Failing

Grim little story in the paper today, though not little at all for the unfortunate family involved, about an Indonesian girl attempting suicide because she couldn't pass the proficiency test for English to allow her to get a position as a maid here. She'd borrowed what would have been a huge sum of money for her to get across here and faced being sent back and all the terrible extra expense that would involve.

All this begs the question as to why the test can't be administered in Indonesia to save the poor girls the huge headache of an expensive journey for nothing - well, not just expensive but for many life-wrecking. As far as I understood the answer provided by the Ministry here that runs the testing, it would be too expensive for Singapore to provide the service. Hmm.

There's not much positive to take from tales like this, but I console myself with the idea for some of the noble souls who come to places like this in search of a better life for themselves and their's (usually its their's, I suspect, rather than themselves) will achieve even more than that and in a generation will lift themselves and be sitting round the table at our banquet getting much more than their fair share.