Worker writes

I never really knew what migrant workers were until I went to Polytechnic. Being an immigrant myself, I wondered if they were the same as my family, living under a warm roof, happily eating dinner with their families and enjoying life in Singapore. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not everything was all sunshine and rainbows. Some migrant workers are abused or mistreated by their employers or even worse.

The Migrant Workers Poetry Competition allows migrant workers to express their thoughts and feelings and to showcase to the country that they are not what we think they are: lower-class, slave, alien, under educated. For the migrants, it is a platform where they can express their feelings of living in a foreign land far from home and to make known the struggles they are going through today.

Here are my 2 favorite poems from the 1st and 3rd competition winners. The reason why I like these poems is that it hits so close to home. My family and even close friends of ours have also gone through these experiences.

Pocket 2 

by: Zakir Hussain Khokhon from Bangladesh

  Still in the same world, we belong to different spheres

You on that side and me on this:

we can do nothing but remember each other

The memories of you and me hang like posters

on the wall of the Ekushe bookfair

at the doil chatta, under the shade of the bakul tree at Charukala

at Hakim square, in the hoodless rickshaw

at the florists of Shahbag, at the open field of TSC

on the water of Ramana lake

in a night of shades and lights

on our bed of love

 I remember when I returned this time

my heart dissolved in your tears

The pocket of my shirt was wet

Reaching the end of my memories

I wear that shirt every night

and write love poems to you

Do I really write poems

Or do my poems cry with me?  

In this poem, Zakir writes about how much he misses his wife and longs to be with her but can’t as he has to work in a foreign land to support their family. When he returned to his family for a visit, he let his wife cry on his shirt to let go of all the longing and heartbreak of not seeing each other. It is difficult to be separated from your loved ones, the pain of knowing that you couldn’t be there for them right when they need you the most hurts.

My Story

by: Rolinda O. Espanola

My story, I signed a two year contract.

Full of dreams, my eyes shine and bright

Finally, I can help my family

Fearless, I will sacrifice to provide them happiness

 To be a maid in a foreign land

Where people look down on us

But for my family, I am a hero

Fearless, I draw my strength from my family

 I spent three and a half hour to set foot on Singapore

I sealed my lips with a smile, my composure is now ready

My employer fetched me, drafted her own law

Fearless, I shall not quit

No phone, no daily dip nor even brushing is allowed

Never talk to anyone

even to fellow Filipinos

Sadly, noodles and bread. the only meal I eat

Fearless, I will be able to do all this

 My daily suffering is making me lose my sanity

Work is what I am here for, but why are they doing this to me?

I believe all people are born with purity in their heart

Fearless, my masters are greedy

 Each year I endured

I hope that one day my masters will change their treatment

In the mirror I saw that this is not me anymore

Fearless, I do not want to die here

I lost my weight, I am too skinny

To my family, I apologize; your mother can no longer make the sacrifices

To my creditor in the Philippines, I will pay you back in promised time

Fearless, where is justice here?

 Although I am a maid, I am still a human with a heart

I was born and raised with respect

And always a humble person

Fearless, Are my masters worthy of respect?

 One day, I draw all the remaining strength

Fearless, I will flee

Fearless, I will seek the assistance of law

Fearless, I will envision a good future

Fearless, my story will never end her

Rolinda’s story tells of the constant abuse and mistreatment of her employers towards her and their view of her as their slave. Even throughout her torture under their hands, she endured and fearlessly fled for her life when she knew that it would be in danger should she remain. All she had wanted was to make a living for her family back in the Philippines as she first entered this foreign land.

Reflection:

I fully understand how the migrant workers feel. Being in a foreign land far away from the support and love from your family can be scary. Alas, they needed to leave their birthplace behind to search for a better place way beyond it’s borders and earn for their families left behind. Although they are given a place like the poetry competition to shout out their thoughts, why is no one responding to them, giving them the support they need or ending the brutality some of them face each day at the hands of their employers. Is it because they are migrant workers that their pleas don’t matter.

As a local citizen, it is our duty to help them as they have helped us. They are the ones constructing buildings where we sleep, watching our children as we work throughout the day and taking care of trivial jobs which none of us even bother thinking of. If we can only look past the labels of society, we find out that we are not much different than we think we are.

References:

1.) Migrant Workers Poetry Competition,” Poets”,https://www.singaporeworkerpoetry.com/poets, no available access date.

Heritage Trail​: Macritchie Reservoir​

 

Fresh air filled my lungs as I walked down the run down path, the sound of cicadas echoing around me and small patches of sunlight peeking through the foliage of trees, my hands clasped tightly between my parents and a warm atmosphere surrounding the three of us. These were the last memories I had of the last hiking trip we took before life caught up and tore us away from that small world of peace and tranquility.

The reason why I chose MacRitchie reservoir as my heritage trail is it represents a small quiet world tucked away within the heart of a bustling city. To me, it’s like a get away from the stress of school, family or personal troubles and reminds me of the times I used to go hiking with my parents.

TRAIL PHOTOS:

Together with some friends of mine, we arrived at the Reservoir Park at 1 pm started on out adventure.It was fun. we saw all sorts of wildlife and greenery, played around a bit as we walked along the trail and I admired the beautiful scenery around me. Even though we were in the city, I still couldn’t believe that the place was practically teeming with life and tranquility. Sadly, we had to finish early as it looked like it was going to rain. We managed to take cover at the sheltered foodcourt as soon as we finished the trail.

Welcome to MacRitchie Reservoir Park!!!

How far can you go?

Where do we go now?

History Lesson#1

Lim Bo Seng Tomb

Monkeys…..

The adventure starts here

Time for a break

My guardian angel

Look Down

Leaning Tree of MacRitchie?

 

Heritage Tree

 

A splendid day in the park

Aquatic Garden

 

When I think about it, life is like a trail. There and many bends and corners and you can’t see the end of it. you’ll encounter bumps and stumbling stones along the way and occasionally trip from a few. But then, you get back up again and continue down that path. You’ll also encounter beautiful things like a breath taking scenery or get a rare opportunity to see a few monkeys. Then, there are those that watch over you as you go on your way, staying ever so close yet far enough that you won’t notice them unless you look really carefully. As you reach the end, you feel excited yet anxious as there may be a storm brewing soon, and hoping you won’t get caught up in that.Once the storm has passed, and you finally reach the end point, a single though flits through your head: “I made it. I finished that long trail and now I can finally rest.”

Through this trail, I learned that if you strive hard enough, you can achieve anything, whether it may be big or small. I had given up on many things in my life, the greatest one being my brother. I gave up on him simply because I couldn’t handle him as he was special. After going through this trail, I realised that I shouldn’t have done what I did, shutting my brother out. I am now striving to accept him as he is and help him become independent so that he can live his life to the fullest.

 

 

 

 

What to eat?

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”  a wise quote by Hippocrates. See, there are many ways to live a long and healthy life but the simplest and easiest way is to eat healthily. Most of my family elders suffered or died due to chronic conditions such as cancer and heart disease only because they didn’t eat right when they were young. Wanting to give a healthy diet to my family members so that they won’t suffer like my elders did, I decided to cook for them a well-balanced dinner.

My cooking process:

My first step was to do a bit of research on what a balanced meal was before deciding on what to cook. A balanced meal requires three things: Vegetables, Protein, and Carbohydrates. It was quite tough, thought’s like “should I go for a healthy Japanese meal or a traditional Pinoy one?  What ingredients should I use? Will it taste good?” kept running through my mind. Who knew it would be hard to plan a meal.

Fortunately, I remembered a salad my mother once made for me and decided to use that for the vegetable portion. For the main course, I went to the nearby library and looked through some cookbooks. I decided on a chicken pesto pasta recipe I found in a Jamie Oliver cookbook as it was a simple and easy recipe and required minimal healthy ingredients.

Procuring the ingredients was easy. Luckily for me, my aunt sent some goods from the Philippines so that my family wouldn’t have to spend much money on groceries. I was able to get most of the ingredients I needed, however, I still had to go to the grocery to buy the rest. The remaining ingredients cost about S$7, well within the budget.

Cooking Time:

First, I boiled the chicken in a pot. Next, I chopped the basil leaves and garlic and pounded both ingredients in a bowl. Afterward, I transferred the mixture into a larger bowl and added in parmesan cheese and olive oil. I started to cook the pasta after draining the chicken and shredding it. I put the shredded chicken into the pesto mixture and stirred until it reached my desired consistency.
Finally, drain the pasta and mix together with the sauce

For the salad, cut the lettuce lengthwise, cube the tomatoes and chop the onions and arrange in a bowl. For the dressing, pour 1/4 cup of vinegar, tomato ketchup, sugar, olive oil and minced onions in a clean jar.

Shake to mix the ingredients and afterward add pepper, salt and a dash of Worcestershire sauce to taste.

Diner’s feedback:

“The pasta was very delicious. However, you added too much olive oil for the sauce and it was a bit dry because of the shredded chicken. On the other hand, the salad was pretty good especially the dressing.”~ Mom

“The pasta was delicious and goes very well with the salad. I also liked the dressing for the salad. It had a sweet yet savory taste especially when eaten with the onions in the salad.”~Ate Rosa

Reflection:

Through this experience, I learned that it’s hard to make a decent meal with a small amount of money without proper planning. I spent most of my time trying to decide what kind of dish to make instead of planning when or how I should complete the task. It took me a week just to settle on a dish and another to make the dish as I forgot to buy the ingredients during the weekend. I feel really bad as I wasted a lot of time worrying instead of taking action. From now on, whenever I have a project or tasks that need to be done,  I should plan appropriately and take action instead of wallowing about how to finish it with flying colors.

References:

1.) Jamie Oliver,”Jamie’s Dinner”( Penguin Books), pg. 34

 

 

 

 

Change of Habit

Imagine this. You have a presentation due in 2 weeks and, as much as you want to get started right away, you just can’t seem to start. Eventually, you end up doing nothing till you have 3 days left to the deadline. Quite a scary thing, right? That’s pretty much how my bad habit of procrastinating has affected my life. However, I realized that maybe change is for the better especially now that I’m in Polytechnic.

To be honest, I was fine with procrastinating as I worked well under stress and feel more motivated. I knew that it wasn’t healthy but I still kept up with it as it was the only way I knew how to handle work. It was only after watching a TED talk on procrastination which led me to consider that maybe my procrastinating is bad and that I should make an effort to change.

Here’s my action plan:

1.) Create a weekly priority list

I have a hard time focusing on a task as I don’t know if it should be done now or later. The priority list will help me to figure out which task to do first.What is a priority list? Well, technically it’s a to do list. However, you separate the tasks into 4 different categories:

• Important and Urgent –  significant tasks which are close to the deadline and need to be done immediately (e.g. tests, homework)
•  Important and Not Urgent – significant tasks with a long way before deadline and don’t need to be done immediately (e.g. projects, family time)
• Not Important but Urgent – tasks which are not significant but are close to the deadline (e.g checking game progress, worrying about projects)
• Not Important and Not Urgent – tasks which are not significant and have no specific deadline (e.g. games, daydreaming)

2.)Plan effectively  

Planning is a procrastinator’s worst enemy. I tend to look too far into the future and when I start a task and have a big list of stuff to do which I may or may not like. So, how do I plan to solve this problem? Here’s how:

 1.)Take small steps instead of big ones.                          2.)Have a personal planner.

 

The personal planner will help me to schedule when a project is due and set up the necessary steps to complete it.

 

3.)Make a distraction jar

Whenever I’m trying to do a task, I would find myself getting distracted by whatever I find interesting within my mind whether it was the latest release of a chapter in my favorite manga or getting some snacks in the kitchen. The “distraction” jar works when I get distracted or someone sees me not focusing on my work, I would put $1 into the jar as punishment. It’s a good way to keep my urges in control and save money at the same time.

 

Reflection:

So far my action plan has been working fine. I am able to complete more tasks now thanks to the priority list as I  have become more focused on the tasks, not having to worry about not finishing. However, the distraction jar is not working as well as I hoped. In just a few days, the amount inside has been steadily increasing. Maybe it doesn’t work for me as I have a hard time controlling my urges and I should think up of a new way to prevent me from getting distracted. On the other hand, I am managing to schedule the steps I need to complete my projects however I sometimes forget to jot them down.

All in all, the plan worked for me in terms of helping me separating my tasks and focusing on more important ones. It also worked in my planning abilities and I am steadily improving on setting up a personal schedule.

However,  it didn’t work in reducing my distractions as I keep on giving in to my urges. ( I think by the end of the month I’ll need another jar…)

Thus, my action plan has been helping me to overcome my procrastinating habit albeit, at a slow pace. But, as they say, “slow and steady wins the race”.

$5 Challenge

Did you know that about 105,000 families in Singapore earn a monthly income of $1,500? Truthfully, with this much income, It’s a daily battle of survival for them especially in Singapore where the cost of living is high.Wanting to truly experience the struggle of the poor and needy, I had decided to take the S$5 challenge.

The challenge:

In the morning, I ate some toasted bread and an egg which my neighbors had kindly shared with my family. It may not be much but it gave me enough energy for the morning. One loaf of bread at the nearby grocery store costs at most S$2.

 

 

 

In the afternoon, I had skipped lunch as I had to save money for my transportation fees. One trip from my home to school and back cost S$3.50, leaving me very little money to buy food.

 

In the evening, I had a home cooked meal which consisted of the previous nights’ dinner. I was very hungry as I hadn’t eaten lunch earlier and felt that the meal was quite unfulfilling as the serving was small.

 

 

 

Reflection:

Before taking the challenge, I thought that it would be quite easy. During my secondary school days. I would skip lunch just to put some money in my savings and only ate if I really couldn’t handle it. A simple meal in the school canteen cost S$2.50 which I felt was a reasonable price as the serving was tasted good too. However, taking the challenge in Polytechnic was quite difficult. Not only was the price of food in the food court’s slightly higher than in secondary school but the transportation expenses as well. It costs me at most S$1.75 if I took the train to school. although I was already struggling with the challenge in one day, the poor and needy must have it harder as they do it every day with their lives.

Although I was already struggling with the challenge in one day, the poor and needy must have it harder as they have to do it every single day of their lives. Some families work several part-time jobs a day and only earn enough money to get through their lives. Some poor students even drop out of school to find jobs just to support their family. I had a friend just like that. She was in the express stream and had a chance to further her studies in JC, however, one day, she stopped coming to school. It was only a month later that I learned she had to drop out and find a job in order to support her family. I was sad. I never knew her struggles even though I was close to her.

After taking the challenge, I thought why are there still people struggling to survive in a country like Singapore. Is it the governments’ fault or the poor? or is it our own fault for not seeing the struggle they are facing alone. As a citizen, we shouldn’t just stand and watch as the side, we should reach out to them and help them. I already made that mistake once and vow to never make the same mistake again.

References:

1.Sg against poverty,”$5 Dollar Challenge”,https://sgagainstpoverty.org/5-dollar-challenge/

Run Your House

I always wondered what it’s like to handle the household finances? Is it a simple task? A complicated operation? After interviewing my parents on their methods of household financing, here are some strategies which I will use to run my future household.

 

 

Strat#1: “Live within your means”

 

Fig.1: “Stop and Learn to Live Within Your Means”,http://doablefinance.com/stop-and-learn-to-live-within-your-means/

This is the “golden rule” that my parents use when managing the household finances. Honestly, I didn’t understand what it meant until my father explained it to me. He told me that it means that you shouldn’t spend more than what you are earning every month. For example, my parents would keep track on how much they monthly salary and discuss what are the things we need to buy such as groceries.  I feel that this strategy would give me the right mindset to be more conscious of my needs and wants and help differentiate them.

 

 

 

Strat#2: Treat Household Finances as a Business/Company

 

Fig.2: “Software paradox”,https://jaxenter.com/the-software-paradox-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-commercial-software-market-118471.html

 

Think of household finances as a business, without proper planning or financing, its annual income would go downhill. I find this strategy fun as it is a good way to learn accounting skills and also get a feel of what it’s like to be responsible as the owner of a business. How does this strategy work?Well, you create a family balance sheet to keep track of profits and expenses. This allows you to forecast your flow of cash, expenses, debts to be paid and more. Furthermore, you can set target growth for your family every year to see if your family is getting richer or not.

Strat#3: Save Your Money

Fig.3: “19 easy ways to save money each month”, http://wallstreetinsanity.com/19-easy-ways-to-save-money-each-month/

 

A simple and commonly used strategy. My parents would put aside a bit of their salary into their savings and let it grow over time, only using it for emergencies. For example, when my uncle had to be hospitalized due to cancer, my parents used their savings to cover for his hospital fees. This experience taught me that you should always be ready for the worst by saving money to tackle it. By making a conscious effort to set some money aside, I would be able to be well prepared financially whenever anything bad happens to my family.