Treatment of maids in Singapore
A rare gem of an article written by a Straits Times journalist on the recent changes to give a day off for maids here.
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As the writer puts it, "So why are maids treated differently? And how did we as a society come to accept such inequality as a matter of course? I would argue that a big factor is how we tend to view people in a utilitarian way. By that, I mean this society tends to judge a person by his economic usefulness and, more often than not, measures this in terms of the salary he draws. On this scale, maids - unsurprisingly- are at the bottom of the heap".
"This is not unique to Singapore, of course. Many other countries also judge a person by his earning power. The difference is that in developed countries in the West (not sure how accurate this statement is, but there is some element of truth in it), there is an opposite point of view to act as a counterweight (oh, by the way, such opposite POVs do not evolve from some Hegelian dialetic, but from a Christian consensus on the value of human lives)..."
And check out this statement: "This is based on the belief that every person deserves to be treated as a human being, regardless of external trappings such as welath and status. Each person has intrinsic worth simply because he is human" (well said). "
:
"And this is the source of the problem. Because the more a person is measured by his economic utility, the more he will be seen as a tool, a machine, a factor of production - in other words, a means to a measurable monetary end" (I fully agree)
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The essence of it then is that every society must be judged by how it treats its fellow citizens. Slavery was abolished in the West because of a Christian conviction that man is made in the image and likeness of God and should be treated with dignity and respect. In a capitalist society that is Singapore, it should be remembered that the maids we employ are first and foremost, humans (just like us) and not our "paid slaves"... and should we ever forget that (and begin to judge a person by his utilitarian worth), then may God pity our country.
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As the writer puts it, "So why are maids treated differently? And how did we as a society come to accept such inequality as a matter of course? I would argue that a big factor is how we tend to view people in a utilitarian way. By that, I mean this society tends to judge a person by his economic usefulness and, more often than not, measures this in terms of the salary he draws. On this scale, maids - unsurprisingly- are at the bottom of the heap".
"This is not unique to Singapore, of course. Many other countries also judge a person by his earning power. The difference is that in developed countries in the West (not sure how accurate this statement is, but there is some element of truth in it), there is an opposite point of view to act as a counterweight (oh, by the way, such opposite POVs do not evolve from some Hegelian dialetic, but from a Christian consensus on the value of human lives)..."
And check out this statement: "This is based on the belief that every person deserves to be treated as a human being, regardless of external trappings such as welath and status. Each person has intrinsic worth simply because he is human" (well said). "
:
"And this is the source of the problem. Because the more a person is measured by his economic utility, the more he will be seen as a tool, a machine, a factor of production - in other words, a means to a measurable monetary end" (I fully agree)
-------------
The essence of it then is that every society must be judged by how it treats its fellow citizens. Slavery was abolished in the West because of a Christian conviction that man is made in the image and likeness of God and should be treated with dignity and respect. In a capitalist society that is Singapore, it should be remembered that the maids we employ are first and foremost, humans (just like us) and not our "paid slaves"... and should we ever forget that (and begin to judge a person by his utilitarian worth), then may God pity our country.
posted by Benjamin Ho at
3:58 PM
2 Comments:
did you put in the word verification system before or after that advertisement?...lol...but i got to agree, good colour scheme on the blog.
generalizations are always false (i'm pointing that out becuase my household employs a maid.)
and more importantly, do people really give a fuck about who hegel is what the hegelian concept is?
I wrote on this issue recently http://theagora.blogspot.com/2005/12/beautiful-doctor-and-foreign-maid.html
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