please watch

I know I've talked about immigrants before, and how shitty I think Singaporeans treat them when we could be showing them compassion. The way some Singaporeans behave towards foreign workers, I can't even begin to express how disgraced and ashamed I am of them. This issue has come up again with the controversy over maids getting a weekly day off. It's ridiculous, some of the things people can come up with.

There are two problems that exist that are making things difficult for foreign workers, majority of whom, in all honesty, just want to earn some money for their families AND not be treated like shit. These two problems are:

1. Social stigma
I don't even need to talk about this. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. For fuck's sake, you can't even let them hang out with their friends and make some noise for a single day. The video above is extremely touching. I'm so, so proud of the Singaporeans who made this video. Even though it seems it's for a school thing... nevertheless, I'm so glad someone decided to challenge this stigma.

2. Employers
Not all employers are completely ridiculous. But some are really insane. For example, the woman who makes her maid stand by the table and watch them eat, or who yells at her in public like she's a dog. Or the contractor who gets angry with his worker for getting injured (due to faulty machines not kept up to safety standards due to cost cutting), because then he has to pay for his treatment. There HAS to be some sort of regulation on treatment of foreign workers, accompanied with better legislation towards foreign workers' pay, conditions of employment, etc. I cannot get into detail regarding their pay because I'm not well-versed in the rationale behind it, but regulation and setting in place a punitive structure towards employers who are abusive or negligent towards the health and welfare of their employees (including many low-wage Singaporean workers) needs to be better!

I am actually extremely inadequate in knowledge on domestic public policy, so I'm not entirely sure if the feedback mechanisms to government are reliable. BUT, you can e-mail PM Lee, you can e-mail any fucking person in government. Tell them these are problems, these are people. As it is, we are losing maids to Hong Kong, where they get much better benefits. These are problems the PAP just might take interest in, because all they want is for Singapore to embrace foreign talent. Other than that, they have to be more sensitive to the ground following last year's election, they want to seem more in touch with the people. And you know, with a majority of the seats in parliament, whatever PAP wants, PAP gets.

KONY 2012, we can't help much to be honest. It raises awareness and that's all very good, but that campaign is for Americans to push for action, it is their government they are trying to make act. (For the record, I think practicality is pretty low on kony 2012) But this is something that we can or may be able to help... It's a problem in our own backyard. I still feel like I'm grabbing at straws here... Probably.