In a December 2007 article written on Bettercaring.com, Andrew Chivers wrote: “Caring [for the elderly] is one of the great unmentionables in our society today. It’s an invisible culture of millions of people, many of whom continue to work full-time while spending their spare hours caring for a loved one.”

Chivers was referring to the 4.2 million working individuals in Britain, statistically categorized as 2.4 women and 1.8 men who simultaneously held a paid job, plus the unpaid work of caring for someone who could not function to take care of their daily needs. They were discovered in a survey conducted by Leeds University, sponsored by a charity called Carers UK.

Closer to home: Caribbean people have always, to the best of my knowledge, played a role in taking care of their own. It is a part of our culture that is under threat of modern life with all its distractions. While we don’t have statistics to refer to in this instance, it’s fairly safe to say that in every household, there’s some element of the extended family, and elderly persons comprise a part of this picture.

However, there’re some disturbing trends that require society’s attention. Let us not kid ourselves. As the older generation passes on, so too do the values that they held dear, regarding family responsibility. The new generation of achievers, high rollers and so-called leaders of society don’t seem to consider it important to encourage and promote the tradition of family-owned and operated, home-based elderly care service. Some old-schoolers will do it, but as for promoting it on a national level, let’s hope it’s not too unmentionable. What we see is a consistent move towards placing this responsibility in the hands of the state, where institutionalization will become the norm and the elderly gets cut off from the rest of their family and familiar surroundings.

Let’s reflect a little. This is not merely to do with our past, but has very much to do with our future. We acknowledge that there’s much to be learned from our senior citizens. They carry history in their heads. They can tell us a lot of things about the place that we were not privileged so see for ourselves because we were not present at the time. They can tell us a lot about themselves/ourselves; who, what, when and how (and sometimes why) we are what we are, who we are and where we are today. There’s no greater knowledge than self-knowledge!

The great twentieth century Caribbean leader and liberation activist Marcus Garvey is noted for his emphasis on self-knowledge. “Man know thyself” identifies the official website dedicated to the teachings and legacy of Marcus Garvey. He said that a people without knowledge of themselves is like a tree without roots. When we take this seriously, we see that if we put a cutting in a vase with water, it can live a few days, even a few weeks and then it dies, unless it grows roots. A cutting that is planted with roots can grow and flourish and produce and live for hundreds of years. There is a remarkable difference between having roots and not having roots. And self-knowledge is tied into all of this. The dying leaves of a tree provide fertilizer for the young saplings coming up.

Our elderly people hold the keys to much of this self-knowledge that we need to know. Yet, in their waning years, whether they are mentally able or not, the attitude is that when they are no longer contributing as breadwinners, when it’s their turn to depend on those who depended on them, when the tables turn, they lose their support and their stability is undermined, and they are looked on as worthless and should be turned over to the government to be fed and sheltered while they wait for the Lord to take them from this world. This cold attitude is dealing a deadly blow to our culture.

I don’t have all the answers. Will a “Save the Old People” campaign be any good in this day and age when people are thinking more about their next step on the social ladder? I don’t know what the Oracle of Delphi will say to the question of how do we get back to that place of personal commitment in taking care of our own, as a way of life, without having to be cajoled by anyone? Without having to first put our families through needlessdrama, pain and suffering.

Like people in other parts of the world, caring for our loved ones here in the BVI is a challenge to those who are not what we may call “well-to-do”. It involves great personal sacrifice and to the outside onlooker, the simple solution is to put them away in an institution. We need to bring back humanity in our dealings with the challenges that involve human beings.

If readers have any suggestions to offer in how to go forward with creating a better society for our aged and for ourselves, join me in my efforts to establish an outreach organisation for better caring for our elderly.

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