What have we actually offered the older generation during the years of independence? What should we do for them today?

Natalia KHARCHENKO, schoolteacher, Odesa:

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is a feeling of constant guilt before my parents and their generation; I feel guilty that with my pay I can’t provide them adequate living conditions, let alone an opportunity to rest and enjoy themselves; that now and then I have to borrow money from them. And this with their miserable pensions. I feel guilty because I couldn’t justify their expectations. Ours is a family of teachers. I am a third-generation philologist. Once it sounded very proud; now it sounds laughable, because it’s hard to live these days with the kind of principles instilled in me by my parents since childhood. Mother would always say that one must maintain one’s dignity, even it means to stay poor. Older people sometimes won’t or can’t understand what’s happening. This causes irritation. I know that all they have left is principles and memories, that they will defend them come what may. They are like children scared, closing their eyes to realities. They keep saying that one must trust one’s government and believe in one’s country. And they do just that and fly into a rage if anyone tries to argue. They are wiser than we. They have suffered so many misfortunes and wars, so they understand the true value of things. The trouble is that we don’t listen to them; we don’t want to. We are a very busy generation. What can this society do for them? I think the answer is simple. Our elderly will be happy to see their dreams come true. What dreams? To see their children and grandchildren healthy, living a happy life. So that everything is like in that old Soviet song, “To our youth now every door is open, / Everywhere our old with honor go...” So they don’t have to spend the twilight years worrying about their daily bread. They don’t need much.

Olha KONDRATIUK, senior instructor, Zhytomyr Institute of Entrepre neurship and Modern Technologies:

Apart from everything else, most of the older generation are in a complex psychological state; they can’t understand what they have lived their lives for. Contemporary values and those they harbored in the recent past often have become polarized. This angers and antagonizes older people. Certain state structures that are part of this society, must take care of the older generation, because these people have worked for the state and dedicated their energy and intellect to it. In terms of universal human values and ideas of solidarity, our community is also to blame. I think that Ukrainian society is very disunited. We have very few volunteer organizations capable of uniting these people or trying to unite them, share the problems of the elderly and their psychological problems in the first place. In other words, our senior citizens can’t expect any help here. Religious communities are perhaps the only exception.

Actually, there are very different people among the older generation. Some deserve all possible respect, having worked hard to provide adequate conditions for the current generation, and war veterans. Some of them inspire profound sympathy, but they are also to blame in a way. Why? Those in power today are their children, so they must assume responsibility for them, for raising them that way. Yet you can’t tell the elderly that they lived, worked, and thought the wrong way. They won’t understand you and will only suffer more.

Also, the way we treat them is how our children will treat us. If we leave them to the mercy of fate, the same could happen to us, which means that we shouldn’t do so, if only for selfish reasons.

Stanislav VOVK, editor-in-chief, Vinnytski visti weekly:

There is a category of pensioners that doesn’t find living difficult now. These people receive special governmental allowances granted for special merits before the Fatherland. Add here retired public servants. Of course, most pensioners are ordinary people who receive miserable allowances after a lifetime of hard work. Unfortunately, the state has consciously divided the pensioners into hostile groups. Ordinary pensioners hate those receiving special governmental allowances (between 400 and more than 1,000 hryvnias a month). Hasn’t an ordinary hard-working farmer done as much for the state by toiling in scorching fields? Many pensioners are still able-bodied and could be put to good use, but with current unemployment these people have no alternative except retirement. Some retire with honor, others without. And then the worst happens. These people find themselves alone, staying within four walls. Psychologists say this leads to rapid aging and death. A retired individual still working, surrounded by colleagues, feels physically better and lives longer. I am for providing jobs for pensioners, even through state unemployment agencies. Pensioners are willing to take any job, even the least prestigious ones which younger people won’t, like night nurses, ancillary crafts, domestic help, and so on. The moral aspect is also important. Why not set up something like over-sixties clubs or social services for pensioners under the auspices of local housing authorities, similar to district youth services organized several years ago? And, of course, their pensions must be raised above the subsistence level; there must be must be multilevel pension insurance. All this will support future pensioners.

Heorhy MOSKALIOV, war veteran:

The condition of any country is judged by the manner in which it treats its elders and children. Nations can take ill like individuals. We are sick, and we have no living memories. We do not seem to understand that part of our soul perishes with the death of our grandfathers and grandmothers who suffered the horrors of famine, war, and the hell of the phantasmagoric idea.

The day will come when each of us, shedding our wings of angels, will emerge as his true miserable and scared self, facing eternity and those who arrived there before him. All those we did not notice previously, who had suffered through living hell for us to live a happier life, who had actually made a present of this life to us, will be there looking at us, smiling sadly... They will pose us one question: why did you betray us?