Footage of the late chef Anthony Bourdain calling out Singaporeans has resurfaced online. In the clip, he is seen to be calling out Singaporean society for creating a system that represses lower-class workers.
“What are maids?” the video catches Mr Bourdain asking a few Singaporeans in a travel and food show called Parts Unknown. “Maids, as in helpers,” a woman explains. “Actually, if you look at Singapore, a lot of women are in the workforce. And the reason why that is so is because everyone’s got a maid looking after their child at home. So, maids are kind of like the opiate of the masses.”
Mr Bourdain countered by arguing that such an opiate causes you to become lazy. “But if you have a maid, you’re saying it frees you up to join the workforce,” he said.
The woman confirmed before mentioning that her husband “doesn’t know how to serve himself water.”
Surprised at this, Mr Bourdain wondered if the same could be said about doing the laundry. “Does anyone here know how to do laundry?”
The others at the table laughed and responded that they have a general idea of how to do so. “We know how to do it, answered one, while another added, “We kind of (do), in theory.”
“When was the last time you did the laundry?” Mr Bourdain was asked by one of them, to which he replied, “Four days ago. I enjoy doing laundry.”
“Four days ago?” one of them asked, before one of his Singaporean companions teased, “What, you sent it to the butler?”
“No, no, I enjoy doing laundry,” clarified Mr Bourdain. “I live by myself in New York. I have to tell you, maybe it’s a sickness, maybe it’s a weird thing… but I enjoy throwing my clothes in the washer and then moving them to the dryer. It’s a process that makes you feel very satisfied… I feel very self-reliant.”
In response to their previous answers, he then added his two cents on the matter of hiring maids being such a common practice in Singapore, saying “You’re living off the labour of a repressed underclass.”