hippy me | domestic helpers

I just read somewhere that cg was once voted singapore’s hippiest spot by a prominent female magazine. Hmmmmm…so I’m a hippy eh? Hehhhe

Anyways, theres been a bit of a buzz around the place lately, what with the government’s plans to reconvert the place to a hostel..and the petition put up by the residents, including us. We’re kind of unaffected actually cos we know we wont be staying there for long….but there’s no harm in lending your support to the common good yah. Though at times it does feel a bit sayang to know that the place will not be available to us for much longer, should we choose to renew our lease. We’ve decided not to have the wooden platforms at the yard cos our stay’s there not permanent anyway – it’s just gonna be money down the drain.

Both of us have been wanting to start on a little project of ours, but we’ve not gotten around to doing it yet. Which is frustrating. But there are tons of things to do at home, and by the time we reach home it’s already late and all we have time for is to eat and vege at the couch. And there’s nothing much we can do during weekends either, cos our relatives keep popping by to spend time there since they love the place so much. Not that I’m complaining – like I said previously, I love it when there are people at my place. but sometimes you just want to be left alone yah so that you can finally unpack all those boxes and do up the place properly.

I still want to do the project though. Let’s hope we’ll find some time this long weekend to finally do it.

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Read about the plight of domestic helpers in the papers last weekend, and it just pains my heart. Many of them have sacrificed being with their husband and kids so that they can earn enough to keep the family going. If only we can start according them the same respect as we accord all other professions. They’re here to work, not to be slaves. What is so wrong with giving them enough food to eat? Can you survive on just one slice of bread a day? I cant fathom the doings of some of us sometimes. And what about the often debated issue of giving some time off to your maids? Do YOU want to be locked up in your office the whole time you’re working there, even if the office is equipped with all the comforts of home? If you cant stand the idea of that, why should your helpers be treated any different?

This brings to mind a lengthy email that I sent to my boss – the big boss, about two years back. I’ve never written to him at this length before, but I was compelled to let him know how I felt cos I felt really strongly about it:

Hi [big boss],

Thought HRW did the right thing by releasing the report. Yes Singapore got some negative publicity from it, but I personally feel that many Singaporeans need to be given a jolt to wake them up to what's happening. It might just be that the report is blowing up the issue, and that instances of maid abuse might be considerably lesser than reported. However, this should not stop us from acknowledging that there is a problem.

It's just shameful that some maids here are treated the way they are - no off days, waking up before the rest of the family and working the whole day through till everyone has gone to bed, being shouted at for every wrong thing they do..the list goes on (and I've not even included instances of physical abuse!). Some Singaporeans think they 'own' their maids because they've paid good money for them. Many fail to realise that these workers are just that - workers, and should be treated as such, just like how Singaporeans as workers themselves would want to be treated by their companies.

As the [………………………….….], we should not be silent on this. We have the […........], but perhaps we might want to be more vocal in this issue? There was a guideline by Case(?) that suggests that maids be given 1 day off a month - perhaps [we] can push for that to be a statutory requirement instead. Yes abuses of this requirement would be hard to monitor, but at least something is in place to protect the maids. One recommendation made by the HRW report - that the $5,000 bond be removed, might be a good idea. Singapore employers paranoid of losing the $5k bond and hence impose ridiculously strict restrictions on their maids might then have less of a case to do so if there's no bond to lose.

One simple step which could go some way is to stop referring to these workers as 'maids' - the term is loaded with too many negative connotations. Many hv started using the term Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs), but this is too much of a mouthful to be effective. Perhaps we can start referring to them as 'domestic helpers', or 'hired help' instead?

Just my 2-cents' worth...