In Cuba, the number of people who arrive healthy at “advanced age” is increasing. The province of Cienfuegos and its municipalities do not escape this. This imposes a look in this regard, not only from the economic field and its possible impact, but also translates into social changes and the need to review public policies and the cultural conception of the matter.
We do know that at the end of 2021, according to ONEI, life expectancy at birth in Cienfuegos was 76.0 years (77.0 years for men and 80.0 years for women); that the aging index has increased to 21.4 percent and that the ratio of elderly people is 1,011 (people over 60 years of age for every 1,000 children between the ages of zero and fourteen); being the municipalities of Cruces (thousand 272); Lajas (thousand 227); Rhodes (1,163) and Palmyra (1,120), which present the highest values, but only in Abreus (0.888) is less than a thousand, so it is assumed that it will become more and more common when people reach a certain age , the need to choose to adopt new employment options or retirement is institutionally raised, once the age of “aging” has been reached.
The foregoing occurs under the premises imposed by a phenomenon that we have historically called population aging and that has been considered a structural problem of the economy, taking into account that it impacts the dependency ratio of the population over 60 years of age. He is between fifteen and 59 years old, a problem that is not solvable in the short term. That is why from the economic point of view it has been estimated as a threat, assuming in the economic theories that are put forward, that these social changes influence the economic growth of a country or a territory, in savings, investments, consumption, labor markets and in the retirement and social assistance systems.
However, we might question ourselves in this regard: is it correct to use the term aging to which we have classified people who reach 60 years of age?; Are they really as dependent as the algorithms in which they have been introduced express themselves? Does this age group constitute a threat in territorial development strategies and when designing public policies in each municipality of the province or are they taken into account as an opportunity?
In trying to address these concerns, it should be noted that old age and aging are different concepts. The process that begins at birth and ends with death is known as aging. People age as their life cycle passes. That is to say that you grow old every day, from the day you were born (birthdays do not come by chance and those who are saddened by the “ta”: thirty-ta, forty-ta, etc.). For its part, old age is the stage of life that begins at age 60 (according to the algorithms imposed by modern society) and is considered the last stage of life. Old age is part of aging.
I must also point out that the meaning of the term aging has changed and is complicated according to the cultural, social, economic, political, biological or psychological variables that prevail in each era. These factors have influenced and continue to influence the concept and reflection of what an elderly person represents or has represented in each society throughout the history of mankind.
When we look at the biblical texts (from Noah with his saving ark from the universal flood and his multiple descendants, to the prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah or Moses, all of them advanced in age) and other later readings, we can appreciate such transformations. These glimpses go through the texts on ancient Egypt (with its high mortality that generated a short life expectancy), where the translation of the word wise is written skmns, which means gray tongue, which symbolized the wisdom that is achieved when an individual obtained gray hair upon reaching old age. In them we can appreciate how the older people represented wisdom and example for the younger ones. Of course, the reference age was much lower than that shown by contemporary life expectancy at birth, but what is significant is that despite considering old age as a period linked to the decrease in visual capacity and hearing loss and deterioration of cognitive and physical abilities in general, this age group enjoyed great social prestige.
According to some researchers, it was in ancient Greece where the foundations of current Western society were laid, and it is in this period when the concept of old age began to deteriorate, with the Greeks being the great promoters of perfection, the cult of the body and beauty, the beginning of philosophy and naturalistic vision, from which: old age and death begin to be feared and considered a punishment that life imposes on us. So, with this perception of the world and the importance of perfection and youth, it is not difficult to imagine what it meant to be old.
This perception was the one that prevailed also in the Renaissance, considered the worst stage for old age, because Western Europe was attracted by the legacy left by ancient Greece, all of which was reflected in art and letters, where the prevailing values were beauty, perfection and the rejection of ugliness, imperfection and old age, in the midst of a nascent commercial capitalism. It is the same appreciation that prevails in today’s capitalist world, which cannot exist without discriminatory policies that deny rights, humiliate and mistreat “different” people under the criteria that they are inferior.
That is why contemporary scientists from different latitudes have raised terms such as old age, a word that synthesizes the attitude of those who can put older people in a state of vulnerability; ageism to refer to existing stereotypes and prejudices in relation to age, which has been considered to exist at the institutional and interpersonal level and also be self-inflicted. They have also proposed the use of the term sexalecencia to define those people who have reached the age of 60 without fear, without complexes, fully integrated at the community, social and work level. People who handle new technologies, continue to have hopes and projects, are positive and vital, know that they can contribute their experience, wisdom and serenity and that these have value. They are men and women who have thrown out the word sexagenarian, because they simply do not have the possibility of aging among their current plans.
In the conditions of Cuba and in particular of Cienfuegos, I consider that it is the responsibility of the current municipal authorities to design in their lines of strategic action, in their programs and public policies, those that bring people in a dignified, comprehensive manner and without discrimination older people, considering them as socially active subjects, members of society and bearers of rights. Public policies that allow them to be perceived as an opportunity for the development of society, taking advantage of the strengths that sexalescence offers to the Cuban, made up in our case by a generation that also enjoyed transit through the most profound social and economic transformations of a country in Revolution and building a unique social project.
Of course, for its design, with scientifically reasoned solutions, it must drink from the flow of research that from the sciences has been developed by the Carlos Rafael Rodríguez University, in Cienfuegos, without forgetting the investigations and theoretical events developed by the Affiliate of the Scientific Society. of Population Studies of the Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba in the province, nor the work that has been painstakingly carried out by the Chair for the Elderly; in addition to all the experiences that are treasured in this regard.
