The two kids don't really have a mother. She walked out of the family years ago and Chester has largely raised his children single-handedly with a bit of help from his mother and sister.

"How are your kids doing in school?" I asked Chester.

"The boy's OK," he said, "but the girl -– she needs pushing. If you don't push her, she won't do anything."

"Who's going to look after them when you're away?"

"My sister will help out."

But he hasn't told his family yet.

He seemed to have made some arrangements with a friend to provide for the family financially, but I didn't enquire about the details or whether it would be sufficient. My mind was wrapped around the risk that the kids would suffer emotionally and be prey to bad influences.

Chester himself didn't do well when he was in school. Without much of an education, he got mixed up with secret societies [1] when young. He still has tattoos to show for those years.

He got out of it somehow and unless he told you, you'd never guess he was ever the gangster type. He's mild-mannered and quick at witty repartee, yet comes across as a lot more mature and emotionally well-adjusted than the company he keeps.

But the fact remains that without academic qualifications, it's a struggle earning a living in Singapore. And when one is stuck in low-paying jobs with a family to support, the temptation to supplement one's income with lucrative side-businesses is compelling.

What does one do when one has children to support and no wife to help out? You salute the man for never abandoning his kids, but you also have to understand that there aren't a lot of choices when it comes to making some extra money.

* * * * *

One of those lucrative businesses has been in the news lately. 30-year-old Yu Hongjin was found murdered on 18 June 2006 in a massage parlour. Beside her lay a man who was injured and bleeding but who has been charged with her murder.

Yu came to Singapore from China about 4 years ago as a "study mama". In Singapore-speak, that's a mother who accompanies her child here, in order to enroll the child in a Singapore school. She gets a long-stay permit, but isn't permitted to work for the first 12 months. Even after that, there are restrictions to what employment she can take up. According to newspaper reports, there are hardly any jobs that pay enough to support mother and child, let alone pay the school fees. Hardly any legitimate jobs, that is.

But there is a huge industry that sucks up the pool of "study mamas": massage and foot reflexology. Not only is there seldom any hard distinction between the two, they often lead to sexual services as well.

These are jobs that very few Singaporeans would do, yet there is great demand for such services. In fact, though our mainstream press doesn't speculate on this, I have a strong suspicion that the main motivation for these families coming to Singapore isn't a better education for the child, but a better income for the family. The child is enrolled in a Singapore school for the purpose of getting a long-stay visa for the mother.

However, since such businesses must operate in legal shadows, Singaporeans are needed as frontmen to register the businesses, sign the tenancy agreements, maybe even to canvass for customers (i.e. pimping). In return they get a cut from the income generated.

Moreover, the market demands younger, slimmer women than mothers of 10-year-olds, so there is pressure to hire other women from China, who aren't here as "study mamas". Some of them may be here on "social visit" (tourist) visas; others may be overstayers -- in other words, illegal immigrants.

How involved in the day-to-day running of the operations the Singaporean frontmen are varies a great deal from one business to another, but the general principle is that they take their share of the profits in return for risk.

Chester got caught for having one such illegal China girl under his wing. He claims she duped him about her true status using false documents, but to be honest (and even though he's my friend), I don't how if he had some suspicion yet chose to overlook it.

(Just in case you're wondering, no, he's not involved in that particular case with the murder.)

The long and short of it is that there is no escaping jail, and for his son and daughter, there's going to be emotional trauma, social stigma and maybe even financial distress.

* * * * *

There are two aspects of the "China girl" industry: sexual services and overstaying.

Generally, our government has been rather tolerant about sex-related industries unless bars and massage parlours begin to colonise districts such as Joo Chiat where the upper middle-class have purchased expensive properties. Then the hue and cry about keeping these districts "safe for families" tend to become irresistible.

But what this story tells you is that even pimps and their girls have families, and very often, the adults do what they do because they have no other way of providing for their loved ones. It's a common danger that we often fall into, to see the world from a bourgeois viewpoint and to see the bourgeois interest as the only one worth protecting. We use the instruments of the state to protect property values more than we think about providing opportunities to those excluded from our paper-qualification class system.

Keep Singapore safe for raising children, goes the cry. But whose children? Sweep away the low life, goes another cry. And let their children starve?

What is "safe" for one family is unsafe for another.

The other aspect is that of controlling illegal immigration. I can understand that Singapore cannot be a free-for-all; we'd be swamped in no time. The solution, as practised quite smoothly, is a liberal work permit regime. This is the case for domestic maids, construction workers and other fields, wherever there is a shortage of domestic labour, though having said that, our regulations are often so biased in favour of employers (the bourgeoisie again) that too many of them get away with unconscionable treatment of their employees [2].

But when it comes to foreigners providing sexual services, there is no work permit scheme, even though the demand is most definitely there.

Why not? The only difference from other sectors seems to be sex.

Shouldn't we ask ourselves, what is so horrible about sex? Are we trying to impose sectarian religious morality through the instruments of a secular state?

Why can't we have a more enlightened system? Why so dogmatic?

Why do we create conditions where 14-year-olds and 11-year-olds are left parentless and put at risk of dropping out of school, perpetuating the cycle of exclusion?

Some will no doubt wish to say fathers shouldn't set such bad examples for their kids by being involved in sex businesses. Those dads only have themselves to blame.

To them, I'd say: Don't. Don't mount your high horse until you have a solution for men like Chester to earn a decent wage. Chester, for example, has been nothing but a devoted father.

Do you care more for the dogma of "morality" or for precious lives? I have no patience for people who see the world in black and white.

© Yawning Bread