from house to house for its meals. It was well-fed. At night, it slept in its burrow in my small farm. One afternoon, a man (I think he was the milk vendor) came to see my neighbour and enquired about the rabbit. He was told that it belonged to no one. He was free to catch it because sooner or later it would be killed by dogs. I do not know if he wanted to catch it to rear, sell or slaughter. That evening when it appeared in my house for its usual dinner, I confined it. It remained with me for more than four years. It passed away at a ripe old age last October. Now my daily chore is feeding all the birds (and a few stray cats) that flock around my house and my small farm. It gives me much joy and satisfaction to see more and more birds of various species making themselves at home. Have I done enough to atone for my cruel past? I am cautiously optimistic that my karma report card is erased of all red marks. |
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