Marc and Craig (right) Kielburger Photo: Toronto Star
TORONTO, Canada (TheStar), March 31, 2008:
Craig Kielburger
Marc Kielburger
Special to the Star
His answer was not the kind we were expecting.
Sitting at a café on a bustling street in downtown Cairo, we ask our local guide Mohammed Abdel Rehim what he perceives to be the biggest difference between Egypt and Canada. Surprisingly, neither history nor politics make up any part of his response.
"The largest difference," he says, as he sips a cup of tea, "is how you treat old people."
Rehim explains that, in Egyptian culture, seniors are among the most valued members of society. They are universally admired for a lifetime's worth of wisdom and experience and are expected to pass on that knowledge.
Children kiss their grandparents' hand when greeting them as a sign of respect.
That is why Rehim says he cannot understand the North American concept of old age, where the contributions of the elderly are expected to dwindle slowly, sometimes culminating in children putting aging parents in a nursing home.
"People in our community would not even speak to you if you did this," he says.
Instead, Rehim wants his parents to live with him, giving his own children the opportunity to learn from their life experience. He says he plans one day to buy a house big enough for his wife, two children and parents to live together, something he calls "a great honour."
All Egyptians, he says, are expected to care personally for their parents in old age and to maintain this bond.
Our guide makes an interesting point. In North America, this kind of discussion about the wisdom and skills seniors can contribute to society is often drowned out by discussion of what they require from society – from health care to pension costs. It's part of our notion of the sunset years, where seniors are expected to "slow down."
But any assumption that older people will automatically participate less within their families and communities because of their age is increasingly out of line with reality. A 2007 Statistics Canada report found that seniors today have carved out a role for themselves that is far more engaged than any they have had before.
"They are better educated, they are Internet savvy and they are active," the report said.
So, as they get older, Canadian seniors are using their lifetime of experience to give back. By better recognizing this, the whole country would stand to benefit. Around the world, we've seen that children in particular learn a great deal about everything from gratitude to community through their elders.
Rehim's musings about old age remind us of similar attitudes we've encountered abroad. In India, we've watched young people bend down to touch the feet of their elders, symbolizing their respect. In South Korea, children use only formal language when speaking to a senior. In East Africa, the elderly are admired for their accumulated life experience.
The role of the aging is especially relevant in Canada these days, as baby boomers approach retirement. There are now more than four million seniors in Canada, a number that's to double by 2025.
With seniors eventually making up one-fifth of our population in Canada, Rehim's words seem almost prophetic. He wonders why Canadians don't make a greater effort not just to live side by side with their elders, but to seek out the wisdom of a fully lived life.
"Without this (wisdom)," Rehim says, "you cannot expect great generations to come."
Craig and Marc Kielburger are children's rights activists and co-founded Free The Children, which is active in the developing world.
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