The Canberra Times, the word "may", and slavery.

I agree with Pesty on this. Pilipino woman make great maids and great nannies, but if they are paid below the minimum wage, this is a form of slavery. Both considered illegal. As for importing off shore labour to keep up with skilled labour shortage, give the “locals” a bit more incentive to move into that line of work. We all think that tradespeople are overpaid and a rip off, but they’re out there, almost every day, getting the job done. They could be getting paid great money to be sitting up in their little cublicle playing tetris and gas bagging with “Kevin” public servant.

@Thumper the reference to slaves building the pyramids is debunked (via a quick google so I haven’t read it in entirety) Here

The reference to Asterix comics is more abstract, it implies that what social engineers want you to think may not actually be true, and that the perception that slaves built the pyramids came from Here which is a work of fiction, and should not be used when attempting to quote historic fact.

Actually Cleopatra was a Greek descendent of one of Alexander the Great’s offsiders, Ptolemy.

So not actually related to the great pyramid builders by anything other than proximity and power.

Thumper,

Asterix and Obelix once went on a cruise to Egypt to help Celopatra get the pyramids finished on time (shame it was her great, great grandfather who knocked him them up.) via the clever use of the Druids magic potion. It became a motion picture by the French in the last few years, partly to celebrate a massive Asterix Comic anniversary and that Pluto had finally manged to break away from the gravitational pull of Gerard Depardieu’s nose.

^^ @ Maelinar

There’s no such thing as reading too many Asterix comics.

shauno said :

We use what may as well be slaves in the offshore industry. Filipino workers, mess boys get 400US a month cooks get $1200 a month the medic gets $1200 a month. They have to work offshore for 6 months straight and when they finally go on break its for 1 maybe 2 months without pay and off contract so they don’t even know for sure if they will be coming back.

As for domestic slaves while not really slaves its normal practice in Asian countries to have live in domestic maids. Some of my colleagues based in Singapore all have maids. For example one of my mates has a live in Vietnamese lady who takes care of every domestic chore including cooking shopping etc etc. She gets paid $900 sing dollars a month.

They may only be slaves by our pay standards, in many countries such positions can be regarded as most desirable. It depends on the boss! Some treat them poorly for sure, but many treat them well, particullarly the good workers as they are not always easy to find in the first place.

We use what may as well be slaves in the offshore industry. Filipino workers, mess boys get 400US a month cooks get $1200 a month the medic gets $1200 a month. They have to work offshore for 6 months straight and when they finally go on break its for 1 maybe 2 months without pay and off contract so they don’t even know for sure if they will be coming back.

As for domestic slaves while not really slaves its normal practice in Asian countries to have live in domestic maids. Some of my colleagues based in Singapore all have maids. For example one of my mates has a live in Vietnamese lady who takes care of every domestic chore including cooking shopping etc etc. She gets paid $900 sing dollars a month.

Slavery may get “stuff” done.

But it generally isn’t very useful stuff.

The ability of free societies, on the other hand, to maximise the potential of their citizens is why – frequently against astounding odds – free societies have triumphed to date.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

The thing about slavery, though, is that it really does get shit done.

True! I believe so, but I also don’t believe in it. You just need to bring skilled workers into the country with fair pay and work conditions – that will also get the job done a bit!

I’d love to see a copy of their pay slip.