1/17/09

I had a bad dream last night, and started whining in my sleep. Dear was right there beside me, and immediately hugged me close and I woke up, crying into his shirt.

I fell asleep again awhile later, and when we woke up in the morning, I can’t remember what happended in the dream at all.

Yesterday after work, I met dear at the stadium, and went running. After years of completely no exercise, apart from walking to school etc, and recently starting to swim a little, I think I want to start having a weekly exercise regime, so that I wouldn’t get breathless just walking up a few flights of stairs. I’m thinking of jogging every Tuesday and Thursday after work, and swimming once on each weekend.

Don’t laugh at me, but I only ran 4 rounds, 1.6km yesterday evening. Like in Primary school like that. hah. But at least I didn’t stop. Good enough for me, after so many years. Will gradually build up the number of rounds, as I would the number of laps when I swim.

Everyday during lunch time in the office, I will munch on my sandwich, while checking my email and reading news from todayonline and TOC (the online citizen). My free doses of news. I was telling dear just now that the mainstream media is too pro-government, while online media like TOC is too anti-government. Must read from both to get a balanced view.

Anyway, after reading news about the foreign workers, I’m feeling very indignant for them. Although sometimes seeing so many foreign workers in the neighbourhood makes me feel like our country is overflowing with them, but the truth is they’re just here to make a living, to earn money to send back to their family in their own country. They are poor, but they have dignity and just want a job and do some honest work, even if they’re just paid a pittance, When I was still helping Weijie’s father to do some administrative stuff for his construction company last time, I saw that their hourly pay could be as low as $2+, $3+ an hour. Perhaps we could say that they wouldn’t even earn as much if they were in their home country. But so what? They’re in Singapore now, they’re making a living and they have to eat here too, plus remit money back home if they have families and everything else.

In such circumstances, agents still want to cheat them of their money, a few thousand dollars of agent fee, and then leave them with no work, such that they can’t even earn back that fee, much less send money back to their families.

theonlinecitizen.com/2009/01/%E2%80%9Ci-hope-singapore-government-punish-them%E2%80%9D/

theonlinecitizen.com/archives/5073

Then, when I read another article on TOC regarding some workers from China, and how their employers and MOM have been treating them, I feel my blood boil.

Part 1 and Part 2.

Is this the way ministries work? I think a lot of Singaporeans, including me, have had our eyes covered for too long.

Singapore is beautiful on the outside. But has a damn rotten core.