Foreigners crucial to our long-term survival

Most of the week, they toil in homes and at construction sites. But as they climb scaffolding or clean windows, lines of poetry or song bloom in their minds. Sometimes, their fingers, clenched around a drill or a broom, yearn to close instead around a paintbrush or a camera.

Foreign workers here are using their scant free time to pursue art, with more in recent years stepping up their contributions to the local arts scene.

On a recent Saturday evening, more than 60 people packed the second floor of a Rowell Road shophouse to hear Bangladeshi workers recite their poetry. They were joined by local poets such as Cyril Wong, Ng Yi-Sheng and Deborah Emmanuel.