If you think you are going to retire in peace, think again. Your country needs you! That is the message to retired Thai high-flyers from Sippanonda Ketudat, the head of Thailand's 'Brain Bank'.
Operating out of his office at the National Economic and Social Development Board, Dr Sippanonda is the driving force behind an idea first proposed by Thailand's Queen Sirikit in 2000 to encourage retired people with skills and knowledge to help develop the country.
'We are not attempting to take over government work, rather we want to help,' said the former minister of education and industry, who trained as a nuclear physicist at Harvard University. 'We are not just showing people how to deal with a problem, because they will remember little. We let people deal with a problem themselves and we advise them.'
The 73-year-old may be no spring chicken but he can put people half his age to shame. There are no leisurely games of golf for this veteran of education development, who heads more than 15 committees and plays a mean game of tennis as well.
He has harnessed the energy, experience and knowledge of 2,339 volunteers, acting as a matchmaker between older professionals and projects that need help. The Brain Bank has become involved in hundreds of projects, ranging from bringing in a former anti-narcotics police general to deal with the illegal drug problem in Chantaburi province, to crossing borders to help in health-care development in Laos and halting deforestation in Vietnam.
Although less than 1,000 of the volunteers have been sent on missions so far, it shows, as Queen Sirikit has said, that retirees are still strong and have a great deal of experience to offer.