Four important life lessons that I learned from the migrant workers | Raj Singh | TEDxNTU
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2024
- Hidden behind the paradise comprising of tall skyscrapers and glamorous economy, there exist migrant workers who face grim realities in Singapore. In this personal and heartfelt talk, Raj Singh gives us a glimpse into the day of a life of these workers and shares the four important life lessons that he has learned from them. Raj's challenge for us: “Can we start treating these workers as fellow human beings?"
Raj Singh has 20 years of experience in Human Performance and Organisational Behaviour. He brings hands-on experience in Operations Management, Business Transformation, Management Consultancy and Safety. Through his work with major oil companies over the last 20 years, Raj has interacted with and trained thousands of foreign workers. Today, he wants to convey the hardship and humiliation that these workers have to endure to build a better life for Singaporeans while hoping for a better future for their own families back home.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
Foreign workers always give up seats to me in MRT trains when I was pregnant. They made up 8 out of 10 people who bothered to give up seats to me in my 3 pregnancies.
Thanks for acknowledging them
Most bloody esp yellow man only count in terms..of money n hve become racists..n get away with their practise s
1. Resilience
2. Frugality
3. Sacrifice
4. Empathy
Thanks a lot because this is my HBL
kim jong nam student or teacher? 😂
@@nathalierachelfernandez I am death, how am I going to do any homework.
kim jong nam okay. I think you need to sleep? It is “I am dead”
Great sharing. I could sense your passion, compassion, enthusiasm and empathy.
Well said brother...i am third generation Indian born in Singapore...i never look down on foreign workers...my mom got small food shop...where she give food to those got no money...we treat them like our family....70% of Singapore infrastructure build by Indian workers...thanks to them...
Nada Raja ... yes everyone should respect them 🙏not for them we won’t be comfortable in our homes ...
Brilliant speech indeed a true human being! Someone who is very compassionate have been through a lot in life it seems. He’s the kind of leaders we need in Singapore parliament. God bless you and all you do! Very proud of you Sir, someone speaking up for them. This should be on TV during school assembly. They should be broadcast
Your talk touched, moved and inspired me. You are the voice of the voiceless. I feel the same way too but unfortunately not gutsy enough to verbalize it. You are such an angel and a great sweet man.
Thank you Sir for speaking up for them..when they are voiceless...
Thank you - this is very poignant and powerful especially in light of what is happening and how the migrant workers are suffering now - as a result of the living conditions they are provided.
Compelling, inspiring thank you Mr. Raj for these seeds of thought . God bless
I’m working in Singapore 11 year some Singaporen very good people very friendly god bless u all 🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬 love you
Thank you Sir Mr Raj Singh and all the local citizens of Singapore. We are proud of the support you have given us. We always wish you the best.
Today, after six years in Singapore, I heard all the true words and heart touching words of Singapore and I could not hold back the tears in my eyes. I just cried. Thank you very much sir for listening to your words. The pain that I have endured now seems to be nothing more. I got a lot of peace after listening to your words. Thank you again. On behalf of all the migrant workers, sir, you will always be very good, sir.
Such clarity of speech, unfettered thoughts from a kindred mind with a selfless spirit for another.
Very well said. Without them we won't have all our roads, buildings etc. A great reminder to us.
Are you sure without them we won't have all our roads, buildings? I work at construction sites in the late 60s and Hotel Equatorial is one of the buildings I had worked at and the $ is good. It is because of these FWs that are willing to work at a very much lower pay that we Singaporeans can't survive with and it is not that we don't want the jobs. Are you a Singaporean??
I always tell these foreign workers that I as a Singaporean man I admire them for having the guts to get out of their home country far far away to a foreign country, out of their comfort zone and sacrifice themselves for their families. I really want to cry after listening to Raj Singh speech....and I don't cry often
Thank you for describing the life of a foreign worker in Singapore. Food for thought indeed!
Thank you, a good reminder of the foreign workers are also humans and have made lots of sacrifices to come and help build our little city ... shame on those who are constantly complaining and their only concern is that these group of workers are increasing the numbers of Covid19 statistic.
Mr. Raj ... Thank you for having the courage to be the Voice for these migrant workers in Singapore , at the same time this are also the untold story for mamy many more uncounted populations of migrant workers who are all over around in this world . Hope your Ted talk will bring out the awareness of people from all over the world and treat these people like a Human being . May God bless these migrant workers & their family .
Makes a lot of sense in the current situation we are in.....
How we treat them shows our real character and who we really are....
Singaporean needs to hear this. Thank you Mr Singh.
It is like dark under the lamp this is a direct translation of Hindi phrase "Diyai Talay Andera". Singapore is so bright and picture-perfect like a nice lamp providing light to the world but I never thought there are 1.2 million workers are there, whom we hardly see. I being a travel agent is always inquired by Singaporean to find an organization for them to do charity and they do carry lots of stuff to distribute to poor to India and Bhutan. Even our Tamil families travel to Kashi & other temples for Ann Danam, our Buddhist guest pay for food for so-called poor who are actually not poor but professional beggar in Buddhist pilgrimage & here in Singapore we have people who are serving us for 1 and a half year without wages practically if you consider the amount they need to pay to get a job in Singapore. Look at their worries about not losing the job they go through. I knew about this in 1994 but I am not capable to do anything for them. Mr Raj Singh's speech reminded me to tell Singaporean friends and guest please help these migrant labour and their children first before going out for charity to other countries. In 1994, I first was thinking that I should start a business to supply labour to Singapore companies but after finding details I decided we are not going to do this kind of business.
"Why can't we treat people like people?". It's the basis of humanity isn't it, even before we talk about civility. Thank you for this speech, and for your work. Very well said, especially in the current climate. Despite all the previous occasions, hopefully this one makes a change for these workers.
Great insights!! When Mum fell into the drain outside our house, and broke her leg, it was the construction workers from across the road that came to her help and carried her back into the house. Yes, definitely empathy rather than separatism!
I'm crying when watching this video..... :,(
It touches my heart, thank u
Such a great and real message to us
The sentence that really hit me was “ if you don’t have compassion, how can you have passion?”
GOD BLESS U SIR...KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK :)
Ive personaly worked with them at construction site a year ago ... As Im also Indian I use to treat them as brothers as you said they are great and compasionate people too
Thank you so much for sharing the biographies of the migrant workers
We are eternally grateful to the people of Singapore and the Government of Singapore
I teared. Thanks Raj for this. Much needed.
Reminded me when working in Brunei in the 80s it the same story. Sad but true. Thanks for sharing hopeful people think before we judge
Raj, fully appreciate you opening our eyes to the lessons learnt from these hardworking people who have contributed much in building and maintaining Singapore. We owe our thanks to them. I hope many will watch this clip and learn to change or modify our attitudes towards them.
One of the finest and heart touching Ted Talk I have heard so far.....
Many blessings upon you Raj !
You have described it , just the way it is !
"Without compassion, how can you have a passion?"
Such a good motivation speech.
Thanks.
I hope life changes for them.
Very touching. Coming up through a tough life I know how it is, I hope more people and see others as people. Great keynote 🙏🏼
Great speech to open the eyes and hearts of mankind. God bless you and keep going with your efforts and actions.
Thank you very much sir,l love you,
I always find them polite and helpful. We do appreciate them though not all and hopefully this speech will enlighten more Sporeans to be kinder and be more appreciative of them.
Thank you Sir!!!
It moved me so much, as I was working in Singapore for 12 years. Out of my first eight years , I went to India only one time, as I don't have money to pay security deposit $2000
So great words about foigen workers....live story's about our sg forigen workers.. thanks sir.🙏🙏
God made the earth so beautifully and so perfectly for ALL to live happily but humans discriminated everything to fit to their comfort, desires, pride, ego, status, dignity etc etc
Respected sir
100% reality what you said, I can see in your eyes you feel the pain.
Regds
SS
God bless you
unsung heroes. only right that we take good care of them now; and that's the least we could do.
This man is the voice of the voiceless
Fantastic speech thank you sir
Need of the hour speech 🙏
thanks for this very important talk
Sat Shri akal bhaji..it's very nice spoken on foreign workers... thanks
How much is the government making from their employer? If a portion of the levy can go to them will it be better?
Govt...? more likely their employers / labour agencies
Well siad.Thank yo sir.
Thnx same way I'm leading too
Very well done Mr. Singh ! I will make sure when I visit Singapore once, I must pay you a visit & we can have your 6 bucks Cappuccino together :)
Mr Singh, very emotional talk, but I must say you missed out on a lot of facts. You may have picked a few errant employers and generalize it. Not all of use are bad.
Before, you read the entire article, I will qualify, that I am not against migrant workers nor am displeased with them as some have become my friends over the years, after they left Singapore. I agree things can be improved for the workers. But lets put everything into perspective.
I and a Singaporean Indian, born in 1959. Before migrant workers we, Singaporeans were the 'migrant workers'. My father contributed to the building of our nation as he worked at the brick kiln factory, producing hundreds of thousands of bricks for the building industry. I started as a labourer in the 70s, I know what is like to be a worker first hand, riding behind in an uncovered truck. No MOM, no labour law, no insurance, no one to protect you. I came from a very poor family, sometimes with only rice and onion for meals. I was 16yrs old. Today, I run a small construction company and employ migrant workers.
You paint a bleak picture of the workers in Singapore. I am sorry, I disagree. Firstly, please check their own country's construction industry, how appalling it is for the workers and how they are treated back home (India, Bangladesh, etc). Secondly, have you worked with migrant workers in other countries?, because I have. I can tell you the working conditions here are far better. They enjoy the same facilities as Singaporeans, they are not isolated nor restricted to move around the country. Yes, you don't see them queue at expensive outlets but yet they go to casinos and queue up at 4D counters. Our Ministry of Manpower protects our migrant workers rights better than the employers.
Most of your speech is bias and generalizing all employers and citizens. My workers are paid well and live in semi-detached houses. I pay levy about $650 to $900 per month for each worker, insurance, etc. I provide food when needed. I allow for them to take courses to better themselves. Even than, there are others who abuse the system by fake accidents for insurance purposes. Some are notorious, they switch companies if they don't like the work, because it's allowed. Not all are not timid as you say. If they resign, we have to pay for their repatriation. They also higher lawyers to defend them in disputes. Cost of Employment and liabilities are high for employers.
There is a huge cultural divide; remember where they came from. There are other social impact affecting us directly or indirectly. When the male migrant workers intermingle with maids, getting them pregnant and having affairs while they have wifes and children back home. Some come from an oppressed society, never seen ladies in bikini and impose on our way of life. You will see them in Sentosa beach with their iPhones taking photos of girls in bikinis. These just a few uncomfortable situations. I think we need to consider the entire social impact of these workers affecting Singapore as a whole. Strange that no one talks about the real issues for migrant workers impacting our daily lives. They are well taken care of in Singapore, they choose to behave they way they do, which is their social norm.
You can read the speech by our late PM, LKY in 1982 "A wholly Singaporean workforce" his warning signs.
The workers come to work in Singapore on their own free will, they pay middle man/ brokers to leave their country, which has nothing do with us. Its their own fellow man robbing them. Most of us have debts, home loan, bank loans, tuition fees, etc, whey the deduction?
The workers fate is also in their hands too, keeping their own residence clean, personal hygiene, respecting local norms, improve themselves to pursued to better their lives. Respect our way of life and not abuse the freedom giving them.
They come here to work, not for holiday and enjoy our country. They know the moment they land its all about money, that's why the left home in the first place. It has nothing to do with status or lack of social integration, they are here to work to get paid and we take care of them, provide them the basic needs as regulated and that's the end of the contract. No different from Singaporeans going to work in other countries.
Please do not generalize us Singaporean employers and citizens as bad people or insinuate that we have to assimilate with them. Our standard of living is extremely high, we work just as hard. There is a line that divides migrant workers with citizens. We bear the brunt of any financial and economic disasters not the migrant workers. In fact, our reserves are used to support them in crisis.
Seems that our dedication and contribution is less recognised than migrant worker issues today. There are many Singaporeans homeless and living in poor in condition. We too have sufferings amongst our citizens. We too have suffered to build and brought progress to our nation, less we forget.
Signed,
The Merdeka Generation.
Salute sir
Mr Singh I find most of these foreign workers are more humane . I met some of them in trains and buses and most of the time they offered their seats to the elderly like me even though i can see they are tired after work. In fact they are better brought up than our so called educated spoilt locals especially able bodied young men and women who are glued to their phones or pretend to sleep while the elderly stood in front of them in packed trains.
They have offered to me too. But Singaporeans glue their eyes to their mobile phones or pretend to fall asleep
Empathy. Not selfish & self centered.
I am touched by his words. Please help to share his words.
I always. Gave extra food I have to those workers who build. Private houses near my. Private estate.....
Great speech
Why would any Singaporean ask him “Where do you come from? When did you migrate here?” These inane questions completely boggle my mind. It’s pretty obvious he’s a Singaporean given his pronounced Singlish accent.
It's surprising isn't it? I get asked it too. I'm a 2nd generation S'porean. But when I encounter tamil FWs, & start talking tamil, they do a double take usually with a comment "U tamil?"
Probably when he's out chilling in the hood, maybe talking to his parents, speaking Punjabi....and folks are thinking, that's not English, Mandarin, Tamil or Malay. Answer: Foreigner.
Proud of you,
Without true 😢COMPASSION🙏SURE CANNOT call ourselves Humans❗So SENSIBLE & thought provoking .Pray Every HEART❣ BEATS GENUINELY with no strings attached. GOD BLESS you MIGHTILY.
Thumbs up.
The gov are supposed to build enough dorm for them, the dorm operator are to feedback to gov if not enough, the employer are to make sure their fw are well taken care. By the way, thanks to the fw who save the toddler, local can't do it, as we are not able to climb the wall, some of them might have already call the police.
Ministry of Manpower, would you like to explain how these conditions have been allowed to happen in Singapore? If your own relatives and friends were working overseas, would you consider such working conditions as fair and acceptable?
The 6 to 7 k agent fee needs to stop
I guess he doesn't like House M.D.
I'd counter-argue that you can have passion for things without compassion, although it's more of an obsession or workaholism then.
Watching in 2020
Never new this is happening in a country like Singapore. Shame!
Yes they always gave me seats in buses n m.r..t.....not spore. People. Sorry
An interesting view point about Singapore and people response to CoVid19 immigrant works plight.
This point of view from Polish PR in Singapore.
There are very few people who annoy me more than all the "caring" do-gooders crawling out of the woodwork to preach and parade their moral superiority whenever some crisis happens.
Years have gone by but now, all of a sudden, dorms for migrant workers in Singapore are a huge problem. Right.
Well, let me put this quite straight - save for a tiny, tiny group of activists nobody gave a damn about how low-wage workers live, what they do, eat, where they go to the toilet until the press showed a few photos of a bunch of bunk beds.
Sadly, the side effect of existence of social media is that it provides an outlet for all the armchair preachers to voice their ever growing list of demands. As usual, it follows the same style - government should do this, government should do that - it should do everything! Heal the sick, hire the jobless, anticipate disasters, prevent diseases, build comfortable homes for migrant workers and so on.
Basically, when you run through the list of demands voiced by people on various occasions, the government should provide everybody with everything - a job, a house, good holidays, education, full healthcare coverage, pensions, food and good mood. Now these demands extend onto the foreign workers that some feel bad about - and so to feel good about themselves they have to pin the blame on someone.
Let's make something else clear too - one of the reasons why Singaporean government can throw S$60 billion in to prop up the economy this year, is that it has for decades been able to employ relatively cheap foreign labor and save billions of dollars on building roads, subways, apartment buildings that it then passes for good investment to GIC (+ make some more from levies collected for their employment).
Every billion saved turns into $1.7 billion over 10 years, at nominal 5.5% annual return from GIC. Over 20 years it becomes nearly $3 billion, over 30 it's $5 billion. So $10 billion turns into 50, 100 turns into 500.
Some cry out - "it's EXPLOITATION! It's all built on the back-breaking work of the poor migrants! Singapore should be ashamed of itself!"
Really? Show me how good low-wage laborers have it elsewhere, first, perhaps?.
Nobody is actually forcing them to come to Singapore. They do because it's a good deal for them - much better than relying on meager paychecks in India, Bangladesh or wherever. They came to the city-state because they wanted to - and because it was a good opportunity for them.
It's not slavery, nobody smuggled them in a cargo container here, taking away their passports and forcing them into hard labor for a bowl of soup.
They make decent money which they send back home, supporting their families and even their entire countries. It's a free market win-win situation, where everybody gets what they wanted.
Nobody promised them comforts, though - they have come here to work, not to reside. They've been hired for specific jobs that the city needs done. With scarce land Singapore cannot afford to build entire towns for non-residents occupying the lowest layers on the social ladder. The only reason this arrangement works is because they work here but ultimately will move to live where they came from.
As a result not only is there no alternative to dorms - they are actually serving their purpose very well.
Of course, it may be discussed whether some additional comforts are needed - more toilets, a bit more space here and there, fewer beds in a single room etc. But the inescapable reality is that the only way for the system to work is to house workers together.
Land is scarce in Singapore. At 300,000 people the dorm population is on par with the biggest planning areas in the country - like Bedok, Jurong West or Tampines. Even if you wanted to give each person a room of their own it would increase the space currently needed by 5-10 times. You can build upwards, of course, but then you require greater investment in construction and maintenance of lifts, of sewage, roads that can handle traffic and so on.
5-10 times the space means pretty much 5-10 times the cost. Add greater sophistication to the mix and the factor goes only higher. As it does for regular expenses on utilities and maintenance.
And because the land is in fixed - and very low - supply, then to accomplish that the government would have to sacrifice space for local citizens and their children.
There's no magic solution, these things add up to absolutely humongous costs borne by the entire population of the city - and could very well eradicate all the benefits coming from savings on labor in the first place.
And now the current system also has - as I wrote in the post yesterday - proved to shield the local population from the spread of a serious disease.
Let's ask a simple question - if not dorms, then what?
It's quite clear that providing FWs with something like an HDB apartment is not possible - after all, locals pay good money to live in them themselves. So, what would happen if these dorms were not provided? What would happen if we simply left it to the free market?
Well, it doesn't take long to find an answer - just look at how foreign migrants live in the West. Eastern Europeans who flooded UK, France or Germany after EU expanded east in 2004 usually rent apartments between several people - as many as 5 or 10, just to save on the rental expenses and maximize savings.
In other words, the main motivation of the low-wage workers is to maximize their financial gains at the expense of personal comforts - it happens quite naturally, whether the government is involved or not. Only in this case they would be distributed among the local population, yet still living in dorm-like conditions that they've created for themselves to save money.
In case of an outbreak such as this, they would still be at a much higher risk of transmission - only this time they would be in frequent and direct contact with other residents. Instead of an isolated outbreak in dedicated housing facilities it would end in a national pandemic that would be impossible to contain quickly in a handful of known locations - as it has been now.
So, you can parade your compassion all you want but the uncomfortable facts are simple - housing foreign workers in dedicated compounds:
A. Makes financial sense.
B. Provides them with basic necessities to do jobs they signed up for willingly.
C. Prevented a far broader spread of Covid-19.
Of course taking good care of them to day is an important and simply "right" thing to do, for all the valuable services they provide for the nation.
But don't let emotions cloud your judgment: they came here to make money - and Singapore hired them to save some. And both sides agreed to the deal that serves its purposes for everyone involved
@@chandrasubramanian3508 why must use race? Respect all human race. All created.. Gov of the country will decide Yr people fate.. No body owe us anything.. We hv to work hard n smart..
You are lucky you got to work in the shipyard and construction sites, I too worked in the construction site in the 70s and the $ is good. But now what happens to these jobs? 80% are FWs even the hospital amahs and jagas (cleaners) are FWs some can't speak English. Why can't these jobs be given to Singaporeans like the aunties and uncles working ad-hoc collecting dishes in our hawker ctr, why FWs? I know they are not the ones to blame but I won't pity them either as this is the price they have to pay if they want to work here. And what happened to the bus driver job like what your dad had? Why don't you do some research on our Singaporeans who have lost their jobs to FWs who are willing to work for lower pay. They know how much they are getting before they come here. Please la don't talk nonsense you mean Singaporean have no compassion and empathy? Have you seen how these FWs behave when they return to their countries after working here for a few years? Please have some balance on your speech be fair to everyone. Ask those uncles and aunties in their 50s who had lost their jobs to FWs and have to pick up cardboard for a living they have their sad stories too. Don't forget we are not the one who put them FWs in those dormitories and of course we do treat them as human beings. Remember before the little India riot how these FWs behave, majority drunk, urinating openly at void deck and jaywalking. It is they that don't behave like human beings. So a man with your status please don't be one-sided speak the truth.
So because they managed to scrimp and save a little and took the money home to have a better life you have become envious of them? It is not that they worked for free. And talking of urinating in void decks, have you forgotten China national defaecate there as well?