DEPARTMENT:

Recent News Items
That Caught Our Eye

Older White Women
Join Kenya’s Sex Tourists

Reports from Mombassa say that as many as one in five single women visiting from rich countries are in search of sex.

‘It’s not evil,’ said Jake Grieves-Cook, chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, when asked about the practice of older rich women traveling for sex with young Kenyan men. ‘But it’s certainly something we frown upon.’

Also, the health risks are stark in a country with an AIDS prevalence of 6.9 percent. Although condom use can only be guessed at, Julia Davidson, an academic at Nottingham University who writes on sex tourism, said that in the course of her research she had met women who shunned condoms—finding them ‘too business-like.’

Grieves-Cook and many hotel managers say they are doing all they can to discourage the practice of older women picking up local boys, arguing it is far from the type of tourism they want to encourage in the east African nation.

‘The head of a local hoteliers’ association told me they have begun taking measures—like refusing guests who want to change from a single to a double room,’ Grieves-Cook said.

‘It’s about trying to make those guests feel as uncomfortable as possible... But it’s a fine line. We are 100 percent against anything illegal, such as prostitution. But it’s different with something like this—it’s just unwholesome.’

Colleges Must Adapt to Senior Students

Baby boomers and seniors age 55 to 79 are increasingly choosing to pursue advanced degrees. But according to a recent report by the American Council on Education, colleges haven’t yet adapted to them.

The report notes that older adults are ‘beginning to articulate new post-secondary-education goals,’ including training for new careers and fulfilling unrealized dreams. In 2002, the last year for which reliable statistics are available, three percent of all part-time and full-time undergraduate students were 50 or older. That number has almost certainly gone up.

However colleges ‘have yet to catch up with the burgeoning demand for new learning options, especially programs for career transitions,’ the report concludes.

November-December Romance

He’s 106. She’s 81. Last October the two were happily married in Wenzhou, China. Pan Xiting met Chen Adi in 1998, and she has taken care of him since then, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Their former spouses died years ago.

‘Now, we are a family and we will never separate from each other until death,’ Pan said happily.

‘We believe that Madam Chen means more than a companion to Mr. Pan and we hope they will have a happy married life,’ said Zheng Guangliang, deputy director of the Lucheng District civil affairs bureau.

The couple is among the oldest to have ever married. All-time champs are Francois Fernandez, 96, and Madeleine Francineau, 94, who tied the knot in Le Foyer du Romarin, Clapiers, France in 2002. Their aggregate years add up to 190, three more than Chen and Pan.

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