A Week of Anger and Sadness

Hi folks, been another of those weeks where I don't get enough time in front of the computer to blog about anything worthwhile. But I have to say that I've been so appalled by the stuff being said about Indonesian domestic workers just because our Government finally wants to treat them like any other workers by giving them a day off. Honestly, why do so many people make it seem as if we are doing them a favour by giving them a job, when we just can't cope without them? It's mutual need and dependency.

And what is this business about taking off from the domestic worker's salary whatever payments people make to the agent? If you employ a headhunter to find an employee for you, their fees can be up to six times the salary of the employee you take on! You don't take it off the employee because that's the fee you pay for the service. Getting the domestic worker to work for free is known as slavery, that's all. And yet there are all these people who actually think that's OK.

If the Indonesians are incensed, even if it's just for their elections, we should understand. What if it were our people who were being treated like that overseas? Wouldn't we care? We're now trying to appease the Indonesians by saying that not all of us treat our domestics badly. But anyone would get the opposite impression just by reading the papers every day, especially when we have so-called leaders spouting off in the most vile way about foreigners in our midst.

There are some people who are suggesting that domestic workers should only be allowed to work for families of the same religion as them. As if this necessarily makes them less vulnerable to abuse! I have met any number of domestic workers who have had the misfortune to work for so-called 'religious' people who simply 'forget' to pay their salaries, sometimes up to two years at a time, or just ignore requests by their worker to send money home to their families for them. Or who promise to get them all the permits to work here but then don't, leaving their worker totally dependent on them, afraid to go anywhere and unable to complain to anyone. No physical abuse no doubt, but still slavery.

The answer is not to look at other countries for domestic workers either. We will eventually have to reduce our dependency on domestic workers while at the same time improving working conditions for all women, including better childcare facilities and flexible hours.
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The shocker of the week was of course the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. The passing of the former was overwhelmingly overshadowed by the latter's but here's one tribute worth reading.

I'm sure you've read every single tribute to Michael Jackson there is out there. For me, what was most special about him was his dancing, which I rank alongside Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly and the great tap dancer Gregory Hines. Here's my favourite music video by Michael which I like better than Thriller. Nobody makes videos like this anymore with a storyline, a lot of detail, great costumes and of course, just spectacular dancing. Enjoy!



RIP Farrah and Michael!