A Disobedient Maid

Page B7 of the "Home" section today in the Straits Times. B8 immediately following is the first page of the "Money" section. The two sections of the newspaper are now within the one sheaf of pages, with Obituaries/Sport beginning on pp. B14 - 15. The brief news item on p. B7 reports yet another death of a maid from an upper storey fall. On this occasion a 13th floor in Sembawang, an outlying enclave in the outer north-west of the island. Last week was the most recent previous case; up to that point the running toll had always been given in the newspaper. In this current calendar year the death toll of maids falling from the housing towers was running at slightly more than two per month. This morning's report involved a Myanmar twenty-four year old. Most of the earlier cases had been Indonesians, who number around one hundred thousand in the Singapore domestic helper sector. Presumably the suggestion of suicide is the reason the Straits Times omitted including the present case in the annual toll. Evidently there had been some kind of prolonged dispute with the employer, a mother of three with a wheelchair-bound father, who was the maid's chief responsibility. According to the employer, problems with the maid centred on defiance and wilful ignorance of instructions. Told to clean something or other, the young woman pretended not to have heard and walked off, according to Madame. The night before the maid was discovered at the base of the tower all had seemed well, even general Good night offered to the household by the woman. The employer had already asked the Maid Agency to take the young woman back. Until another could be arranged the maid had agreed to remain. No mention of window cleaning. It has been exterior window cleaning perched on thin ledges that have led to these dozen deaths of young women in service here in the last year. Window cleaning and hanging out the washing on the poles mounted outside the windows. In this case, when the maid was found absent the employer suspected she had absconded. Using the thirteen storey window for her escape, rather than the front door and gate (keys in her possession). The employer is quoted ruing the fact the young woman had not used the latter. Police are investigating the unnatural death.