RESEARCH ON AGEING: PRIORITIES FOR THE EUROPEAN REGION

The Global Family has changed!

Have we realized …..

•   that people in the world are living longer and better lives than ever before in the History ofmankind
•   that families have now extended up to 4 to 5 generations living at the same time, sharingmemories and daily events, ….of which 2 to 3 generations are retired, often very active retirees

  indeed

•   that families live together despite distance thanks to technology such as mobile phone, internet,webcam grand‐parenting, etc
•   that families are complex today but are giving rise to a new concept of the family, whetheralone, divorced and remarried, whether orphan from HIV‐AIDS and adopted by a substitute grand‐parent, we are witnessing a global and intergenerational solidarity. This is new. Even at the

  5th World Meeting of Families of the Catholic church in Valencia, Spain where I was invited, thanks to some lobby work of some of us, for the first time, older grand-parents were mentioned and invited to speak on stage! How long do we have to wait until the concept of the family will encompass all generations, all situations and give this genuine global family feeling we are all interlinked, interrelated and interdependent on a small part of the universe where people have the choice to love each other beyond race, nationalities, geography and more..