Foreign Workers
Was walking home just now and saw a couple of neighbourhood uncles arguing with the Bangladeshis who like to drink at my void deck. Yeah, I know how it sounds. A lot of friends who've been to my home before are constantly warning me to be careful. My mother is always nagging me to come home early.
But personally I feel that they are harmless. They really don't do anything but keep to themselves. Sometimes I think that maybe they deserve a break too. I mean even us, we like to go chill out, have a drink with friends from time to time. These people are so far away from home and they work really harsh jobs, so maybe we shoudln't judge them so. I do keep my eyes open though.
Anyway, the uncles were arguing with the Bangladeshis. Actually it was more like the uncles were yelling at them. They were just keeping quiet and letting the uncles yell at them. For some reason, I kinda feel like the uncles were in the wrong. These uncles are pretty rowdy, a throwback from the 60s or 70s ah bengs.
One of them kept threatening to send them back to Bangladesh. Like he had the power to do so. It was rather ridiculous. Some people are just not appreciative of these foreign workers. I may talk about them and make fun of them from time to time, but these people work really hard, and I mean REALLY hard. They are the ones doing the jobs that few Singaporeans can stand to do, spoiled people that we are. We should really give them the respect they deserve.
I remember once I was walking towards the letter box, and some of them were sitting around and were kinda in my way. They jumped up immediately like they were afraid of me or something. When I said "thank you" and smiled at them, most of them looked really surprised and some of them smiled back hesitantly, like they were surprised at the show of politeness.
It was kinda a sobering moment for me, the thought that most people would choose to look at them as "dirty or smelly banglas" than "fellow human beings" who work as hard, if not harder than the most of us.
Of course there are bad ones too, like my friend who got mugged by a foreign worker on her way home, but its not like there are no Chinese robbers or rapists out there. Its really not a matter of race or nationality, but of a person's basic goodness. I just feel that we should all have a little of basic humanity and treat these foreign workers with the respect due to them.
But personally I feel that they are harmless. They really don't do anything but keep to themselves. Sometimes I think that maybe they deserve a break too. I mean even us, we like to go chill out, have a drink with friends from time to time. These people are so far away from home and they work really harsh jobs, so maybe we shoudln't judge them so. I do keep my eyes open though.
Anyway, the uncles were arguing with the Bangladeshis. Actually it was more like the uncles were yelling at them. They were just keeping quiet and letting the uncles yell at them. For some reason, I kinda feel like the uncles were in the wrong. These uncles are pretty rowdy, a throwback from the 60s or 70s ah bengs.
One of them kept threatening to send them back to Bangladesh. Like he had the power to do so. It was rather ridiculous. Some people are just not appreciative of these foreign workers. I may talk about them and make fun of them from time to time, but these people work really hard, and I mean REALLY hard. They are the ones doing the jobs that few Singaporeans can stand to do, spoiled people that we are. We should really give them the respect they deserve.
I remember once I was walking towards the letter box, and some of them were sitting around and were kinda in my way. They jumped up immediately like they were afraid of me or something. When I said "thank you" and smiled at them, most of them looked really surprised and some of them smiled back hesitantly, like they were surprised at the show of politeness.
It was kinda a sobering moment for me, the thought that most people would choose to look at them as "dirty or smelly banglas" than "fellow human beings" who work as hard, if not harder than the most of us.
Of course there are bad ones too, like my friend who got mugged by a foreign worker on her way home, but its not like there are no Chinese robbers or rapists out there. Its really not a matter of race or nationality, but of a person's basic goodness. I just feel that we should all have a little of basic humanity and treat these foreign workers with the respect due to them.
posted by Keiia at 11:55 PM
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