Life has been better since the arrival of my maid, Triyani, she has been a great help around the house. From the ceiling to the floor and anything in between, from the five months old to the 500 months old, she take care of them all. Not that she is a fantastic worker, but comparing to the traumatizing days we went thru with the previous "Maid from Hell"... This is as good as it gets.
I remember the days when we don't have a FDH ( Foreign Domestic Helper) under our roof, I'd be staying up till midnight scrubbing... washing... cleaning... folding... sweeping... I'm not complaining, what needs to be done around the house has to be done. You can never imagine the tense frustration between me and my wife. Beside giving instructions and barking order at each other and the kids, there seems to be no other form of communications left.
But now, its different. I come home to a nice clean environment with home cooked food (I would appreciate more variety) and almost nice smelling kids.
I was once pretty much against the idea of having a total stranger in my house, especially after hearing some of the gruesome stories told by local employers about their encounter with their FDH, for example: There was this village girl who came to S'pore to work as a helper. She so urgingly want the family to like her and soften their hearts towards her that she resort to use "Black Magic", soaking her used sanitary pads to boil water for the entire family to drink.
Recently, there are even few cases of the maids murdering the employers in cold blood, claiming that they were brutally abused by them.
What is it with those employers that they have to abuse the maids. Is there a need to feel superior to the people from the 3rd world country? Just because they are our employees doesn't make us any better then them. In fact, they are more courageous than many of us, leaving home, friends and family to come work for the two-three hundred dollars in a strange foreign land of complete different culture and language. how mamy of us can do that?
The truth of the matter is, we are all created by God, we are to love one another the way we love ourselves, (unless you like to punish and abuse yourself, for that, please see a doctor)) there is no reason we should behave in manners that would degrade us to criminal level.
For me, I would not even allow my maid to eat left overs... she has access to any food in fridge or cupboard anytime she wants. She can drink all the water she wants...
no question asked.
1 comment:
I believe the reasons why many Singaporeans abuse their maids is because of racisim. Yes they feel racially superior to these maids from Indonesia. As much as the ang-mohs feel superior to everybody else. Another reason is language barrier. Most of these maids don't speak English. And most employers born from the early 1970s onwards don't speak Malay. All these can create tension. When the employer wants the maid to do something a certain specific way but don't know how to get the maid to understand, this is infuriating and can lead to employers abusing the maid both verbally and physically. And maids that can't take this kind of crap from their oppressive employers will retaliate by either killing their employers or throwing the employer's baby out the flat. It takes two hands to make a clap. If one can't treat his maid like a human being, how can he expect to be treated likewise by the maid? Me? I do most of the housework while my wife sits around watching TV, touching her face, doing her nails and toe-nails, etc. I'm the maid at home. In the middle of the night at 3am, 4am when my son wants milk. I'm the one who wakes up to make milk for him. While my wife sleeps like a log. I don't want to use hog or pig. Ha, ha, ha... :D Do i complain? Yes, every now and then. But things that need to be done in the house have to get done.
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