Amidst all the stories on the Cornoavirus, humanity still has the capability to behave in the worst possible manner. A 40-year old woman pleaded guilty to making her maid hit herself in the teeth with a meat pounder and this was just part of the stuff the maid had to go through. The story can be found at:
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/woman-pleads-guilty-forcing-maid-hit-her-own-teeth-meat-pounder
I’ve lived in Asia for the past two decades and I still get worked up by such stories of abuse against manual workers from other parts of Asia. There has to be, a they say, some standard of decency and the law should actually do something to enforce standards of human behavior.
Singapore is in so many ways, an incredibly developed society. Our physical infrastructure is as good, if not better than most places in the “advanced world.” Whatever one says of our political leadership, its proven more competent in its basic management than many places in the West, as shown by “Covid-19.” Many of us have been educated in the best places the world has to offer and we are aware of things like basic human decency.
Yet, and yet, we seem so unable to behave decently to the less fortunate. I take the comparison of our treatment of the laws governing “anal sex” between grown men. Whenever the topic of “377A” comes up, you’ll get the great and good of society talking about how laws are used to express “social approval,” and the dangers of “forcing” approval onto the majority should you legalise private and consensual behavior. However, whenever you have a case of maid or worker abuse, you’ll get lots of hands being wrung in public about the disturbed individuals but nobody will ever talk about what society approves of. Let’s be real here, the maid in question did not threaten anyone or do any harm. She merely did not clean the house as efficiently as her employer expected of her. In return, she was punched in the mouth ten times and forced to knock her own teeth out. Erm, that is clear cut case of physical abuse. The employer in question needs to be jailed or locked in a mental institution.
Or, what about the cane? If there was a case of flogging anyone, this woman is it. We make a big deal about how we do not tolerate vandalism to property, but what about vandalism to another person’s body?
Seriously, there is something seriously wrong here. Like it or not, we need the so-called Darkies from the rest of Asia to do the dirty jobs that we won’t do for love or money. Nobody is asking for us to give them special treatment but we do need to respect the fact that they are human and here to do a job.
Ten years ago, I met an Englishman, who asked me what I missed about the UK. My answer was, “The Intrinsic Decency of People.” His reply was, “Oh, there’s a lot more of that in Singapore.” I replied, “That’s because you’re white – try being a dark-skinned laborer.”
We met again after a decade and the first thing he said to me was, “My God, your entire economy is run on slave labor.” He then described how the most important person in the shipyard he worked at was a Bangladeshi who did everything for a mere SG$2,000 a month. I was never more embarrassed to be proven right. He proved my point right about the British being intrinsically decent – he was stunned and upset that the Bangladeshi was being paid SG$2,000 a month for the work he did (local response would have been – it’s a lot of money where he comes from) and he was stunned by our oblivious social reaction to how the proverbial darkies of Asia were being treated for a few pennies.
Human decency isn’t an airy concept that exist in Western University Campuses. As they say, what goes around, usually comes around. It’s something that our middle class might do well to remember whenever we worry about being displaced by “cheaper” Asian professionals.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/woman-pleads-guilty-forcing-maid-hit-her-own-teeth-meat-pounder
I’ve lived in Asia for the past two decades and I still get worked up by such stories of abuse against manual workers from other parts of Asia. There has to be, a they say, some standard of decency and the law should actually do something to enforce standards of human behavior.
Singapore is in so many ways, an incredibly developed society. Our physical infrastructure is as good, if not better than most places in the “advanced world.” Whatever one says of our political leadership, its proven more competent in its basic management than many places in the West, as shown by “Covid-19.” Many of us have been educated in the best places the world has to offer and we are aware of things like basic human decency.
Yet, and yet, we seem so unable to behave decently to the less fortunate. I take the comparison of our treatment of the laws governing “anal sex” between grown men. Whenever the topic of “377A” comes up, you’ll get the great and good of society talking about how laws are used to express “social approval,” and the dangers of “forcing” approval onto the majority should you legalise private and consensual behavior. However, whenever you have a case of maid or worker abuse, you’ll get lots of hands being wrung in public about the disturbed individuals but nobody will ever talk about what society approves of. Let’s be real here, the maid in question did not threaten anyone or do any harm. She merely did not clean the house as efficiently as her employer expected of her. In return, she was punched in the mouth ten times and forced to knock her own teeth out. Erm, that is clear cut case of physical abuse. The employer in question needs to be jailed or locked in a mental institution.
Or, what about the cane? If there was a case of flogging anyone, this woman is it. We make a big deal about how we do not tolerate vandalism to property, but what about vandalism to another person’s body?
Seriously, there is something seriously wrong here. Like it or not, we need the so-called Darkies from the rest of Asia to do the dirty jobs that we won’t do for love or money. Nobody is asking for us to give them special treatment but we do need to respect the fact that they are human and here to do a job.
Ten years ago, I met an Englishman, who asked me what I missed about the UK. My answer was, “The Intrinsic Decency of People.” His reply was, “Oh, there’s a lot more of that in Singapore.” I replied, “That’s because you’re white – try being a dark-skinned laborer.”
We met again after a decade and the first thing he said to me was, “My God, your entire economy is run on slave labor.” He then described how the most important person in the shipyard he worked at was a Bangladeshi who did everything for a mere SG$2,000 a month. I was never more embarrassed to be proven right. He proved my point right about the British being intrinsically decent – he was stunned and upset that the Bangladeshi was being paid SG$2,000 a month for the work he did (local response would have been – it’s a lot of money where he comes from) and he was stunned by our oblivious social reaction to how the proverbial darkies of Asia were being treated for a few pennies.
Human decency isn’t an airy concept that exist in Western University Campuses. As they say, what goes around, usually comes around. It’s something that our middle class might do well to remember whenever we worry about being displaced by “cheaper” Asian professionals.
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