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Fri 10 Oct 2009If we don't protect the aged, we will suffer when old
OPINION:The ‘aged’ is not an abstract concept – they are you and me one day. They need better care, writes DES O'NEILL
IN THE Grimm Brothers tale The Old Man and His Grandson, an old man who can no longer eat tidily is banished by his adult children from the family table to the corner behind the stove. They treat him shabbily, but are chastened by the sight of their own four-year-old child collecting bits of wood to make a trough for them to eat from when they are old. They look at each other, begin to cry, and invite the old man back to the table.
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