nothing in singapore would exist without migrant workers.

nothing.

not your schools, not your hdbs, not your train stations, not your hospitals.

not the skyscrapers, not mbs, not jewel.

your GDP per capita is literally their blood, sweat, tears and lives.
you can argue as much as you want abt whether it's financially feasible to transport them in buses or not, improve their dormitories, provide healthcare, whatever.

but there's no running away from the fact that *nothing* about life here is possible without their exploitation.
and you know, to me, it's interesting that there's so little time when Singapore was fully "reliant" on itself.

before independence, indian convict labour. after independence, idk, maybe a decade of singaporeans, then m'sian migrant workers https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1297144251772329985
Singaporeans will tell you we don't have a history of slavery, and did you know the White House was build by slaves?? and then be completely surprised that their Istana wasn't exactly built by willing participants either https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1165283497075822597
everything we're proud of exists *because* we pay migrants $15 a day to risk their lives https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1302139761415528449?s=20&t=94ipD8NrG5g0d_kgF91gGQ
when you see that girlboss shit going around about how singapore has the highest percentage of female CEOs in the world, know that it's only possible because they can pay a domestic worker $10 a day to work 24/7. https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1498915457427935233?s=20&t=jnnjOi_L0jo8CqznJ38vXA
do you understand what this means? what this looks like, what it feels like? for every migrant worker living in a dorm, to live in a space the size of gardens by the bay and mbs?

yeah, put that on a postcard. https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1256480363049701377?s=20&t=TL675bYcY5eZzeJQJ3BmYg
five years before covid, FIVE,

the government understood the risks a pandemic would bring to those living in dorms.

they did absolutely fuckall anyway, which is why the first 60,000 covid cases here were mostly migrant workers. https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1250734519000240128?s=20&t=TL675bYcY5eZzeJQJ3BmYg
as early as TWENTY YEARS AGO, there were articles about migrant workers facing difficulty getting healthcare bc of communication barriers.

we did nothing.

when the pandemic hit, we used google translate and celebrated that as a tech achievement. https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1264596213053091841?s=20&t=e-4NgbEruGLg7ITjggPz6A
this is the tradeoff we make, as a country.

migrant workers get the privilege of working for $15 a day, no healthcare, densely-packed dormitories, the risk of flying out the back of lorries,

we get our GDP, GST vouchers, million-dollar ministers. https://twitter.com/IsabelleLimKopi/status/1335825177054126082?s=20&t=g13umygfIXbQ78u3Jaj8rA
this is what it looks like, btw, flying out the back of a lorry.

when singaporeans got injured in a few e-scooter accidents, we banned those.

but migrant workers? sorry, cost to stakeholders too much. https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1260944235265589248?s=20&t=TL675bYcY5eZzeJQJ3BmYg
and the biggest stakeholder is the government, for public sector projects, for you and me.

they fly out the back of lorries so we can complain about the crowded trains and 3 cent fare increases. https://twitter.com/sharanvkaur/status/1386920074469003267?s=20&t=TL675bYcY5eZzeJQJ3BmYg
i am unbelievably angry today. i don't even know why, it's not like i was expecting a budget announcement to be like, "yeah, i guess we'll do buses".

but the flippancy with which we treat these men's lives never lessens.
the Migrant Workers' Centre was set up in 2009, supposedly to champion "fair employment practices and the well-being of migrant workers."

here's the MWC Chairman, telling you we need to sustain the economy on their backs:
all day, this line from Alfian's poem "Singapore You Are Not My Country" has been running through my head:

"You are not a country you are a construction from spare parts."

what exists of Singapore without these spare parts, these spare men? https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1501551228555182082?s=20&t=J4hLWtY9fDy6Ixy4QN8kjw
the men who build our hallucinations are coming up on two years under lockdown.

they get driven to work and then back to their shitty dorms in the back of lorries.

they're not allowed anywhere else.

two. years.

write to your MPs or something, idk. https://twitter.com/poetrysgbot/status/1432675040475107330?s=20&t=UtFYSmhlUf9C0vockkGIQg
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