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Keywords: Elderly

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Syrians counting on Australian aid

    • Mark Green
    • 30 September 2013
    2 Comments

    The conflict in Syria has led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today. And the need for a peaceful solution is great. I hope that Australia's successful aid program remains a priority for our Government. We must not ignore the needs of those lying at our gates simply because their communities do not hold trade or economic interests for us.

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  • RELIGION

    Aged care and the business of gift

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 09 May 2013
    9 Comments

    In our care of the aged, not only their health and security are at stake but also their self-respect and dignity. It is impossible not to sympathise with the argument that the high skills this requires from carers should be better remunerated. But in the business of business and remuneration, love is the skill that dares not speak its name.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The many holy faces of humanity

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 23 August 2012
    8 Comments

    One moment he is an elderly beggar woman, so stooped that all 'she' sees is stones and feet. Next he is a monstrous vagrant, who crawls out of a sewer and terrorises passers-by with hilarious ferocity. He integrates seamlessly with his environments, and others interact with him as if this — this — is his true face.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The lighter side of dementia

    • Brian Matthews
    • 20 July 2012
    4 Comments

    Just when my friend was thinking to find a quieter place for this lost and distressed elderly woman while he worked out what to do next, she turned to him, her face alight. With one movement she opened her mouth, removed her denture and held it towards him. On the 'gum' was clearly inscribed her name and a phone number.

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  • AUSTRALIA

    A temporary halt to Grexit and Drachmageddon

    • Gillian Bouras
    • 20 June 2012
    6 Comments

    Greeks expect the positive outcome of last weekend's election to be weak and short-lived. Austerity has brought predictable unemployment, homelessness, and a rising suicide rate. The elderly are reminded of the fear and the helplessness that accompanied the hideous years of the Civil War and the dictatorship of the Colonels.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Life and death on YouTube

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 01 September 2011
    2 Comments

    An elderly couple renew their marriage vows, with a few cheeky variations. A young gay man comes out to his grandmother over the telephone. Life in a Day implicitly credits the online world as a physical space cohabited by many and varied individuals the world over.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Exploiting the elderly

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 25 August 2011
    1 Comment

    Leo's ailing health means he is due to become a ward of the state, forced from his house into a nursing home. He needs personal care that is better provided by loved ones than an institution. But Mike's compassion is overrun by material needs. He decides to exploit Leo's plight.

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  • RELIGION

    Pope's guide to social networking

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 02 February 2011
    9 Comments

    Benedict's World Day of Social Communications address shows how an elderly, intelligent man might reflect on the massive changes in social communication. He associates social networking with the young, and trusts in their freedom to use it well.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    The quick and the slow: a post-flood diversion

    • Susan Prior
    • 27 January 2011

    After all the flooding we were doing a little maintenance, the sort that requires a trip to the soulless hardware chain store. I left hubbie to it and ducked into the second-hand book store next door. The elderly gentleman serving asked me, ‘Are you from a big city – like London?’ ‘Why do you ask?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘you talk very quickly.’

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  • INTERNATIONAL

    Resisting the duty to die

    • John Kleinsman
    • 21 September 2010
    11 Comments

    The debate about euthanasia arises only in certain societies that see the world as belonging to those who are independent, strong and productive. In a society in which the sick, dying, disabled and elderly are undervalued, the 'right' to die will all too quickly become a 'duty' to die.

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  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Election week poems

    • Mark Carkeet and Graham Kershaw
    • 17 August 2010

    They're elderly, unstable, probably a couple, their cheerful eyes sprung like steel against the cold, their hands arthritic, resigned; their grip carrying no conviction. Concentration lapses. People fail to see. This has never been a Labour town.

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  • ENVIRONMENT

    More than one way to cool a baked couch potato

    • Paul Mitchell
    • 20 January 2010
    4 Comments

    Air conditioners are necessary when the weather gets very hot, not leastof all for the wellbeing of babies, the sick, elderly and frail. But sometimes it seems that we Australians can't tell a cool change from climate change.

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