Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Abuse!

Sometimes I think human beings can be worse off than animals. I was out for an appointment to see a client this morning. This particular client of mine is located in an industrial area and most of the industries in this area employ a lot of foreign workers to work for them. So, I'm pretty used to seeing them in this area.

I reach my clients place and park my car and was about to step into my clients office when I hear some angry shouting coming from my left. I stop, look to see what the commotion is all about and what I saw saddened me to the very core! I never for once expected to see what I just saw.

There a couple of doors away from my clients office I saw this group of about 5 foreign workers and they were all standing in a straight line with this fierce and angry looking guy in a tie screaming at one of the workers rather harshly. Ok, no issues there, I guess he's the boss and one of them must have done something wrong at work or something. It's not like I haven't experienced being chewed out like that by my boss.

But what he does next stops me straight in my tracks. While screaming at one of the workers in the line, he raises his hand and slaps the poor chap right across his face! Not once, but two or three times and even screams obscenities at this guy. And the poor fellow just stands there and takes the abuse without saying a word in his defense. Even the other four guys just stood there quietly with their heads bowed.

Whatever that foreign guy may have done, I don't think he deserved to be treated like that, especially to get humiliated that way in public. I was speechless. I just stood there as with a few other people and just stared at the whole scene in a surreal kinda way. I've never ever seen such a thing in my entire life before. The whole screaming and hitting stopped pretty soon with the guy in the tie pushing them all back into the factory to continue with their work.

That was when I realized that a lot of employers here who hire foreign workers treat them like animals at times. I've read countless horror stories about how these foreign workers are mistreated and abused and never paid much heed to it until having seen what I just saw.

To most of these monster employers, these foreigners are cheap labour and can be pushed around. Now don't get me wrong, a lot of employers are nice people and treat their foreign workers well but there are also a lot who are really sadists!

We have a lot of foreigners here, sometimes a little too many if you ask me, but they're also human beings who leave their family behind to seek a better life so that they may be able to help out their families back home. And instead, a lot of them end up getting cheated by their employers who ill treat them, pay them chicken feed and make them work long hours everyday, stuff about 30-40 of them in one dinghy little hut or two room house with hardly any basic amenities and keep their passports locked so they can't go out. Don't they employers have a heart?

And we say Malaysians are a caring lot! Hah, I'd like to find the person that said that and smack him silly! Most Malaysians treat foreigners like the plague. Just because they work in such menial jobs doesn't mean they should be treated any less.

They don't realize that these foreigners are willing to undertake such dirty jobs that most Malaysians with half the intelligence of these foreigners would shun. They don't want to work as some low paying grass cutter or garbage man or even some lowlife cleaner. They just want some high paying CEO post even though they can't speak a word of English or even know what 1 + 1 is.

And these foreigners willingly (or sometimes with no other choice) take up these jobs yet most of the time that get abused by their employers and are shunned as some kind of 'bad' people by us. And I am VERY ASHAMED to say that I am sometimes in the category of these 'bad' people. No, I've never abused or mistreated or even hit any of these foreigner but I've had my fair share of misgivings towards them.

And I'm not at all proud of my attitude. These people are human and work as hard, sometimes even harder that I do and yet they're willing to work even more harder just to make sure their families back home have a better life.

And a lot of these foreigners are actually nice people. I remember the guys who cut my mango tree. They were so accommodating and friendly and never complained when I asked the to cut this or cut that or clean this or clean that. They had perpetual smiles on their faces even though it was extremely tough work trying to cut that tree.

And though I didn't pay them much, they were so happy to even get some extra income and was thanking me like as if I paid them a million bucks or something and their demeanor so impressed me that I told them to come back every month and see if there was anything they could help me with in the house like mow the lawn, trim whatever that needs to be trimmed and such. Of course I would pay them for their work.

And they were so willing to come back and assured me that they would come back every month end. Now, tell me, are these the kind of people that you would mistreat and humiliate in public by slapping them? Are these the kind of people you would have misgivings about? Granted there are a few bad apples but do we generalize all of them based on a few bad apples?

I know I don't normally post very serious postings but even I, the normally playful and happy go lucky guy gets affected by things out there sometimes. And what I saw today deeply saddened me. I wish I didn't see what I saw but I did and all the way back to the office I kept replaying that scene of the poor fellow getting abused and I honestly wished some very bad things to happen to that animal (sorry to insult all the animals) who was doing the abusing.

What goes around comes around they say and that guy will face his judgment one day and maybe god will send him back to earth as a lump of shit (forgive the language) or something ... LOL!
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20 comments:

  1. Hi Nick,
    I know EXACTLY what you meant by mistreating foreign workers. When babe started working in a factory, he will often come back n tell me horror stories of the living condition the workers there are living. And also how the managers will shout at them like they are not human. Luckily the workers there are provided apartments but apparently, it is so dirty and emit such bad smell that if I go, he say I will vomit. It is not that no one clean the place, they have a cleaner that goes there everyday to clean up and throw the garbage but I guess the workers simply dont have the time and energy to clean up after working 14hours straight everyday!

    But thank god so far I have not hear babe telling me about people raising their hands at the foreign workers! I hope I dont have to witness something like that either! I think it will make my heart bleed tears!

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  2. Jen - It's sad isn't it how some people treat a fellow human being just cos he's of a different class.

    Sometimes I think animals treat their own kind way better than some of these so called educated people do!

    It's actually really pitiful how some of these foreign workers live.

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  3. OMG!!!! That guy think the foreign workers are just a worthless bunch of human who are being paid for the work they do. It's not only factory lah..some even abuse their foreign maid over a small mistake done.
    I can say, our factory foreign workers welfare are well cared by my bosses. I never see my bosses shout at them. Everytime they did wrong, my bosses or even the factory supervisor will only point their mistakes and tell them not to repeat the same mistakes again!! Some of them are working quite a long hour in a day, but still their pay is worth with all the work done!

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  4. Kadus Mama - A thumbs up for your boss but not all bosses are like that with foreign workers though.

    It's okay to shout and scold sometimes, we're only human and even I get shouted at and scolded by my boss sometimes but not hit them like small kids la.

    Some respect and dignity should be shown to these poor fellows. It's already bad enough they have to work like crazy for the little money that they get, have to face abuse some more ... siggghhh ...

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  5. I like to think - what comes around goes around. Karma and all that. So I sincerely hope that man comes back as dogs pooh or something along those lines!
    At the end of the day, he should not be allowed to treat another human being in such a way. Who does he think he is? And I wonder what the man done to deserve to be treated like that? Forgot to put sugar in his tea or something as unimportant as that probably.
    What a crazy sad world this can be.

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  6. Hehee, I've just thanked indirectly my boss in my post and here I am reading about a s*** boss. I'm glad I don't have a boss like the one you saw or I maybe hit for coming late, lol!

    This kind of boss don't deserve respect from the workers. He is feeling too superior and powerful, may he rot in hell for his revolting manners.

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  7. Oh my God! He slapped the guy? He ought to be punished for abusing another person. No matter what wrong the worker did, they should never be treated so badly.
    Such sickening behavior!!

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  8. I am horrified when I hear things like this. You are right. These people will do any lowly job because they are hard working people who just want to take care of their families. The employers know they have them over a barrel and some of them are quite sadistic with the power they have over them.

    I totally believe in karma and I hope the employers that do this get what's coming to them in spades.

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  9. The world According To Me - Dogs poo would be too good a thing for that swine.

    It doesn't exactly what he did. Nothing justifies to be treated that way. There are ways to reprimand people and slapping and hitting them is not one of it ...

    I agree with you, the world is a sad, crazy and disappointing place these days.

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  10. Marlene - That's the thing with certain people here who hire foreigners to work for them. They tend to think they can just boss these people and abuse them as they see fit. I felt really sorry for the poor fellow yesterday ...

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  11. BT - Yup, he slapped the poor fellow! I was totally stunned. I wonder what other kinds of demeaning things he does to his workers. Nobody should be treated like that ever ...

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  12. Gypsy - It's sad but true what you just said. These people sometimes just don't have any other choice but to suffer the abuse in silence ...

    I am so hoping he'll get whats due for him one fine day.

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  13. that is really bad. should not happened here. i treat my helper the best i could. they are just human like us ba even though they are foreigner. some ppl are just very bad!

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  14. Deana - Ya, some of us can be monsters at times. The world is getting worse each and every day ...

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  15. oh my!!! That guys should not be treating the worker like that b eit foreigner or malaysian..he should not. So saddddd, sigh..but like you say i believe what goes around comes around. :D

    P/s: his lucky that he is still alive till today, most foreign worker won't just let this happen to them without them keeping the hatred feeling to the boss which will lead for revenge time! Jeng! jeng! jeng!

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  16. Sigh...I cannot la read things like this!! I guess u were too shocked to capture the whole thing on ur HP? What was up with that freaking tie-guy la? Aiyo...poor thing the guy, just took it all in silence...heartpain thinking abt it! :(:(:(

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  17. Emelda - If those foreigners do take their revenge on him, I wouldn't blame them! He deserves to get the crap he gave them!

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  18. Marzie - I was too stunned by the whole scene to even think of taking a picture la. It was a sad sight indeed to think people can be so cruel to a fellow human being.

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  19. GOSH! I was shocked when i read the part where the guy in tie slapped the poor foreign chap.

    These are a bunch of heros that were never mentioned, that we never thanked. They hold the humblest job of all, they are into construction, work day and night to build up our love nest, they sweep the floor we so frequently litter without a second thought...they were never thanked!!

    Yes Nick, you are right,
    what goes around,
    DO comes around.

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  20. KM - It was worse having to witness it. I was dumbstruck!

    You're absolutely right la. They do work in the lowliest of jobs that we would never even consider doing and half the time they get abused and cheated.

    I'm hoping that guy will get whats due to him ...

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