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Germany

Cost Of Elder Care Forcing Germans To Retire Abroad

DIE WELT (Germany)

Worldcrunch

BERLIN - A growing number of Germans are now moving to retirement homes in Eastern Europe, Spain or Thailand where aged care costs substantially less thanks in large part to lower staff salaries.

Die Welt has obtained figures not made public by Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showing that more and more Germans are unable to afford aged care in their native country.

Those receiving welfare rose in 2010 by 5% to 411,000 from 392,000 in 2009. VdK, a social community lobby group, says the sharp rise is grounds for alarm: “The risk of falling into poverty due to care needs has been growing for years,” says VdK president Ulrike Mascher.

Those needing government subsidies to finance their care rose in 2010, with a total government cost of 3.4 billion euros per year. Three-fourths of those receiving the subsidies live in retirement homes where the average monthly cost for a patient requiring the highest level of care is 2,900 euros. Insurance pays about 1,500 euros of that, while pensions have been stagnating for years.

Mascher says that there are currently 2.4 million people in need of state financial aid. That is expected to rise to 4.7 million by 2050, which would mean every 15th German would need to receive government subsidies, while there are less and less people who are able to support them.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that Germany’s social security system is not adapted to high life expectancy and that if something is not done, the country is looking at a hole of up to 2 billion euros by 2050.

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LGBTQ Plus

New Study Finds High Levels Of Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination In Buddhism

We tend to think of Buddhism as a religion devoid of commandments, and therefore generally more accepting than others. The author, an Australian researcher — and "genderqueer, non-binary Buddhist" themself — suggests that it is far from being the case.

Photo of a Buddhist monk in a Cambodia temple, walking away from the camera

Some Buddhist spaces can be highly heteronormative and show lack of understanding toward the LGBTQ+ community

Stephen Kerry

More than half of Australia’s LGBTQIA+ Buddhists feel reluctant to “come out” to their Buddhist communities and nearly one in six have been told directly that being LGBTQIA+ isn’t in keeping with the Buddha’s teachings.

These are some of the findings from my research looking at the experiences of LGBTQIA+ Buddhists in Australia.

✉️ You can receive our LGBTQ+ International roundup every week directly in your inbox. Subscribe here.

I’m a genderqueer, non-binary Buddhist myself and I was curious about others’ experiences in Australia since there has been no research done on our community before. So, in 2020, I surveyed 82 LGBTQIA+ Buddhists and have since followed this up with 29 face-to-face interviews.

Some people may think Buddhism would be quite accepting of LGBTQIA+ people. There are, after all, no religious laws, commandments or punishments in Buddhism. My research indicates, however, this is not always true.

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