Most countries retire those at sixty. Rightly so. Physical and mental decay begins about this age and the above sixty cannot perform as the below sixty. Brain degeneration makes them slow to react and they become indecisive. They tire easily their hearing and vision deteriorate. They have to go to the loo more frequently. They are more prone to arthritis, heart and lung ailments, cancer and auto immune disease. Therefore it is best they don’t work in responsible positions and endanger others. They can however contribute by being advisors to the younger decision makers.
This, at least in India, does not seem to apply to our politicians. Here Gerontocracy rules the roost. We have an eighty year old Prime minister, a seventy eight year old finance minster and an equally old foreign minister. Our defense minister is only slightly younger. The results of these tired old [not necessarily wise] men ruling the country is there for all to see. Their inefficiency is leading us from one scam to the other.
When they were moving from one scam to the other, on the way sweeping the other scams under the carpet, our army chief did not want to retire without bringing out the truth about the state of affairs in our defense forces. You can ignore any one else and get away with it but not an honest soldier who refuses to be bribed and adding insult to injury, wants to bring it into the open.
Our geriatrics are now stuck in a deeper mire.
2 comments:
I confess to being a little bemused by your post. You yourself are in a responsible position and you are 70! Additionally, I do not believe that 'poor decision making' due to old age is necessarily the issue here. I do not know the Indian situation at all, but political corruption is similar the world over. Those men have almost certainly always been embroiled in some unsavoury practice or other - that they are now getting caught is just part of the odds they play!
I have given up work which carries responsibility and decision making precisely because of what I have written in this post. I certainly want old people to work but in positions that cause no risk to others
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