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The senior
citizens beat the elderly
By Avirama Golan, the Haaretz
November
4, 2003
GRAY POWER: The members of the Pensioners list who won seats on the
Tel Aviv city council in last week's elections. Their victory reflects the
longing for more accessible, human leadership - not the old generals, but
the leadership of the wise old man on the park bench.
The
surprise in the Tel Aviv elections was the list
nobody took seriously, the Power to the Pensioners
Party. In the last municipal elections in 1998, they
were depicted as a curiosity: Grandma and Grandpa
had nothing to do in the afternoon, so they put
together a list and want to give the mayor some
good advice - from their past, of course.
This year, against
the background of a general sense of
apathy, there was hardly any attention paid to
the
list. At most one of the local
papers looked into the personal spending of
public monies by the party leader,
acting mayor Natan Wolloch:
NIS
194,515 last year
Nonetheless, their success apparently
was no accident. It's possible, of course, to say the overall low turnout
played a role in their success, enlarging the proportions of the city's
senior citizens on the council. They should be complimented for the
excellent organization put together by Wolloch and friends.
But that explanation does not take into account the excitement in broad
parts of Tel Aviv about
the party's success, as it showed up at the polling stations, nor does it
note the change in the attitude toward the actual list of activists who
ran.
Suddenly they aren't lovable oldsters, but public representatives.
Politicians with something to say; there's a chance to make a change in
city hall policy in the most important areas - health, education, and
welfare - let alone improve the living conditions of people who are no
longer able to run after a bus or skip over dangerous potholes in the
sidewalks.
Not only the elderly voted for the list. So did middle-aged people. The
Pensioners never spoke about only their problems. Unlike the last
elections, this time, they were more confident of themselves, more in
touch with a constituency of a variety of ages, and felt like they were
working as the envoys of their boys and girls, their grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. Why?
As far as the seniors are concerned, the answer is simple. They were the
only political pressure group on the municipality during the last five
years, which is one of the reasons why city hall managed to keep a number
of welfare programs running despite dwindling budgets that were swallowed
up by economic
decrees, cutbacks, unemployment, and the ever worsening erosion of the
educational and health services.
A sick child, an elderly father who needs an expensive medicine and an
arrangement for an old-age home, being fired in midlife - even the most
powerful city hall has difficulty finding magic solutions. The strong
connection the Power to the Pensioners Party managed to develop with the
welfare services in the city and the fact that most of Wolloch's spending
was on a system of volunteers and list activities, did their job. The
party in Tel Aviv did what traditional grass roots popular parties have
always done - dealt with the individual and the "small details."
It was work from the ground up, not the top down. They asked what people
needed, instead of marketing big ideas. The activity and its subsequent
success, is of priceless value. In a society that worships youth, moves
the elderly out of the nuclear family and tries to raise children in green
community settlements but far from Grandma and Grandpa in their little
city apartment; that treats people of 55 who were fired from their jobs as
wastrels; which hasn't stopped fantasizing about extending life,
stretching wrinkles and erasing all the signs of age, turning its back on
the honor and beauty of the elderly in the dawn of civilization - in such
a society Wolloch, Haviva Guy and their friends bring tidings of the
return of the old person who does not meet the demands of the politically
correct.
Not much has been said about the old and about aging in recent years. Only
about how being elderly is a golden age. As if the pretty words will wipe
away the weakness and distress that so much a part of so many old people's
lives.
From behind the friendly term, "pensioners," which defines a
much broader group of people who have seemingly been expelled from
industry, Tel Aviv's old-timers will teach the young people a thing or two
about social involvement and civic leadership. Hopefully, they will be
attentive to the changes the city is going through. In recent years there
has been a drop in the average age of the residents of the
city, and young people with small children are returning to the city.
The Pensioners, who five years ago wanted to form a "council of wise
people" to give their
rich experience to the city, can now take care of themselves better than
the energetic alumni
of some MBA program.
That might be another explanation for their success. That's an explanation
that includes a slender sign, almost as invisible as a single strand of
gray hair, of a longing by Tel Aviv residents - and as such, the entire
public - for more accessible, human leadership; not the old generals, but
the wise old man on the park bench.
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© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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