Domestic workers are everywhere in Singapore. Any well-to-do home has at least one and I know homes that have two or more. Without maids, nothing domestic would get done in many a Singaporean home.
It is not just the well-off who have maids. Virtually every middle class person has one too. This is a strong contrast to Western society where only the richest have maids or any other domestic staff.
Many a Singaporean has, in fact, been brought up, by their maids, the mother being absent at work, in many households. Singapore is a nation of working couples, after all.
Many odd things are a consequence of this presence of domestic workers, here. One of the oddest was something I saw today.
I know the identities of the people concerned, but shall conceal them, for the purposes of this article. It is better that way.
I saw a little boy, with a maid. It is clear that she was a maid, and not his mother - for once you know what maids look like, they are easy to pick out.
The boy was a pre-schooler, a kindergartener and the maid was leaning down to listen to him. He was saying something to her which I could not catch, but I heard her reply.
Can you guess what an adult woman of about 30 - the maid - had said to a little boy, who was not much beyond a toddler?
In all seriousness, and with no hint of irony in her voice, she had said: "Yes, Boss."
That got me thinking about her position in the world, that really did.
(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and three months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three and Tiarnan, thirteen months, please to go: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, baby genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults, and gifted children in general. Thanks.)
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