Helping Migrant Workers | Dipa Swaminathan | TEDxTanglinTrustSchool
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- čas přidán 28. 11. 2018
- "It's Raining Raincoats" - How we can show kindness and give back to the hardworking migrant workers in Singapore in various simple and creative ways Founder of "It's Raining Raincoats", an initiative aimed at showing kindness to migrant workers in Singapore in various simple and creative ways This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
"We cant change the world but we can change the world for one person" - I shall keep this adage to heart. Thank you.
Thank you so much madam for your kindness and wonderful heart, MAY GOD BLESS YOU🙏🏼❤
Dipa, you are definitely an angel, thank you for all the works and care for our migrant workers who has been neglected and ignored by our government and locals, unless to make more money. As can be seen by the COVID-19 dormitory cases, the Ministry of Manpower, is not even enforcing their rules on dormitory housing. They only take some action after it could become dorscon Red in the dormitories.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I'm visiting Singapore this week and it means a lot to see that there are some initiatives, however small, to bring together average Singaporeans and the migrant workers who continue to build the city.
I think the need of the day is to be sensitive to people around us and to be proactive and kind where we see people in need. Its sad that in a small first world country like Sgp, such things happen. A great man is judged by the way, he treats little men. Dipa Swaminathan you have shown so much initiative! Being gracious and kind is a good starting point.
Thank you mom... Mom means mother... you understanding our situation 🙏🙏🙏
To me this woman is "Angel" sent to help humanity
Thanks for your all contribute.
I can only saw Wow. Thank you for your kindness shown to our most deserving migrant workers. You talked about a Christmas initiative. I would really like to be involved and contribute in whatever small way. Can you point me to the relevant website/ FB page where I can find more details? Thank you !
Finally thank you dipa mam... 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you Dipa.
Thank you Very much..for this jolt of our conscience....accurate narrative of the situation...very sad and disgraceful for a society that that thinks we are first class...well...its no way we can claim that....No way!....really!!!have we evolved in any measure...sad..
Great job..
Yes.. Mam as well you told singapore is a not a wrong place to share your feelings which is right to expose... 😍.. Great Nation.. I love Singapore.. My grandfather is a Singaporean... 😘😘😘
Just a question for you Dipa: U mentioned somewhere tht people took initiative and gave pizzas and stuff. Are they getting the kind of food that they relish and eat happily. I ask this in view of pics of so much of unsuitable food being thrashed.
Welcome dear ....
Thanks madam
Its a shame...very shameful..for highly paid gov ...officials are not doing their jobs...all of them....
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
Any soulless hack can observe basic expedient motivations. Flawed and cynical take on life that serves no purpose anywhere.
Wow this chenal very old not same one see this video, sorry but I don't won't comment this video and this video very good for knowledge, I'm just dec pointed don't have any no can't I contact for helping same one,I amad want to help my frend at Singapore but I don't no how, I see this video and I hope my comment can't reply or give me your contact for I can't discuss with you how to help my frend at Singapore,if have any chanel like mom of something like mom can't help please contact me.
Help them go home to build their own countrys into something good and don't brain drain from the countries that need building