Peggy Tan - Do we really bother to understand them?

Here's the link to download my assignment. Sorry! Youtube was down... :)

http://www.yousendit.com/download/cTpdXgS8kY95TA%3D%3D


Hey there! You’re tuning in to Peggy on “Get a Grip!” Well, today I’m going to be sharing with you my views and of course yours too… on the much-debated topic of lives of maids in Singapore. Are they really a pampered bunch that is prone to rebellion when given too much freedom? Or are they really often misunderstood? We must understand that it is ultimately not easy for a maid to so far away from her family, she has to bear with the homesickness, she has to adapt to the new environment, and on top of all that, she have to reach those high expectations that her employers have of her, all these and more are expected of her. And I must say I’ve got to respect these maids who leave their homes in search of better lives for their families back at home. Hey… really. How many of us have truly been there and done that? No? Yup… That’s why we’ll probably never understand how they feel. Besides, I believe that the situations of most maids in Singapore aren’t as bad as reported on the news. Yes, we all know that media coverage of a certain topic can lead to status conferral. So I feel that the issue of maid abuse is simply blown out of proportion by the media.

In fact in one investigation trip down to Lucky Plaza, a well-known Filipino maids’ hangout, on a certain Sunday afternoon, my (socpsy) group did an interview with one of the Filipino maids. We were told that she has been working in Singapore over 6 years and apparently she found life in Singapore okay and she feels that her employers were all very nice to her. In fact, she was allowed to eat earlier than her employers because they felt that sometimes the family ate at too late a time. She is currently working for her second family now and she worked for the first family over 4 years. In addition, she was allowed to go back to Philippines just last year and even though she missed her family a lot, she has adjusted well to life in Singapore. She has been working here since 18 and has an off day once a month. However, when she wants, she could ask her Singapore “family” for a day off too. She also felt that Singaporeans are mostly very nice to her even though she did felt some might look down on her. Many of her friends are in similar situations as her.

I’m not saying that there are totally no conflicts between maids and their employers, but just that perhaps that is just a smaller percentage instead of the countless incidents that always seem to appear on the papers. There have been various reports on how employers mistreat theirs maids while some others have been on how maids ill-treat their charges while their employers are away. Personally, my opinion is that they have come from afar to work as maids, being so far away from home may bring about some dreadful consequences, such as feeling a sense of insecurity and a feeling of being threatened all the time. Perhaps that could have led to the maid being emotionally unstable and thus abusing their charges or behaving weirdly. On the other hand, some employers abuse their maids. It could however be due to a number of reasons. It could be that they are stressed out by their lives, so they turned to being abusive to “distress”.

Nonetheless, I understand that there are some cases where the maids or the employers themselves are the ones truly at fault. Here is an interview with Ivy Tan about her views on this issue:

“I feel that maids are generally well-treated in Singapore. Most families do treat them well. I don’t think anyone would abuse the maids just for the fun of it. Most maids may have problems adapting to the life in Singapore, maybe that’s why they tend to feel scared… They might think their employers are not happy with them, so they do things out of the norm like some maids are caught voodoo-ing their employers, for instance, because they believe that they could “control” their employers that way. I think the media has a big part to play in blowing up the whole issue of maid abuse and those of employers being abused. I don’t think the situation is as bad as the media is portraying it. Maybe because Singapore is so small, there’s not much of controversial or breaking news. So the media tend to blow up issues like this so as to increase their readership or viewership.”

Without a doubt, there are certainly real issues of maids bearing a deep hatred for their employers but where did the hatred come from? I’m sure they didn’t set off to Singapore with the aim of hating their employers. Perhaps next time before we find faults with our maids, we should reflect on how we treat them too. Do we bother to find out what’s going on in their lives? Whether they’re facing any problems? Whether they’re stressed up? Whether they’re adapting well to Singapore? How much do we know about them? Other than all these negative news, there has been plenty of positive news of relationships between maids and their employers as well. My neighbour for instance, has had their maid for more than 10 years. They treat her really well like a friend and she, in turn, showed her appreciation for them in various ways too.

Therefore, I believe it is very possible for employers and maids to be friends on top of all these complications. As long as one does not discriminate against them, things should work out fine.