#gerontocracy

#gerontocracy

This century, several aging African leaders have also had to reject premature reports of their deaths, like Cameroon's Paul Biya last year when rumours of his demise spread on social media after he wasn't seen in public for a month. It turned out the 92-year-old, who has the distinction of being the world's oldest, non-royal, leader, was simply in residence at his second home in Switzerland.

Quiz time, and the category is American gerontocracy. Here goes: how many sitting Democratic members of Congress have died in office since November 2022? The answer is a mind-boggling eight. While Republicans aren't dropping dead at the same rate, they're arguably clinging to power for longer than is dignified. Last year, a Texas journalist discovered Kay Granger, a high-ranking octogenarian Republican congresswoman, had stopped coming to work because she was in a senior living facility, suffering from dementia issues.

In 2000, Time magazine warned of a coming Boomerdämmerung. The Baby Boomers, it argued, had failed to build enduring wealth, were unprepared for the digital transition, and carried a narcissistic entitlement that made them reluctant to relinquish power. "And your neighbors' children," the magazine warned, "simultaneously burdened with the cost of your aging and victimized by the one thing you'll hold onto-your political power-will boil with resentment."

Rap, especially the mainstream, is getting old with prominent figures in their 40s and 50s, challenging the traditional youth-oriented nature of the genre.