[Foreign Workers]
1. Last week, a group of SMU students held an exhibition at the void deck of Blk 415 Hougang Ave 10. I was intrigued by their interest in the foreign workers who live in Singapore. Most Singaporeans take the foreign workers who work around us for granted. Consciously or unconsciously, we often exclude them from our mental frame of people we deal with in our community, as if they were not there or fully human.



2. The group included a few who were themselves foreign students. They collected old film cameras and gave them to individual foreign workers. The pictures these foreign workers took provided an interesting perspective of daily life in Singapore. They remind us that our economy would grind to a halt without the contribution of these foreigners. It is also good to remember that our forefathers who migrated here were caught in similar situations once upon a time.



3. I thank the SMU students for opening our eyes to a picture which is not always flattering. It is good that our young people should feel strongly for issues that older Singaporeans might have grown cynical about.



4. It was a great idea to have the exhibition in a void deck. Gay Chee's RC members gave full support when Bee Lan proposed the idea to them. We should organise more void-deck exhibitions and go beyond the tried and the traditional.



Do also read my post on philanthrophy in Asia on Beyond SG