Saturday, August 11, 2007
@ 9:27 pm
im blogging. cos blogging is seckz.
anyway, there's a statue of a foreign worker beside the sir stamford raffles statue along the sg river..never noticed it before.
to me, that perfectly encapsulates Singapore's identity.
the very buildings we're sitting in right now aren't even built by locals; they're all built by foreigners. we're a nation founded on enterprise and exploitation. if the combined pay of a maid and bangla worker not exceeding $1000 isn't exploitation, what is?
so who are the mysterious people employing this bargain-rate, dirt-cheap labour? that's where raffles comes in. Singapore's official story begins with Raffles landing on our shores, with some anecdotal references to sang nila utama and that guy who threw the rock very far and some other random stories forming the insignificant backdrop. to this day, expats lay claim to top positions in the corporate world and most locals either sell imitation western food, teach lit and get paid less than Mr Harris or take up other middle-management positions. that's where us real singaporeans come in. we take the middleground that the banglas and white expats cannot/don't deem to take.
-sam
06A11Y
