Every day, summer or winter, in towns and in villages, one sees a great amount of men sitting around, doing nothing except chatting or some of them staring into empty space.

One would like to think that these men are justly enjoying rest after a lifetime of working, which is very just. At the same time, the women of comparable age would still be working at their homes, pension or no pension.

But especially in the case of the men, it may not be the case of their enjoying their retirement but actually because they cannot do otherwise. It is often said, but most of us do not really pay attention until it hits us - the day we retire we plunge in our living standards from an acceptable one to somewhere near poverty and many times right into sheer poverty, especially in the case of people living in rented accommodation, single persons or persons with a family to support.

There may be somewhere figures and again there may be not, but the sheer number of idle men sitting around may be at a continental high. We seem to have more non-active elderly men than comparable countries.

For that we have to pay tribute to a demented policy practiced over the past years - the temptation to launch early retirement schemes. Time and again the easy way out was chosen to slim down and downsize a company, especially in government agencies or companies almost as if the State wanted to get rid of these people.

One asks today who gained by this? The dockyards, for instance. Malta has lost a huge reservoir of expertise through the end of the Malta Drydocks. True, the workforce was heavily politicised and the people left with their own terminal benefits (not all had that experience). True too, some or many of the former Drydocks employees are today working profitably with a private firm, Palumbo.

It is also true that some, at least, of these elderly men (and in general persons) keep themselves active by doing odd jobs here or there, but this is just a temporary stratagem. These persons, or many of them at any rate, can contribute far more than that - to the enterprise they worked for, to the country at large, and to themselves too.

Then again, these persons, had they so wished, could have been retrained or taught about modern technology and they could contribute their efforts. Obviously, that would depend on the state of their health and this suggestion would not apply to strenuous jobs, but otherwise many of the elderly are an untapped resource.

And while this country has been admitting thousands of foreigners, especially non-EU citizens, here is a home-grown resource that is largely untapped. One can also remark that while the private sector is in general more prone to use the elderly beyond their pension age, the situation is actually the opposite when it comes to the public sector. And this is even more tragic - it is enough to consider the wasteful way with which the country treats former politicians, who have so much experience to offer the young.

What can be done about this now? For many of the elderly it may now be too late. But maybe we can learn from this sad story that people, especially those who have a lifetime of work behind them, decidedly deserve better.