Short-Changed

You probably have read in the newspaper forum recently about a reader criticizing dog owners for shirking their responsibility of taking their dogs out for some exercise. He also added that it was wrong of them to pass the responsibility to their maids.

In response to this criticism, a reader wrote that some maids, instead of exercising their dogs, strapped them to a tree in the park and used the opportunity to enjoy a chit-chat session with other maids there…
 
Frankly, I’m not really interested who should take the dog out regularly for a walk or what the maid should or should not do in the park. But this afternoon, I saw a maid doing something more bizarre.

On my way home, I saw a maid with an old man in a wheelchair stopping in front of my neighbour's front gate. I have seen this maid wheeling him to the park a few times before. On this occasion, instead of going to the park, the maid parked the old man in the wheelchair at my neighbour’s gate and she and my neighbour’s maid were sitting on a bench beside the gate. And what the heck were they doing there? Well, the two Indonesian maids were chatting and watching a mobile phone screen, and not paying any attention to the old man. But the maid was supposed to take him to the park to get him some fresh air!

Why did the old man keep quiet? I looked at him more closely. His mouth was half open with the lower jaw hanging down loosely. Obviously he was a stroke patient, incapable of talking and protesting. And the maid knew it!

After about 5 minutes, I came out of my house. The maids were still chit-chatting happily and the old man was still staring vacantly into space.

Dogs get bullied by maids. Old people, especially invalids, also get short-changed. Whose fault is it? What can be done?

23 January 2010