Another chopped body murder. This time is one woman cutting up another woman. Both women were Filipino maids working here and were close to each other. Both were married with children but somehow they seemed to have fallen for the same man which could have resulted in the tragedy. It's the same old plot which revolves around either money or love and it seemed that the trend now is for the murderers to cut up their victims' bodies and to dispose them at different locations. Or was it just copycatting? Whatever the reason, it's definitely not something that any country want to promote but somehow it just kept happening (there has been a gradual increase in the number of foreigners committing crimes) even in a peaceful and orderly country like Singapore.

Foreign maids and other foreign workers are getting involved not only in our way of life but also in our crime scene. Did these foreigners come all the way here with the intention of committing those crimes? I don't think so as I believe prior to their coming here they would have known that our government has zero tolerance for crime and would not hestitate to mete out the necessary punishment for any crime committed regardless of the offender's nationality. Then what or who could have forced them to become criminals?

Working in a foreign country can be very stressful especially when one is being kept away from one's loved ones. The situation gets worse when these foreigners are not being treated fairly or are being abused by inhuman employers. To add salt to the wound, some Singaporeans, especially the younger and more pampered ones, treat their maids like slaves. In fact, these spoiled brats would be lost without their maids. Once, I questioned one of my tuition kids why she didn't bring her homework, she blamed her maid for not putting it into her bag. Then there was another incident when I commented that the water bottle of one of the boys was not properly cleaned and he said that his maid didn't do a good job. I asked if he was handicapped and he replied in the negative. I went on to say that then he could have washed the water bottle himself rather than leaving it to his maid, who has other household chores to do. Maids are hired to lighten the family workload and definitely not to reduce us into helpless and dependent beings. Maids are humans too and as humans they too have pride and thus deserve to be treated equally as any other beings.

Just like maids, foreign construction workers are here to make a decent living and more importantly to help to transform the landscape of Singapore. Somehow, there are employers who would abuse and mistreat these workers. There are even cases of employers who would abandon those workers who had injured themselves rather than to send them for treatment. Do these 'nation builders' deserve to be treated in such a manner? Are they any less of a human than the local workers? Can we expect a person who has been treated inhumanely to behave humanely?

Of course, I'm not implying that these foreign workers are saints and that local employers are devils who have forced the foreigners into committing crimes. There are many factors that could have caused these foreigners to go astray but somehow, I feel that if these foreign helpers have been treated fairly and with dignity they would be less likely to be involved in any sort of crime. Would a happy and contented human commit a crime? He might or might not, depending on the state of his mind but generally, it's quite safe to assume that one who is happy and contented wouldn't want to jeopardise one's future or life by being on the wrong side of the law.

Have you been treating your maid humanely? Is your maid a happy and contented worker? If she isn't, it's high time that you find out why before she loses her mind and ..........................................