Coolies in Singapore

[Guest]

So I ended up with an outfit called Handpower Movers, which is basically a mom-and-pop company with a couple of Indian coolies for the grunt work (the guy driving the truck is the MD). I can't say I was terribly impressed with their business processes: their website's online quote thing is broken, they attempted to charge me a fair multiple of the real price for a move in Sing (which, I am informed, should be around S$100 for a truck from X to Y and a couple of guys to carry boxes) and they showed up a few hours llate on the day itself. On the plus side, they worked fast, did a decent job, didn't break anything and had no problems with getting their act together with two days notice.

• coolie [coo·lie || 'kuːlɪ]

n. highly derogatory term used for an unskilled Asian worker (also spelled cooly)

I'm British myself and come from the rank and file society, served 12 years in the service, with jerks that believe, they were born with silver spoons in their mouths.

The saying in the British Army is that you can never be an Officer, you must be born into it!!! and those that do come from the rank and file of society, will never be excepted anyway. Would you believe that Officers actually look down on their own people, with the term expressed by jpatokal.

One example I will give is a Major Vivian Jasper Tubbs, who asked me to pick him up from his home in the morning, so I thought no problem, I arrived quite early and he said " You boy come in and polish my shoes"

I replied " with all dual respect, You can go and F--- yourself, I am not your house boy, I'm a professional soldier.

I have mixed with the best, after i left the service, rubbed shoulders with the rich and powerful society cliche down in the south of UK, it's a sorry sight when you see the rich and powerful fall from their high horses and have to request a loan from the rank and file for a bottle of Gin.

They have never in their lives visited a local pub, or been in a bar brawl, with the yanks! to be honest they are not even survivors in todays society, spoiled by the wealth of the British Empire and their family heirlooms. A race that will soon be extinct.

People work hard for the money they get, many work long hours, no unions, and no social systems to fall on.

I hope many expats will take time out, to look deep into their hearts, everyone is expendable, and they may end up with the boot on the other foot, or even end up in the removal business.

It is really about time the expats came down from the planet their on! they are nothing special, In Denmark they have something called the "Janta Law" Take a look


Women in Nordic Politics (PDF)
... and Finns, and with much less emigration from Denmark and Iceland ... A sense of humility called the "Janta law" which is, "do not believe you are anything special," (Solheim 2000 ...
www.winterfolk.net/writings/ women_nordic_politics.pdf - 96k - View as html - More from this site

[KLS]

http://www.winterfolk.net/writings/wome ... litics.pdf

Sorry the link above did not work.

[jpatokal]

So I ended up with an outfit called Handpower Movers, which is basically a mom-and-pop company with a couple of Indian coolies for the grunt work (the guy driving the truck is the MD).

• coolie [coo·lie || 'kuːlɪ]

n. highly derogatory term used for an unskilled Asian worker (also spelled cooly)

I'm British myself and come from the rank and file society, served 12 years in the service, with jerks that believe, they were born with silver spoons in their mouths.

Whoah, take it easy there, PC-boy. And if you're going to get all dictionary on me, you might like to know that kuli is actually Hindi for "porter" or "carrier".

Would you believe that I've enjoyed a stint in the army myself, as a rank-and-file infantry grunt at that? I know exactly what it is like to do shit jobs at the whims of others, and my very first job (outside the army, mind you) involved carrying heavy objects from place X to place Y at 10% below minimum wage. I have the greatest respect for the fellows who spared me the hard work of moving all my crap, but as you might have inferred, I have less respect for the business practices of the company employing them.

See, the Indian and Thai guys doing all the construction, gardening and, yes, moving work in Singapore are coolies, in the 19th-century transcontinental railroad chain gang sense of the word. They get paid absolute jack shit, work incredibly long hours, have very few rights and are brutally exploited by their employers. One small sign of Singapore's blatant hypocrisy in this regard is that everybody in the back seat of a taxi must by law wear a seatbelt (as they must be rich and hence valuable to society if they can afford taxis!), but it's perfectly A-OK according to the same law to pile 12 Indians onto the back of a pickup truck with a few stepladders, iron toolboxes and plates of sheet glass as cushioning if they get into an accident; hey, there's a billion more where they came from, right?

And that, my friend, is what I meant when I used the word "coolie". So go flame the powers that be which are responsible for this state of affairs, not little old me.

[KLS]

Nice one JP! Very effective explanation, I hold my hand up

[Bafana]

So I ended up with an outfit called Handpower Movers, which is basically a mom-and-pop company with a couple of Indian coolies for the grunt work (the guy driving the truck is the MD).

• coolie [coo·lie || 'kuːlɪ]

n. highly derogatory term used for an unskilled Asian worker (also spelled cooly)

I'm British myself and come from the rank and file society, served 12 years in the service, with jerks that believe, they were born with silver spoons in their mouths.

Whoah, take it easy there, PC-boy. And if you're going to get all dictionary on me, you might like to know that kuli is actually Hindi for "porter" or "carrier".

Would you believe that I've enjoyed a stint in the army myself, as a rank-and-file infantry grunt at that? I know exactly what it is like to do shit jobs at the whims of others, and my very first job (outside the army, mind you) involved carrying heavy objects from place X to place Y at 10% below minimum wage. I have the greatest respect for the fellows who spared me the hard work of moving all my crap, but as you might have inferred, I have less respect for the business practices of the company employing them.

See, the Indian and Thai guys doing all the construction, gardening and, yes, moving work in Singapore are coolies, in the 19th-century transcontinental railroad chain gang sense of the word. They get paid absolute jack shit, work incredibly long hours, have very few rights and are brutally exploited by their employers. One small sign of Singapore's blatant hypocrisy in this regard is that everybody in the back seat of a taxi must by law wear a seatbelt (as they must be rich and hence valuable to society if they can afford taxis!), but it's perfectly A-OK according to the same law to pile 12 Indians onto the back of a pickup truck with a few stepladders, iron toolboxes and plates of sheet glass as cushioning if they get into an accident; hey, there's a billion more where they came from, right?

And that, my friend, is what I meant when I used the word "coolie". So go flame the powers that be which are responsible for this state of affairs, not little old me.

I always knew you were a racist...

Damn Coolys are everywhere these days

BTW my Indo housekeeper loves watching chinese soap operas even when she can't understand what they are saying - She says it because she gets to see Chinese people actually doing physical work sometimes (Even if still it is only make believe)