Alien behaviour

Recently, it saddened me when I read about the response of a family towards foreign workers. Apparently, they felt uncomfortable that a foreign worker, who had his face covered with a piece of cloth while clearing debris, would stop his work and look at them. Subsequently, the mother had a word with the man’s supervisor and the man removed the cloth. After that, every time this family passed by, the worker would stop his work, move to a corner and turn his back to show that he was not looking at them.

To be honest, I think this smack of racism and snobbishness. After all, how can our personal comfort be of such importance that we can deprive another person of his rights to a healthy work environment? Is the foreign worker a lesser being and therefore undeserving to set his gaze upon on a Singaporean?

While the foreign worker covered his face with a cloth to protect himself from potential health hazard arising from the dust and dirt, I fear that sometimes we may have hidden behind our mask of supposed social propriety when it is actually a thinly veiled hypocrisy and prejudice.

It is clear from the Bible that God loves the alien (Deut 10:18) and that Christians are called to show compassion and to act justly towards the foreigners in our midst. It would be most tragic when those of us who have received grace from God no longer know how to extend grace to others. For a start, the next time we pass by a foreign worker who is cleaning up our HDB void deck or who is simply taking a breather from his back-breaking work, we could pray a word of blessing over him instead of labeling the person as a potential law-breaker. I think a smile or nod in acknowledgement of the person’s presence would also go a long way rather than turn your nose up to someone.

After all, we are to be aliens in this world, living a life that is radically different, lest we find ourselves becoming aliens in God’s Kingdom.

Pr. Edwin Wong
Covenant Presbyterian Church