A comment on the maid fine

 A comment on the maid fine

You know, you see all sorts of things in the paper these days. But every once in a while, something just hits you. Like this story about the maid in Singapore. Now, you hear about a lot of things. A guy steals a loaf of bread, he goes to jail. Someone robs a bank, he goes to jail. But this? This is something else entirely.

Here's a woman. A maid. She's 53 years old, been at it for decades. She's got her main job, she's working, she's doing what she's supposed to do. She's on her rest days, her days off, the days you're supposed to put your feet up and maybe watch a little television. But she doesn't. She goes and cleans a few houses for a few hours, just trying to make a little extra money. Coffee money, as the fellow who wrote this put it.

And for that, for trying to make a little extra money on her own time, they fine her $13,000. Thirteen thousand dollars. That's a lot of money. The person she worked for, the one who hired her illegally, they got a fine too. Seven thousand dollars. The person who paid her for her work, they got fined less than she did. It's like fining the person who took the job more than the person who offered it. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?

And the government says it's about "protecting workers." Protecting them from what? From working? From making a little extra cash on their day off? It's like they're saying, "Look, we've designed a system for you. A system where you work for one person, for a certain amount of money, and you don't even think about stepping outside that line. We'll decide how you spend your time, even your own time." It's a funny kind of protection, isn't it? 🤷‍♂️

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They talk about how this woman didn't have a valid work pass for part-time work. And I suppose that's true. The law's the law. But sometimes, you have to look at the law and ask yourself, "Does this make any sense?" We bring in foreign workers because, as they say, "Singaporeans don't want these jobs." We pay them, and then we make it so they can't even try to earn a little more. You see all these commercials on television about the hardworking spirit, and the value of a good day's work. They praise it, they celebrate it. As long as it's the right kind of work, I guess. As long as it's within the system.

This woman worked for four years for this one person. Four years. Both of them were happy with the arrangement. There was no exploitation, no one was complaining. The only person complaining was the system itself. The prosecutor even called the fine "quite kind." Kind? Taking 35 months of a person's side income? Taking five to seven months of their full-time salary? It's not a lot of money for some people, but it's everything for others.

And what's the message here? The message seems to be, "Know your place. Don't try to get ahead. Don't even think about improving your situation." It's a rigged game, they say. And I suppose it is. But when you look at it, it makes you wonder what the point of the game is in the first place. You work hard, you follow the rules, and then you get punished for working too hard. It just doesn't add up. It really doesn't.

Let's Get Our Labels Straight, Folks. It's Not That Hard.

 

Let's Get Our Labels Straight, Folks. It's Not That Hard.

"Why are we calling a house guest by the same name as a burglar? It just doesn't add up."

You know, I’ve been watching the news lately, listening to all this talk about "immigrants" and "human entrants," and it gets me thinking. It really does. It's as if someone, somewhere, decided that clarity was overrated, and confusion was the new hot trend. And frankly, it’s driving me a little batty.

Now, I'm not here to tell anyone what to think about immigration. That's a whole other can of worms, and frankly, I don't have enough hours in the day to unravel that mess. But what I do want to talk about, what I scratch my head over, is the words we use. Words, you see, they mean things. Or at least, they're supposed to.

When we talk about someone like Mrs. Henderson, who came here legally from India back in '72, put in forty years as a nurse in the NHS, paid her taxes, raised her kids, and probably volunteers at the local hospice on Tuesdays – she's an immigrant. A legal immigrant. She followed the rules. She waited her turn. She contributed. She’s part of the fabric now. You might not see her in a fancy hotel, but she built a home here, brick by brick, just like millions before her. Her skin color might be different from yours, or mine, but her contributions? They're as British as a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon.

But then, you've got these other folks. The ones we see on the telly, stepping off dinghies in the English Channel. The ones who, by all accounts, didn't use the front door. They didn't apply for a visa. They didn't wait in line. They simply, and often quite forcefully, broke the rules to get here. Now, call them what you want – "asylum seekers," "migrants," "people on boats" – but let's be honest. They're illegal entrants. Or perhaps, to be even more precise, unauthorized arrivals. They're not "immigrants" in the same sense as Mrs. Henderson. They haven't spent years proving their worth, learning the language, paying their dues. They've just… arrived.

And here’s where my head really starts to spin. Why do we keep lumping them all together? It’s like saying your cousin Mildred, who politely RSVP'd and brought a casserole to your family reunion, is the same as the fellow who smashed your window, climbed through, and is now raiding your fridge. They both "entered" your home, sure. But one’s a guest, and the other’s a thief. Or at least, they entered under very, very different pretenses.

The news, bless its heart, often seems to use terms like "human entrants" or just "immigrants" for both groups. It’s almost as if they're deliberately trying to muddy the waters, making it harder for people to have a sensible conversation. And a sensible conversation, let me tell you, is precisely what we need.

Because here's the kicker: The discussion shouldn't be about whether we like immigrants. It should be about how we stop illegal entries. It should be about upholding the rule of law. It should be about fairness to those who actually do follow the rules. And frankly, it should be about why these unauthorized arrivals are ending up in four-star hotels, on the taxpayer's dime, while our own struggling families are counting pennies.

So, next time you hear someone talking about "immigrants," just pause for a moment. Ask yourself: Are they talking about Mrs. Henderson, the nurse, who built a life here legally and honorably? Or are they talking about someone who bypassed the entire system, arriving without permission? Because until we start calling things what they are, until we distinguish between a welcomed guest and an uninvited, rule-breaking intrusion, we're never going to get to the bottom of this. And that, my friends, is just plain common sense.