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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Amara and our European friends might be
interested in D’Emilio’s take on aging in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><a
href="http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul07/0,4670,AgingItaly,00.html">http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul07/0,4670,AgingItaly,00.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date1><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=5
color="#666666" face=Arial><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'>Italy</span></font></st1:place></st1:country-region><font
size=5 face=Arial><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial'>’s
Aged Turn to Foreigners for Care<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date1><font size=1 color="#666666" face=Arial><span style='font-size:
8.5pt;font-family:Arial'>Saturday, July 07, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=byline1><b><font size=1 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
9.0pt;font-family:Arial'>By FRANCES D'EMILIO, Associated Press Writer<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 2.25pt;
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face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;
font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><b><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;
font-weight:bold'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
</div>
<span id=intelliTXT>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><strong><b><font size=1
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>ROME — As a police officer, Luigi Marzano was
used to being in command. He still walks ramrod straight, but at 97 and deep
into retirement, his memory is weakening and he has turned over command of his
household to a virtual stranger half his age.</span></font></b></strong><font
size=1 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Rita
Duda, who left Ukraine in search of work, lays out caffe latte and cookies each
day for Marzano's breakfast, shops for him, and, every afternoon after his nap
accompanies him to a bench on the corner, which he shares with ladies and
gentlemen in their 70s and 80s while their caretakers _ Ukrainians, Moldavians,
Poles and Romanians _ catch up on gossip.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Marzano
is one of a swelling number of Italians entrusting themselves to an army of
foreign workers from <a
href="http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul07/0,4670,AgingItaly,00.html##"
target="_blank" itxtdid=2981419><font color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>eastern
Europe</span></font></a>, South America, Asia and Africa who are doing what
families here are increasingly can't or won't do _ take care of their elderly.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Long
life and low birthrates have conspired to change family life, which long had
been the one institution Italians could count on while history rolled past,
with its parade of conquerors and short-lived governments.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><st1:country-region w:st="on"><font
size=1 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>Italy</span></font></st1:country-region><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>'s
demographics _ and Europe's as a whole _ give new meaning to the term "<st1:place
w:st="on">Old World</st1:place>."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Twenty-four
of the world's 25 oldest countries are in Europe, noted a joint report by the
European Commission and AARP, a <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
lobby for the elderly. <st1:country-region w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region>'s
population, with 27 percent of it older than 60 in 2005, is a shade grayer than
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
26 percent.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><script type="text/javascript">
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Italian life expectancy is 78.3 years for men and 84 for women. But more
significantly, <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>
holds the world record for the highest percentage of what experts call the
"old old." One out of every five elderly Italians is over 80.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Meanwhile,
the incentives to have children are few. Italians joke that by the time their
children qualify for scant public day care, they are too old for it. <a
href="http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul07/0,4670,AgingItaly,00.html##"
target="_blank" itxtdid=2982682><font color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>Tax
breaks</span></font></a> for minor dependents are miserly. Costly housing makes
it hard to give a child his or her own room.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><st1:country-region w:st="on"><font
size=1 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>Italy</span></font></st1:country-region><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>, home
to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vatican</st1:country-region> and
predominantly Catholic, legalized abortion in 1978, and Italians upheld the law
in a 1981 referendum, despite fierce opposition by the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place></st1:country-region> to
abortion. And Italians have long tended to ignore <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place>
teaching forbidding contraception.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Now,
with so many living so long _ and with retirement possible as early as age 57 _
Italy is paying the price in medical care, pensions and <a
href="http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul07/0,4670,AgingItaly,00.html##"
target="_blank" itxtdid=2982578><font color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>social
security</span></font></a>, for having so few children.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>While
decisions to have one or no children might make for easier lifestyles when
young, a generation or two later the choice means fewer children and
grandchildren to help the aged.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"Without
Rita, I wouldn't be able to manage," said Marzano, running his cane
through his fingers and fretting about how he'll manage this summer with
substitute home companions when Duda, a 48-year-old divorced woman, visits her
family in Ukraine.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Marzano
has outlived his wife, sister, three brothers and a son. His other son lives in
the neighborhood with his daughter-in-law, who is in poor health.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>On
Thursday afternoons, when Duda is off, a granddaughter comes to keep him
company. On Sundays, Duda's other day off, his son's family bring him lunch,
but they don't stay with him to eat it, Marzano said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"I
would have thought I would have lived with my son; I would never have thought
that it would be like this," said Marzano.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Duda and
others, paid for by the elderly's children or by the elderly themselves, are <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
fast-growing substitute for "assisted living" facilities, which are
nearly nonexistent in this country.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Putting
grandma or grandpa in a nursing home when they no longer are self-sufficient
hasn't caught on much here, possibly because Italians tend to distrust
institutions.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>So the
emphasis here remains on the home, even while home is ever more likely to mean
home alone.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>In 1950,
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>
had five adult children for every elderly parent. Now five has shrunk to a a
statistical 1.5 and by 2050 there won't even be one adult child for every
elderly person, said Antonio Golini, a demographer at <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:City>'s La Sapienza University.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>So
dependent have Italians become on the foreign caregivers that when the
government offered an amnesty a few years ago for illegal immigrants, it placed
no limits on the number of foreigners a family could employ if the workers
cared for elderly.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Golini has
been crusading for years for Italians to have more children, accept more
immigrants and work longer.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"My
terror is that we will reach old age abandoned," Golini, 69, said in an
interview.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><st1:country-region w:st="on"><font
size=1 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>Italy</span></font></st1:country-region><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>'s
"grayest" region is <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Liguria</st1:place></st1:State>,
in the northwest, where 27.5 percent of its population is over 65. There is a
waiting list for a program providing the elderly with $475 a month to help pay
for home companions.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"Old
people, and especially those who are alone and not independent, are going to be
one of the emergencies <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>
will have to face in the future," said <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Massimiliano Costa</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">Liguria</st1:State></st1:place>'s
commissioner for social policy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Emilio
Mortillo, a bioethicist at Aging Society, a think tank in <st1:City w:st="on">Rome</st1:City>,
pointed out that some parts of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
affluent north have more retirees than workers, and predicted that Italians
will have to increasingly rely on immigrants to help them cope.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>But
immigration is relatively new to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and surveys show many
Italians blame immigrants for crime.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>So some
elderly, fearful of admitting foreigners to their homes, turn to another old
fixture of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>
_ nuns of the Roman Catholic Church.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Waiting
for nuns to serve her dinner at the Pius X home for the aged in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:City>, 83-year-old Maria
Laura Riva De Filippis said her daughter didn't want a foreigner to care for
her mother at home.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"And
rightly so. You hear so many stories about them, my daughter would say,"
said De Filippis. "My daughter said I could live with her, but she kept
telling me: 'I leave for work at 8 a.m. and you'll be alone all day.'"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Since
nuns labor for God instead of a paycheck, room and board at homes for oldsters
run by religious orders cost much less than at traditional nursing homes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Caring
for the elderly as a business also makes economic sense for the nuns.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>When
there were no longer enough children to fill the classrooms, the Disciples of
Sisters of Eucharistic Jesus converted a nursery and elementary school in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:City>'s middle-class
Garbatella neighborhood into a rest home.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"Our
mothers stayed at home caring for their mothers and their mothers-in-law,"
said Sister Maria Cecilia at the home. "Now women work and don't even have
time to care for their own children."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>The
residents, whom the nuns call "guests," pay $1,770 month _ modest
compared with the <a
href="http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul07/0,4670,AgingItaly,00.html##"
target="_blank" itxtdid=2982791><font color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>United
States</span></font></a> where monthly costs in a large city can easily top
$10,000.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Ninety-year-old
Italia Matteucci, elegant in a long pearl necklace, pearl stud earrings, a red
cardigan and a wool plaid skirt, pays for her room in the former elementary
school out of her monthly pension check.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>She had
been living alone in a studio apartment but "I was afraid that they'd find
me dead there some day," and so she turned to the nuns.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Her
68-year-old daughter has health problems, and her two grandsons, in their 30s,
rarely come either, said Matteucci.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Many of
the caregivers come from countries where families are large and the concept of
abandoning oldsters is inconceivable.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"In
my country you don't see this," said Rosa Elena Floris, an Ecuadorean
taking a course for home companions at <st1:City w:st="on">Rome</st1:City>'s <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Catholic</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Sacred</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Heart</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. "We're
always at the side" of the elderly.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Floris
cared for an Italian woman for eight years until she died at 89.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>"The
woman had a son and a daughter, but she almost never saw them," recalled
Floris. "They would call and say, 'Is everything OK? Did she take her
medicine?'"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>When the
university first offered the course, in 1999, only foreigners enrolled, said
Dr. Flavia Caretta, a geriatrics specialist who runs the program. But this
year's course had a sprinkling of Italians, suggesting they see a growth
industry offering a career.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>The
foreign caretakers earn about $1,500 monthly, handsome compared to wages in
their homelands, or about 30 percent less if they live in and receive room and
board.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Among
the remedies for aging societies are raising the <a
href="http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jul07/0,4670,AgingItaly,00.html##"
target="_blank" itxtdid=2982444><font color=darkgreen><span style='color:darkgreen'>retirement
age</span></font></a> to save on pensions, and encouraging bigger families.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>This
year German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to gradually raise the retirement
age from 65 to 67 by 2012. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region>
uses incentives to encourage people to work beyond 65.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Poland,
with one of Europe's lowest fertility rates, recently began a costly program of
tax exemptions, longer maternity leaves and better preschool services to
encourage bigger families.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>But <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
center-left government, pressured by unions which make up much of Premier
Romano Prodi's constituency, is going in the other direction. It has promised
to undo the previous, conservative government's reform to raise the retirement
age from 57 to 60.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>___<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=1 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Daniele
Pinto in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place></st1:City>
contributed to this report.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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