The system here stinks big time.

I am not terribly good with computers.
Just realised there is a U-tube video ”plight of migrant workers” on this site.
Watched it & its probably a true reflection of what the conditions are like; conditions that I have only HEARD about all these years.
Congrats to TWC2 for the video………now the whole world can see it.
Hope MOM is also watching.

For those of us here who cant just watch & do nothing…….please look at TWC2 & other sites like HOME to see if you can do a little to help.
These non-profit organisations are always looking for volunteers to help out….in any way you can.

I myself have volunteered a little while back , spoke to them & am waiting for them to call me up for some active service :-)

//So my idea is NOT so original, just stole it from other models.////

Radical innovation do not occur as frequently as adaptive innovation.
Most creative breakthrough are clever adaptations of existing technologies
You are on track. : )

http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/government-too-sucks-the-blood-and-sweat-of-foreign-workers/

I thought it was a great read and a good counterpoint to how the system stacks up against employers too.

Thanks KopitiamApek & RW for constructive comments.You guys also have alot of info ( I am learning too) & together we can only hope that the people in charge at MOM & elsewhere will read & constructively take notice too….as we are all here to make a change for the better. Frankly its NOT a wild attack on MOM & others & I hope they also see it that way.

Let me see if I can answer RW’ s question. How do I know its 20,000.
Certainly in 2001 when I had to deal with an ”ali-baba” case (help out), this was the number I came to know. My memory is pretty poor, but certainly it is a large number. What the number is today, I am afraid I dont know.

I know ( guess the cost) what it cost the govt bec I saw the whole process…..arrest, processing, jail, court hearing, re-patriation back home, ICA got involved in black-listing, police sending ‘offenders back & forth to court’ etc etc.
So it is certainly a big cost saver if the govt can stop ”ali-baba” cases from happening in the 1st place. I think quite alot of these cases can be prevented……..as I said if MOM as the 1st gate-keeper does its job….which I am suggesting is some form of accreditation of the agents.
After all we have accreditation of agents for Domestic Help Right?
So why not other workers? Yes women are most vulnerable, but so are men under these circumstances.

How the accredition takes place & what form…..that I supposed can be left to MOM to fine tune. I would suppose , look at what the govt is doing with accreditation of match-making agencies. The model is the same….weed out unscrupulous ones & let the genuine, fair ones remain. Or follow the system for Domestic Help.
So my idea is NOT so original, just stole it from other models.
Whats strange is WHY is MOM so slow to do this when there are models around already? Thats the most important question to ask.

Nothing was published in the newspapers but the Internet had a field day. Why was TOC not reporting this?

Is there a policy instructing main stream medias not to publish such sad news which may mar the image of Singapore?

Shouldn’t our citizens be made aware of what is going on in the community regarding survival and survivability – in the modern concrete jungle of survival of the fittest?

Looks like the suicide rate must be rising, otherwise why the black-out on such news?

May be this is also an indication that the quality of life has gone down, very much lower than say twenty years back, when the suicide rate was much lower?

Could this be the initial signal that the policy of “Progress at ALL Costs” will also reap a heavy price in terms of lives lost unnecessarily?

///#too much of Kopi lah u Apek….///

add this to the other universal answers

You have still not answered the original question. If you can’t or do not wish to, it is ok.
We agree to disagree.

if you can read what you wrote and understand your own english, I rest my case

///“TOC is an online forum.”
Exactly. And in an online forum, we discuss issues. Period.///

That I agree with you. Discuss. Period.

////The journalists are just doing their job for their online forum////

They are doing their job, also agree.

But to refresh your memory how we this got to this point of our debate,

@34) Small Time Businessman

you wrote
///without these free journalists, how will the volunteers know about the real plight of these foreign workers? SPH newspapers?///

read the exchanges from there, which ended with your evading of my question and instead you chose to comment

///you know what is TOC all about, and you chose to come here.///
///If you disapprove of what they are doing, then you should steer clear of TOC////

To quote again what you wrote, in online forum we discuss issues?
Can you please make up your mind?