SINGAPORE \u2013 When Ms Carmen Ortega, a 39-year-old private hire driver, posted a video on social media in response to a viral clip of migrant workers being berated at a void deck, she did so because she wanted to \u201cshare my truth\u201d.<\/p>\n
In that earlier video, which emerged on social media platforms in mid-October, a man confronts at least three migrant workers resting on mats at the void deck of a Housing Board block. <\/p>\n
He questions them repeatedly, asking who had allowed them to sleep there, saying: \u201cHere is not your grandfather\u2019s place, OK. This is not nice, you know.\u201d Before walking away, he adds: \u201cYou all are all no use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Ortega, a Singaporean who runs the Instagram page Confessions Of A Grab Driver, told The Straits Times she felt compelled to respond after seeing the clip. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel for them,\u201d she said of migrant workers. \u201cGrab drivers face the same stigma too. People have so many misunderstandings.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her Instagram reel, which was posted on Oct 26, has since received more than 11,800 likes, 585 comments and 1,400 reposts. On TikTok, the video has been viewed over 203,000 times. <\/p>\n In a video that emerged in mid-October, a man confronts at least three migrant workers resting at a void deck, telling them \u201cyou all are all no use\u201d.<\/p>\n PHOTO: SINGAPOREINFLUENCEVIRAL\/TIKTOK VIA STOMP<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n It features a compilation of clips of migrant workers cleaning rooftops, sweeping streets, performing late-night maintenance in road tunnels and keeping public spaces tidy, often at ungodly hours. It also showed their cramped living conditions and early morning routines.<\/p>\n In the video, Ms Ortega rebukes the critic of the migrant workers, saying: \u201cYou call them useless, but can you do any of these jobs with the salary they are getting? <\/p>\n \u201cTheir pay is low only because our currency is powerful. <\/p>\n \u201cBack home, many of them can afford land, farms and homes with what they earn here. They are not poor. They are just working hard for a dream.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of them wake up at 5am or 4am and still work till midnight. They build our city while we sleep.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want you to know that we are not better than them. We are just luckier because we won the birth lottery, to be born in a country like Singapore.<\/p>\n \u201cOur race, jobs or nationality don\u2019t define us…<\/p>\n \u201cBe kind, because they are doing the jobs that we can\u2019t, or we won\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n Several netizens supported her message, including one who identified himself as migrant worker Sharry Khan. \u201cI am a degree holder… I decided to leave my country and come here to earn some more money and started as a labourer,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPlease treat us as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n Many Singaporeans also shared words of encouragement. \u201cThey said migrant workers are always helpful, always give up seats on trains and are the first to help in times of trouble,\u201d said Ms Ortega.<\/p>\n Still, she noted that not all feedback was positive, with some people accusing migrant workers of dirtying places. But she pointed out: \u201cLocals also dirty the place. People who dirty the place will dirty any place, regardless of their job, nationality or race. It\u2019s because they are just problematic as a person, not because they are a migrant worker.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Carmen Ortega\u2019s video features clips of migrant workers cleaning rooftops, sweeping streets, performing late-night maintenance in road tunnels and keeping public spaces tidy.<\/p>\n PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM CONFESSIONSOFAGRABDRIVER\/INSTAGRAM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n To her, the message goes beyond sympathy. \u201cMigrant workers don\u2019t need our \u2018sympathy\u2019. What they need is empathy and mutual respect from us because they are human beings with feelings, just like us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Reflecting on the unexpected attention, Ms Ortega said: \u201cI just want people to remember that whenever they see a negative headline with a job title \u2013 for example, \u2018Grab driver\u2019 or \u2018migrant worker\u2019 that did something \u2013 it has very little to do with the job title, but everything to do with that person.\u201d<\/p>\n Her video, she said, was not meant to be a statement but a mirror. \u201cI just wanted people to see things that they normally couldn\u2019t or wouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/picture><\/div>
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