How To Tell Whether An Expat Is Working In HK, Singapore or Malaysia

I think this is ripe for a repost. The first two categories (HK and Singapore was from the site expatspaytoomuch.com .... So I think I better add my contribution for expats in Malaysia.



Accidentally stumbled across a site for expats in Asia. They have a satirical write up on their welcome landing page. Its funny. The site is expatspaytoomuch.com

You know you are a Singapore Expat when:

You forget what chewing gum tastes like. You wear winter clothes indoors and summer clothes outdoors. You think a bus is incomplete without a TV. You say handphone, not cellphone. You order warm water because too much ice water is bad for you. No matter what you're doing at the moment, you'd rather be shopping You are certain that Holland Village has very few Dutch people and is a place for hippie bohemian artist types and overpaid yuppies. Your idea of a good night out consists of having dinner at a hawker centre and then eating again. Durian and belachan no longer stink. You justify every argument with the phrase "in order for us to be competitive in the 21st century". Most of these acronyms make sense to you: NUS, NTU, ERP, SDU, PAP, MRT LKY, GCT, PRC, TIBS, SBS, SMS, JB, JBJ, AMK, AYE, PIE, ECP, ISD, ISA, CPF, CHIJMES, SPG, CWO.

You get annoyed if you don't see a sign telling you how long your wait's going to be for a bus, a train, or the expressway. You think everything should be 'topped up'. You think there is nothing wrong with putting chilli sauce on everything you eat. You think US$1 million is reasonable for a smallish condo, but S$5 for a plate of fried noodles is a rip off.

You know you are an expat in HK when:

You have developed a taste for mooncakes. Your building's security guard is 4x older than the building itself. All your clothes are tailor-made or come from Giordano. You are not surprised to see an 85 year old lady pushing tons of garbage / cardboard boxes up the street. You believe shopping and eating are the only forms of entertainment. You have become a shameless-name-dropper. You have a MontBlanc pen clipped to your shirt pocket. You believe the HK Jockey Club is an honourable philanthropic organisation.

You can tell who is Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung and Hacken Lee. You believe you are really tall when you are only 5' 8". You get offended when people admire your chopsticks skills. You speak enough Cantonese to make your colleagues laugh their heads off. You bring a coat and scarf to fight hypothermia in supermarkets, buses, ferries and cinemas. You are not surprised to find footprints on the edge of toilet bowls. You use the word "Ayyiiieeeaahh" to convey surprise, pain or anger. You are always looking forward to the next Typhoon 8. You think US$2m is a reasonable price for a flat but HK$40 for a plate of noodles is a ripoff.

Here is my contribution: 

You know you are an expat in Malaysia:

You think double parking is not really that unconscionable if you are within earshot of honking. Everytime you have to visit a government department, you have to take the whole bloody day off. You are so glad to have AirAsia so that you can go to Phuket, Krabi, Bali, Bangkok, KK, Penang for the weekend cheaply. You envy the salary packages of fellow expats in HK and Singapore but laugh at their expenses. You worship the sun, but even so, you do not wish to be out in the streets between 11am-3pm. You cannot believe the locals do not use sunblock. You thought OZ was slack, but secretly welcomes the most number of public holidays in a single country on earth. You go to the beach but can't bring yourself to swim in it.

You only meet up with friends at Mont Kiara or Ampang. You have never been to Kepong or Gombak. You are not sure if all the girls at Beach Club are really girls. You think the locals drive like failed F1 drivers. You think all Malaysians drive their cars without installing indicator lights. You think crossing the road is Malaysia's national sport. You think Malaysian food is the cheapest and the tastiest in the world. You snigger quietly at how low the rates are for 5-star Malaysian hotels. You think US$25,000 for a locally made car is the biggest ripoff in the world. You couldn't bring yourself to buy a new car at local prices, even though you can afford to, so you end up driving a 5 year old third hand deadbeat.


p/s photos: Rozita Che Wan

Country Default Risk Updated

Bespoke: The European aid package announced over the weekend has helped boost global equity markets across the board, and it has also caused sovereign debt default risk to decline significantly over the past two days. Below we highlight 5-year credit default swap prices ($, bps) for a number of countries around the world. For each country, we highlight where default risk stands now, where it was last Friday before the bailout, and where it was at the start of 2010 and the start of 2008.

Heading into the weekend, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain (PIGS) had seen huge spikes in default risk in 2010, but they have all seen declines of 30% or more over just the last two days. Default risk for Portugal and Greece has basically been cut in half. CDS for other EU countries like Germany and France had also spiked significantly prior to the weekend, but they have since returned to much more normal levels.

Venezuela and Argentina currently have the highest default risks in the world, while Germany, Australia, and the US have the lowest default risk. The US hasn't seen a big decline in default risk this week, but that is because it barely moved higher even in the face of volatile markets last week (why the US even has CDS is a different topic).

My Take: Malaysia is at 90.9. Its a meaningless figure unless you look at where you stand or rather whom you are standing next to. Japan is at 80.1, surprisingly we are above Chile which stood at 87, I guess they have lots of oil. Take comfort in that Thailand is at 120. UK drew closer to us at 85. Indonesia is at 178. Belgium is at 88.7. The Philipines is at 169. China is at 72. We are lower than South Korea which came in at 101.



Sometimes we get into a lot of internal bashing and politicking, and we are not thankful enough of where our country is fiscally. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly that we could have been so much more and so much better. Still, it is gratifying to note that we are not in "real danger" of a country default - OMG, can you imagine if we are at 200 or 300.

Here are some notables: Dubai at the ominous 444, Vietnam at 252, Argentina at 921 ....

Funnily though, with the World Cup coming soon, most of the participating nations are also the ones with the more perilous debt ratings:
Argentina 921
Brazil 127
Mexico 125
South Africa 153
Portugal 229
Greece 533
Spain 165
Italy 145

So, the key to having a great footballing team is to be fiscally irresponsible???
; )