Stop using Age Discriminatory Terms Singapore

 

26 July 2021

The media needs to stop using these age derogatory terms in addressing people. Everything that is wrong, is wrong here. Why write articles that refer to people as "uncle" and "auntie"? Unprofessional, uneducated, small-minded reporters.   

Where do these newspaper reporters/writers come from? Chinese-educated? Do they have a degree? Work only for a small island & report crap. Island reporters. 

Since when was "auntie" and "uncle" endearing in addressing strangers? Why impose your own prejudice regarding older people with words that clearly look down on them? 

One does not call presidents and their wives "aunties" and "uncles" when one meets and greets them. Do you call a CEO of a company "Hello, auntie." or "Hi, uncle." even though he/she obviously isn't young anymore? Of course not.  You want to be laughed at for being a peasant? 

So why embarrass yourself by calling another person who is unrelated to you, "auntie" or "uncle"? Why can't you extend the same respect for a CEO to any older person who is no less an individual? 

Why hurt the person with the age-related insult when it was unprovoked? Why attack the older person psychologically? 

Such terms of address that target a person's age, are psychologically damaging. And those people who do that, know that. In other words, they are evil-hearted, malicious. Far from the "respect" that they pretend to feel for persons whom they perceive as older than themselves, they aim to belittle and demean. Such people have psychological issues such that they need to put other people down in order to feel good.

Even when the person expressly want to be called by their name, the age-discriminator will refuse to call the person by his/her name, and instead purposely call the person "auntie" or "uncle".  Why? 

Age-discriminatory name calling is prevalent in Singapore. Even policemen and policewomen do it, not just the lower levels of society. If you work in F&B where they are plenty of Malaysians and other foreigners, you get hit by age-discriminatory insults everyday. 

It becomes hard to stand up tall, after a while. Imagine: you fit a facial mask routine everyday, you dress beautifully, you do your hair. All this work, for what? All so that you look youngish and pretty. You feel positive about yourself. Then you go shopping and suddenly for no reason, at some point, someone calls you "auntie". 

A few more times everyday & you are going to start feeling like it's true. You start thinking "I am old.".  Nothing you do is going to change that. You stop fixing your hair in the nice way when you appear at work. You don't see the point anymore. You feel depressed every time you go out. You want to quit working at such a place. Worse, you fear. You fear getting abruptly insulted just by stepping out of your house door.  The number of your age keeps popping up in your mind whatever you do. While you are swimming and some handsome person admires you, the good feeling is killed with the thought that you are "X age", you are "X age". 

But let me tell you: This age-discrimination problem is only in Singapore and perhaps in other Southeast Asia countries.  

When you travel to other countries, you will find that people respect you as a person. See you as a person. In Taiwan, wherever I went, people called me "Xiao Jie" (Miss). They call every lady "Miss" regardless of whether she has kids or not with her. For men, they are "Xian Sheng" (Sir/Mister). Very neutral, very professional, very respectful. 

In this alone, Taiwan is superior to Singapore. Not Taiwanese food superior. Their brains are superior. I was very happy to know this. That I need not suffer what I suffer in Singapore everyday living here.

After enduring all the age-discriminatory insults everywhere in Singapore, I feared going to Taiwan recently. I feared their customs would at some point address me in an age-discriminatory way. I felt anxiety and worry. I feared how I would be perceived upon entry into Taiwan. Thankfully, --thank you Taiwan,--my fears never happened. 

Plus the fact that the Taiwanese people and even their dogs are better behaved than Singaporeans, plus their trains... I realized that Taiwan is superior. 

I have been there before some years ago but at that time, I was younger. I passed off as only in my twenties even though I was in my 30s. Recently due to circumstances in life wherein any person will look like shit, I haven't been looking great. Still, there is no need to highlight a person's age since it is none of anybody's business. 

I begin to see why so many educated people,--or those with better minds--left Singapore. 

Calling someone "auntie" or "uncle" is as bad as racism. There is no difference.

There is also difficulty in getting hired even in F&B where age-discrimination is the worst. They can really give zero respect to a person just because he/she isn't a teenager anymore or not pretty due to age. So the fact that F&B is in trouble, I say they deserve it and it's high-time they suffer.

I am surprised that Singapore calling itself "global" is just a village with island mentality. I have so many incidents to describe that have been so insulting, it's unbelievable how the people of Singapore have become like this. Or have always been like this.

Recruitment Agency DS human resource

Avoid. Terrible agents. Uncouth, unreliable, rude. Avoid DS if possible. They pay but ...

In the months since taking up jobs, I have felt very insecure in terms of payments, their sudden changes to procedures & their unreliable & missing agents who frequently turn up late.

The previous agent was an irresponsible, immature fellow who often appeared late & with a smile. The agent before him was a female with a baseball cap, shitty face, uncouth manners & rude attitude.

The latest agent is a plump female with a shit-face, shitty mouth & shitty attitude to match. I am certain many who signed up have been offended by her. Terribly rude. Mentally unstable, unreasonable & stupid.

On the phone, in front of everyone, she inflates herself by loudly & rudely dismissing someone who has yet to arrive at the appointed time.

For whose benefit is the loud, rude voice for?  To show off in front of the RWS male managers & flirt with them better? Obviously these agents forget whose money they are taking. They take their commission out of every worker's pay & don't even have the decency to be polite.

Why? Because they have no respect for people.  Pimps. To them, a person is just a mule that they send to work. Replaceable.

They never think that for every worker lost, particularly a good & reliable one, they lose many hours of commission that they could've gotten out of that person. That's why such agents are stupid. Certainly, they have lost me for good.

I have always avoided recruitment agencies & their agents. But recently signed up with DS for some urgently needed cash inflow.

For so many months, I have been wanting to stop.  The last time was supposed to be a few weeks ago, but I found myself working another 5 more times because I needed the money. It was most certainly a drag every time going there.

This early morning would have been the 6th time, but thanks to the shitty agent's madness, I finally had the chance of walking away & don't need to look back. I finally don't have to work for DS anymore or go back to that shitty place!

I can finally walk away from:

1) The age discriminatory name calling by the RWS managers & the "captains".
2) The lowly, boring, long-hours job.
4) The low pay that is supposed to be the "highest in the industry".
5)  The missing or very late agent who causes everyone to be late because everyone is waiting for the T-pass without which, no one can get a uniform in the goddamn hotel.
6) The stupid requirement for the ridiculous little paper T-pass that forces me to take the same pass from TCC (another agency) every time because the stupid DS agent who has the damn "pass" is never around on time.
7) The stupid, uneducated people that I have had to put up with.

Welcome to Singapore.

All for the sake of money. Peanuts for my entire day. And yet I continue booking slots whenever they pop up. Which brings me to point number 8:

8) DS job slots are very seldom, unpredictable & very few. Two to three weeks can go by without a single job appearing on their App. Consequently, you cannot survive on the payout. It works very poorly as a source of income.

9) The stated payout is supposed to be the next day before midnight. But often, the pay doesn't arrive in your bank account for various reasons. When you ask for it, the "boss" Desmond or his agent will be clueless. Or your money arrives late at night which is difficult if you need the money in the daytime. Very stressful waiting for your money to appear in your bank account.

10)  At first, people complained about their DS App. Personally, I had trouble loading up photos into the thing for some reason. Never been able to fix it on my side. Consequently, my profile photo was not my face.

Then there was the T-pass, which is a charred (blackened) photocopied, small rectangle piece of paper that the agent was to issue to those working a slot. When the agent is late or missing, how are you going to get in?

No T-pass = no uniform because the idiotic RWS staff won't give you one, as if a terrorist is going to bother queuing up for a uniform just to get in. Who the heck wants to come all the way, just to get a damn uniform in your damn hotel? Of course, it's a damn staff coming to work for peanuts.

I got around to fixing that problem with taking TCC's T-pass which TCC always kindly leaves hidden around for its mules. Fortunately, TCC's T-pass was often reliably there for the taking.... until a few days ago when the TCC agent kept the T-pass & would only give it to TCC workers.

Then, DS suddenly came up with a new procedure: selfie taking. What was wrong with signing in & out with a pen on an official attendance sheet that has been working so well?

At that point, I was quite ready to quit before the procedure was officially "launched". I have nothing against digital but if it threatens what worked best, then I opt out because I have seen enough of the consequences of people signing out at the end of the day. They become a mob that is so difficult to control that the managers have had to yell for order. I myself barely managed to be the first or the first few who sign out & get out before the mob entirely swamps the managers.

The recruitment agencies & their agents don't know this because they aren't there at the end of the day.

*This post was done 2.5 years ago but was not posted. I am posting it now 26 July 2021.

Covid & Asian Discrimination

6.40p.m. Sunday 4 July 2021

No matter how beautiful a land is, it's not worth going to, if the people endangers your life rather than the terrain or Covid. No country is worth your money,  no country is worth going to if there's physical violence. Ultimately,  it's just a piece of land that will remain and break up in geological processes even after humans are gone. 

Mountains, meadows,  lakes, canals, forests...not worth getting killed over. 

I best stick to Asian countries. Unfortunately,  that's how it is in this era. Never changed even in this century. Even in Singapore,  there age discrimination/ageism.

Maybe one day,  I will have a clear and safe chance to go Europe. Maybe in my next life, but I am not coming back. 

I am content with reading and seeing photos of European countries which appear to be boring anyway unless you are a fan of old architecture, old buildings.