Work-a-day

Young unslept Batam lad off to work cleaning rubble at a demolition site. Lots of cobwebs. Ten AM start seemed late.

              —   How many hours working?...

              —   ….Three o’clock finish....

        — You lost weight. Sakit?... 
        It looked tiredness. Hard body and young enough. Perhaps 7-8 kg. shed on a small frame. 
        Five hour shift seemed strange again.

         — No boss. Three o’clock morning.

         — What?!... Tiga malam?... Morning? Night?

         — Yah. Maybe permanent can…. (He had got his hopes up.)

         OhOhOh…. 
         Thumb-forefinger rub?

         — ….Eighty dollars.

         Five and three on the fingers to be sure…. Eight?...

         Nods. — Ya.

         If the crane or dozer doesn’t knock him over or he takes a dive from up top it might be alright. A fortune in Batam. Telling it in Dunlop Street later that afternoon the lads guessed straight-off. In fact the first estimate was $70; that was the rate. What was the surprise in that? They did 24/7 in the construction sites under lighting, you saw it every day/night. Third World to upper tier First in thirty years didn't happen half rat-power.

NB. A total of 66 workers died in workplace accidents last year (2015) in Singapore; increase from the 60 in 2014. More than one-third falls.