Stalin was alleged to have said, “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.”
Not sure if he really said that. After all, Lincoln did remind us, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” But the message is very true. The viral issues all has emotional connections. A story of a groom-to-be who died in a car accident is far more compelling than saying, “Driving is 750 times more likely to be fatal than flying”.
The Indonesian maid who died of abuse. The maid who was kicked who is not the one who died. The family who became homeless and lived in a car. The pothole which was miraculously repaired after an MP prayed over it.
When the story of the Indonesian maid broke (or the 46-day old baby who was abused and murdered, or the 9-year old girl who was also abused and murdered), the public raged. Calls for death penalties. The thing is, I believe whatever that made it into the news is only the tip of the iceberg. For one domestic helper who was abused and made it to the news (which she had to pay with her life so people know her plight), there must be many more out there. And so does kids who are abused and tortured by their own parents in the name of ‘educating’ or ‘disciplining’. Imagine, as you read this, right now, there might be kids who are being assaulted but ‘lucky’ enough to not die, or they might die but never underwent autopsy so nobody knew what they went through.
There might also be a lot of abused domestic helpers, probably physically beaten, or ‘just’ being denied their pay, or ‘just’ being denied communication with their families, or ‘just’ had their passports withheld. Imagine if our employers do that to us.
The family who became homeless got a lot of offers of help. I hope they get to get back on their feet. But there are many more just like them. They are people who are born in poverty and never know what it is like to live ‘normally’. And there are people who had their normal lives, but then calamity struck and they fell into a pit they cannot get out by themselves.
The people responsible to fix potholes have their hands full. There are a lot of potholes. And not all are reported to them. I would guess most are ‘reported’ on social media. They would probably have to search daily for the word ‘pothole’ on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. But not everyone tags potholes as potholes. Some might talk about, “Look what happened to my car” when they are actually talking about going over a pothole.
The problem isn’t about fixing potholes. The problem is the road construction. Or heavy vehicles not given assigned routes. The road probably had no specification. Or it had specification but was not met. Or it was probably not meant for lorries and trucks. Or probably most lorries and trucks were overweight.
The problem of the abused maid is not that particular employer. It is the system. During the slavery times, people might say, “That master is too cruel to his slaves, we never do that to our slaves.” The problem is not the master, the problem is the institution of slavery that enables masters to be cruel. I’m worried that the domestic helper system today might be modern slavery. If you’re a domestic helper, pray to God that you get a kind and compassionate employer. Otherwise, you might need to expect that you will not be talking to your kids back home for months, not coming home during festive season, or anything worse.
We can try to solve problems as they come. Or we can prevent them. Instead of treating every patient with hepatitis B, why don’t we give everyone vaccines? Instead of helping every homeless person or family, why don’t we prevent homelessness or poverty? Instead of hanging every abuser/murderer to death, why don’t we make it more difficult for abuse to happen?
I don’t have the solutions, but here is where lawmakers come. Their have access to taxpayers money. They can make policies that can improve lives of millions. We don’t need them to supply us with free T-shirts or chickens or paid travel expenses to vote. We need them to make policies that can improve lives.
Mohd Najmie 