The State We’re In, 31 October 2009. With the on-again, off-again election casting doubt on the democratic process in Afghanistan, we speak to Mir Mahdavi. He was editor of a newspaper in Kabul and was accused of insulting Islam and nearly executed - with President Karzai's approval. We also look at the right to a dignified old age: American retirees moving to Mexico, Japanese villages populated by the elderly and the fragile position of widows in India.
 
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Free speech in Afghanistan
In 2001, Mir Mahdavi started an independent newspaper in Kabul. He was later arrested for insulting Islam and secretly sentenced to death – with President Karzai’s approval. He talks about how his experiences colour his view of the upcoming election – which he hopes Karzai will win.
 

 
This week's theme is the right to a dignified old age
 
Mexico's grey tsunami
Five million elderly Americans may relocate to Mexico over the next decade to get affordable health care. Shannon Young is American and lives in Oaxaca, Mexico – she talks to Jonathan about the grey tsunami.
 

 
Ageing Japan
Japan’s ageing population is the largest per capita in the world. Thousands of villages are dying out or being left in the hands of the elderly. Catherine Makino goes to a village desperately trying to save itself from ageing into extinction.
 

 
Mongolia's elderly home
Mongolia’s post-communist economy is in ruins, and the elderly are left vulnerable. We tour the only state-run care facility in the country. It’s run down and shabby, but people there live surprisingly contented lives.
 

 
Indian widows - a life of ashes
In India, an estimated 20 million widows face a kind of living death every day. They didn’t follow the ancient tradition of throwing themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre, but as Dheera Sujan discovers, some wish they had done so. Click here to read more on this story.
 

 
Listener's story: Todd Daubert
Todd heard our program on the To die or not to die show and contacted us with his about the decision he and his wife made to refuse a medical procedure that could have endangered their unborn twins.
 

 
On Facebook we asked listeners if they had a right to a dignified old age and if they could afford to retire.
 
Nicholas J. Evancik said, "I remember sitting in my doctor's office one day, about 20 years ago, just for a regular visit, and several women, beyond retirement age were talking to each other, and then to me. One said, 'They call them the golden years, but they are really more brassy'.
 
Gretchen Walkup thinks that, "...a dignified old age means still contributing to society as much as possible given the inevitable impediments (physical, mental, financial) that will present themselves. It doesn't mean life gets simpler or easier or that I do whatever I want whenever I want - that I paid some debt to society and now I get to have "my time." Or that my ongoing greatest contribution to larger society is spending my pension and/or my savings."
 
And as for affording retirement, Jo Anne Peyton succinctly wrote, "No."