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Sunday, October 29, 2006
rattling/ 10:50 PM During the previous mount, I was back mounting @ Northern gate, after almost a month of absence from there. As it was pretty far and isolated, it's good that usually no one comes to bother me cos it's really out of the way from the main activities in base. It's pretty shitty when you're totally forgotten by everyone. You've gotta starve when no lunch comes and hafta walk around 2km back with all the bulky equipments when there's no transported arranged. Since it's relatively peaceful there, it's worth a shot mounting there if you don't mind the mosquitoes and lack of proper sanitary facilities. Other than the ICT, there were a few Indian workers who worked at the Cisco gate. We didn't interact much over the past few weeks but 1 of them came actually came to chat with us on Friday. I guess my life in Singapore has been pretty sheltered. I do not have a clear idea what the 'outside world' is all about. Immaturity, inexperienced. Or rather, I fear of growing up, having to shoulder the responsibilities and face expectation of others. I didn't get the name of the Indian worker but the conversation we had did make me ponder on a few issues. He was the minority few in India who had access to proper education and to my surprise, he actually holds a degree in commerce & accounting. I can't imagine a graduate doing manual labour. What's the point in pursuing the higher education then? If given a choice, he wouldn't want to leave behind his family and work overseas. Being a 24 year old, he has worked in Singapore for 2 years. It wasn't easy coming here and he, like all other workers has to work hard to extend their working years in Singapore. It's damn easy for them to be sent back if their were found to be lazy, unproductive or if they had brushes with the law. Relatively, I find that they were paid damn low. No wonder firms favour cheaper foreign labour. Working 7 days a week + a few hours part time in the evening, he sleeps only 4-5 hours a day. Earning a keep of a almost a CPL pay, he has to pay for his own meals. I admire the workers even more cos besides surviving on a low pay in this costly city, their 1st 7-8 months of pay are used to pay off the agents. Well, what to do? He claimed that there's too few jobs in India and he even made a comment that he's envious of soldiers in Singapore. "Singapore soldiers are good. They're not sent to war and get killed!" From that, I think he's referring to Kashmir. No wars, food provided, good pay. Not bad at all indeed. From the Indian worker, I realised that if you're willing to work hard, it's not too hard to survive. It's all about how much sacrifices you're willing to take. As for me, I'm almost 100 days to my pink IC but a road of uncertainty lies ahead of me in my post-NS life. I've learnt a lot on Friday, much to my surprise. I'll truly appreciate what good conditions I've been enjoyed in my lifetime and they cannot be taken for granted. |
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