Recently my friend who graduated with a “science” degree from NUS complained out of the blue that she couldn’t find any job, so I suggested why don’t she just apply to become a maid. There are many maid agencies around. She looked at me like as if I had just insulted her (she actually did that to herself by taking a life science degree to begin with).
Then, an epiphany dawned on me: if this so-called maid “job” is so terribly insulting and that it’s “unfit for locals” to do, isn’t it really the case that the living conditions and salary for maids is just underpaid by our own standards? It’s not at all a shortage of labor that we need to find desperate foreigners to do these jobs; we are literally offering these jobs beneath our own standards to begin with, is that not literally human exploitation? It’s “basically slavery” if we pay them “basically nothing”. Would you think it’s okay for you or your daughter to work 16 hours a day with half a day off on Sunday for 500 mighty Singapore dollars a month? What makes Singaporeans so special that they can treat other human beings as being fine to do these jobs that aren’t fine for any local to do?
All my “maid-owner” acquaintances are the kind unreasonable person you wish didn’t exist in this world. The selfish, self-centered and inconsiderate kind of person. (Maybe that’s too anecdotal, but whatever.) They always complain about their maids being lazy – oh the irony! And think it fit to scold or punish “their” maids in some spiteful way to “make them learn”. I’m sick of hearing it. I’ve told them off multiple times but as I said earlier, maid-owners just can’t be reasoned with. Im a veteran in these arguments and have learnt to flawlessly defeat their logic in even a way they can understand. They always end up hunkering down on “shaddap” and that it’s their right to own a maid – mind your own business!
Go mind your own business.