Our seniors have suffered and are suffering even more than others from the coronavirus.
They represent almost three quarters of the victims.
As for the most fragile of them, in nursing homes, they are sometimes isolated.
What is the place given to "old people" in our changing world?
In the second episode of Matthieu Belliard's new podcast "Les Éclaireurs", the morning presenter of Europe 1 reflects on this question with the author Julia Mourri.
What if we took the time to listen to the world change?
Every Friday, in "Les Éclaireurs", the new Europe 1 Studio podcast, Matthieu Belliard gives a voice to women and men who have a fresh and enlightened outlook on the upheavals in the world around us.
For the second episode, the journalist and presenter of the morning show of Europe 1 receives the former journalist Julia Mourri, co-author of "Oldyssey, a world tour of old age".
How old are we today?
What are the stereotypes about old age?
And how to give a real place, a real role to our elders?
In this episode, it will be a question of cultural representation of old age, of "ghettos for old people" but also of conflicts between generations.
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Three ideas to remember to take the time to listen to the world change
Let's rehabilitate the word "old"! (to listen from 1'52)
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For Julia Mourri, words count.
"'Senior' has a little connotation of 'silver economy' whereas one can be a senior in a company from the age of 45. 'Old', 'elder', is marked with respect but puts the person at a distance. 'Old' is just an adjective like 'young'. But 'young' is full of positive, dynamic and 'old' is full of negative ideas. We wanted to deconstruct all the received ideas around the word old ".
These ghettos for old people who are not solutions (to listen to from 11'47).
"After seeing lots of places to live for the elderly, I think the key is really to open up to the outside to bring the generations together in the same place. There is nothing less natural than living with people who are exactly the same age as you. For example, we have found places where people with Alzheimer's disease live where there is a path on which children spend the morning going to school and a great restaurant inside. That's the most important thing: opening these places so that all generations want to go there, "summarizes Julia Mourri.
Beware of the risk of conflict between generations (listen from 15'35).
Protecting the planet, mobilizing against climate change, it's not just a matter of young people, insists Julia Mourri.
“In the big issues of tomorrow, the main one being climate change, I find that the young people who are moving point out the older ones a lot instead of including them in this fight. When the older ones are convinced that this is what it is. there is something better for their grandchildren, they can increase this fight tenfold. When you say 'OK boomer', it is like saying 'you didn't understand anything, end of the discussion'. This is the best way to that the old people do not want to be interested in this issue and that things do not progress ".
"Les Éclaireurs" is a Europe 1 studio podcast
Presentation: Matthieu Belliard
Line-up: Marine Apruzzese
Director: Jean Lénaff (with Xavier Jolly)
Editorial project manager: Fannie Rascle
Distribution and editing: Clémence Olivier
Graphics: Karelle Villais
Director of Europe 1 Studio: Olivier Lendresse
Archives: Documentation and Heritage Department
Episode references:
"Oldyssey", Julia Mourri and Clément Boxebeld, Seuil
Extracts:
Archive Europe 1 "Gymnastics for the elderly", 1971
"Soccer Grannies", Oldyssey
"Soccer Grannies: the adventure continues in 2020!", Oldyssey
"Oldyssey in Senegal", Oldyssey
Speech at COP 24, Greta Thunberg, 2018
"Praise of old age", Hermann Hesse