Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Who Gets a Second Chance?

Last weekend, my sister-in-law had to call in the police because her 24-year-old foreign maid had been stealing from her family members. This maid has just been working for the family for about a month and within that short period took a lot of things belonging to different family members and kept them. Items such as a watch, a small diamond ring, some clothings, a belt, kids’ stationery, toy costume jewellery etc. were uncovered from her belongings. As the evidence were all there, the police had to handcuff her and take her away. I think this young maid will be charged, sent to jail and repatriated back to her country upon her release.

The first thought that appeared in my mind when I heard about her arrest was, did she borrow money to come here to work? If she did, she’s going to be in even more trouble when she goes home. Most of these foreign workers have to pay the agents commission equivalent to at least six months of their salary to get them these overseas assignments. They normally cannot afford to pay the commission so they either borrow from friends and relatives or get the agents to deduct it from their salary once they start work here. I hope this maid did not borrow from any loan sharks back home.

From those items she stole, I could tell that she wasn’t very bright. She didn’t take very expensive stuff nor any money. And how was she planning to get away with the stolen goods when she had no accomplice? She’s got no friends or relatives working here. I guess she came from some rural village and the temptation of owning all those shimmering and colourful things she had never seen or owned before in her life just got to her head.

If this was your maid, would you have called in the police or given her a second chance? My sister-in-law’s viewpoint was that she didn’t want to risk having someone she can’t trust at home alone with her three young children.

I live in a city but I long for a chance to live a simple life in some rural villages in places like Thailand. And yet there are so many people who long for a chance to work and live in Singapore. Sigh…the different wants of human beings.

Stop wanting. Just live.

7 Comments:

At 5/16/2007 9:35 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Human being never stop wanting. We want more and more in life. Seeing you have imac, i want to have one. Seeing you have BMW, i want one. Never stop. Sigh, and when I can not afford for those, I am suffering. I find the way to get those by working the hell out ot me or stealing. Heheh stealing seems easy to do, temptation at the high. Hard to stop wanting, really. Thx for bringing this up. I really am trying less wanting things, just focus on what i need. What do i need? hm

Btw, how can i steal girls heart. Hehe been there done that.

 
At 5/16/2007 10:44 am, Blogger yeelee said...

you don't need a bmw or imac
what you need is to get me a D
hehehe!

how can you steal hearts when yours has already been stolen?

 
At 5/16/2007 12:34 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Swooshi,

That's a tough question cuz I don't know her at all. Normally if the person has real remorse I'll give her a second chance by not turning her in. But I don't think I'll continue to hire her though. She needs to earn my trust. I generally trust people until they prove otherwise.

 
At 5/17/2007 12:07 am, Blogger yeelee said...

hi freebird
my sis-in-law had 2 options, report to police or send her back to the agent. her consideration was this, by returning her back to the agent, the maid will be reassigned and that will mean putting another employer at risk. she felt that it would not be fair to the other employer

 
At 5/17/2007 11:46 pm, Blogger Unknown said...

If i were your sister-in-law, i would like to have a long discuss with the young maid about all of those things, and try to understand why she do that. I will pretend to call police but i won't, and give her second chance.

人難免都會犯錯,知錯能改,善莫大焉!

在考慮事情的處理時,不要當下做決定,過幾天讓自己的情緒過去,讓自己的擔憂過去,再下決定!

我們的決定不只是關係自己的利益,也應該照顧到其他人,這是兩全!

再者,以仁待人,不能只是愚昧地縱容犯錯的人,應該告訴她,那裡錯了,讓她知道,讓她自己反省,至於改過,那就是她自己的責任了!

但是我想,我們還是需要給人改過的機會...

 
At 5/18/2007 9:00 pm, Blogger yeelee said...

whatever the situation, when we make a mistake in life, we must learn to face it, accept it, manage it, then put it down because life has to go on
we don't need others to give us the second chance. the chance comes from no one else but ourselves

不管人家給不給自己機會
自己永遠都要給自己機會

 
At 5/19/2007 10:09 am, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I totally agree that we need to forgive ppl and give them a second chance, no matter now big the mistake is. But at the same time, we need to be wise, cuz sometimes there's not much we can do. They have to face and fight their own demons. As long as we do what we can to help, that's enough.

 

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