Buy a discount maid at Singapores malls In Singapore, maids are put on display and made available for purchase in central shopping malls. Go to the Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, a 1970s mall in central Singapore, and you will find five levels of brightly lit rooms and galleries called Homekeeper and Budget Maid. Inside these rooms, dozens of women sit in a listless, artificial silence. They nod respectfully as you enter, and some watch closely as you speak to staff. You might take one home with you - for two years, or longer. The women, domestic workers, come from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Myanmar. They sit beneath garish signs and posters, testifying to their friendliness and industriousness, or advertising super promo rates and special discounts. Some maid agencies, as theyre known locally, display women at work. Along one aisle, domestic workers push each other around in wheelchairs, as though theyre taking care of the elderly. In another gallery, a woman cradles a baby doll and pretends to change its diapers. Others stand in mock living rooms ironing the same shirt, or making the same bed - scenes enacted elsewhere in Singapore at malls like Katong Shopping Centre on Mountbatten Road. Jolovan Wham, executive director of the Humanitarian Organisation of Migration Economics (HOME), a migrant workers advocacy group based in Singapore, said that some agencies market their domestic workers like commodities. He adds that racial stereotypes are sometimes used in transactions with patrons. Some of the stereotypes include Filipinos as smarter, Indonesians as less bright and Burmese as sweet-natured and compliant. There have also been complaints of women being underfed at certain employment agencies, according to Ummai Ummairoh, president of the Indonesian Family Network (IFN). We always receive calls about agencies not giving enough food. In one case, an agency was spending $20 to feed 40 people. Ummairoh, who also worked as a maid, added that the shopping centres made women look like dolls at a supermarket. aljazeera/indepth/features/2014/06/buy-discount-maid-at-singapore-malls-201462495012940207.html
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 03:30:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015