What Happens When a Worker Dies?
After each worker dies there is a solemn, bureaucratic ‘homecoming’ of sorts, as their bodies are repatriated home. There are obligatory emails to governing bodies and High Commissions/Embassies of the deceased home countries, issuances of death certificates, visits to mortuaries by whoever can closest resemble next of kin, liaising with funeral service parlours, flight arrangements that need to be made, potential insurance and compensation claims to be filed, and family that has to be contacted and consoled.
Click the images below to enlarge
Company Email to Relevant Parties
Embalming Certificate
Company Letter of Authorization
Next of Kin - Letter of Authorisation
Embassy Approval for Export of Remains
In what is nothing less than twisted irony, it is almost as if workers are cared more for in death than while alive. When Lee Kuan Yew died, he was mourned by a nation for bringing Singapore from “Third World to First”. But migrant workers actually put their lives on the line to build our country. Political actors like Lee Kuan Yew are mourned and celebrated at these eminent scales precisely because of the lives put at risk every single day for rapid economic progression. Who are lauded as builders of a nation? Who does the actual building? Why does our national memory privilege some and erase others from the fabric of our history?
What kind of nation are we really building here?
Listen to Bhing, Maw Lwin, and Sharif recount how they feel hearing about the death of migrant workers in Singapore.
“Some lives are grievable, and others are not; the differential allocation of grievability that decides what kind of subject is and must be grieved, and which kind of subject must not, operates to produce and maintain certain exclusionary conceptions of who is normatively human: what counts as a livable life and a grievable death?”
Fallen
by Bhing Navato
A poem written following the death of Burmese worker, Mar Zin Mar Oo.
She came here full of hope.
Her life will be better, in problems she will cope.
A young girl's thoughts for her tomorrow's assurance.
Blinded by reality, she did not miss the chance.
Her happiness was short lived, expectation had collapsed
When she began her job, suffering never stopped.
River of tears at night, waiting to be rescued
Darkness is her comfort, away from any feud.
Empty stomach as she starts her day.
Weakened body, inside her room she cannot even stay.
She tried to speak, but nobody listened
People around her, ignoring her pain.
She has no way out but to escape, lost her faith.
She was pushed to the edge, their regret is too late.
Voices had whispered, controlled by her fear.
Another fallen friend, she didn't last a year.
Struggle was not easy, this job became a choice
Why was she treated this way, you ignored her voice.
Forgetting humanity, treated her like a machine
Endless work you gave, to rest is unseen.
Ignorance leads to her distraction.
No one lends a hand to give her motivation.
Perception you had will now turn to sorrow.
Life is over, there's no tomorrow.
Bhing Navato
A handwritten note, claimed to be written by Mar Zin Mar Oo. The note was shared by a friend of Facebook, and listed the times she was scheduled to eat, ending with a desperate plea for help.
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