We all need to be more empathic toward these migrant workers, as one day, our own young may be, working abroad, under someone else’s directions, and, you wouldn’t want your mistreatments of your foreign hired workers, to BACKFIRE onto your own young, would you??? Because that, is just how KARMA works in the world, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
After I’d read the specialized report on “The Forgotten Migrant Workers, the Songs of Sadness of the 600,000 Invisible People in Taiwan” from the UDN papers, I’d felt, a mixture of strong emotions. The migrant workers worked in the jobs that most Taiwanese people aren’t willing to do, the dangerous, the dirty, as well as, the heavy-lifting, they were, contributing, silently, to the economic wellbeing of Taiwan, but, they’re invisible and mistreated by the communities, and there were, tragedies that occurred with these foreign hired workers.
not my photo…
My elderly neighbor’s Indonesian hired helper would always wear her bright and shiny smiles. Sometimes, when I’d bumped into her, waiting for the garbage pickup, she’d told me not to wait, that she would, help me take out my trash. One day, I’d, accidentally, heard the elderly woman’s son, cussing this female foreign hired help out, as he saw me, he’d said, embarrassed, “She, is too slow, and slacking off a lot.” Turns out, she’d, spent a bit longer in the bathrooms, and the person who’d hired her thought she was slacking off, taking her breaks, and started, cussing her out, it’d reminded me of how she’d looked after the elderly woman she was hired to take care of so very well, and, I was so, overwhelmed, that I’d not known, what to say.
There were also, many, Thai foreign workers that my workplace had hired. Cleaning up the restrooms, heating up our lunches, taking out the garbage, these are, all of their duties. And, in our off-season, they’d also needed to, paint up the storage buildings, and head over to the boss’s and the boss’s daughter’s houses to clean, to handle the household chores too, they went from migrant workers in the factories, turned into migrant household maids.
the migrant workers marching for their own rights of NOT working long hours here…
Of course, the majority of the Taiwanese population is still very gentle and kind, there are, a lot of us who are willing, to extend that helping hand to the foreign hired helps, so they can feel “Taiwan is also my home”.
Every time, I’d gone strolling at the parks, and saw the foreign workers, pushing the wheelchairs of the elderly, I was reminded of that song, “Children Working Away from Home”, with Chi-Lang, using his raspy and hoarse voice, singing. It’s, as if, in that moment in time, I got, a glimpse, of how alone and lonely these migrant workers are, for the sake of making their own dreams come to, for the sake of their families, as well as the hidden joys, tears, nostalgia, and strength that are hidden, underneath their hijabs.
Treat these migrant workers with kindness, show more kindness, to these children who are, far from their homes. Because when one day, came the turns of our own young, to go off abroad, we’d also wanted them, to be treated well, to be shown, some kindness too.
And so, this, is on the awareness of how the migrant workers are being mistreated, and, some of the families thought, hey I hired you, and therefore, you will, do WHATEVER it is that I tell you to, and this, is a legal form of modern day slavery, because these foreign hired care workers are here, for just one reason, to help us look after our aging parents, or our young, because we all work outside of our homes, and so, we are the ones, who needed them, to HELP us, so, BE kind to them, as they are too, someone else’s children, and, you wouldn’t want your own young to get mistreated when they’d gone abroad to work, would you??? I wouldn’t think so.
Life, the Obstacle Course 