Most / Least Expensive Cities n Most / Least Livable Cities

FinanceAsia: In a Cost of Living survey involving 214 cities, Tokyo, Osaka and Hong Kong are among the top 10 most expensive cities in the world for corporations to fund their expatriates. Singapore is not far behind in 11th place.
By Mei Tuicolo | 30 June 2010



One only needs to do a Sunday drive around Hong Kong's Peak to see that big firms are paying top dollar to keep their expatriate employees happy and productive. Ranked as the eighth most expensive city out of a pool of 214 cities, Hong Kong maintains its affluent reputation in Mercer's most recent Cost of Living index, alongside Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore.

The index was created by consulting firm Mercer, and is an annual survey designed to be used as a tool to help develop compensation packages for expatriate employees among Mercer's corporate and government clients.

"In the past couple of years, corporate assignments have become truly global, with expatriates and 'global assignees' being transferred all over the world," said a Mercer spokesperson. "Global mobility is still an expensive undertaking for companies and a real understanding of the costs involved in relocating staff to other countries is essential," she added.



To develop the scores, New York has been used as the base city, with each city then given a comparative weighting to New York. The survey weighs over 200 indicators, including the cost of housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. Currency movements that are calculated into the costs are measured against the US dollar. According to Mercer, it is currently the most comprehensive index of its kind in the market.

Globally, Mercer's top 10 and bottom 10 lists looks like this:

Top 10

Luanda, Angola

Tokyo, Japan

Ndjamena, Chad

Moscow, Russia

Geneva, Switzerland

Osaka, Japan

Libreville, Gabon

Zurich, Switzerland

Hong Kong, Hong Kong (tie for 8th with Zurich)

Copenhagen, Denmark




Bottom 10

Windhoek, Namibia
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Kolkata, India
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Bishkek, Kyrgyztan
Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan
La Paz, Bolivia
Islamabad, Pakistan
Managua, Nicaragua
Karachi, Pakistan


Source: Mercer



Overall, the results are surprising, considering that three African cities rank among the top 10. The explanation for this is that in expatriate packages the big drawing card is ensuring that the lifestyle that expatriates experience once abroad does not deviate too much from the home lifestyle. In other words, packages are designed to protect the purchasing power of the employee.

In a circumstance where an employee and his/her family are all relocated to, say, Gabon, the costs to maintain a western lifestyle increases immensely as household goods and a similar home environment are deemed a luxury.

"Many people assume that cities in the developing world are cheap but that isn't necessarily true for the expatriates working there," stated a spokesperson from Mercer in a press release. "In some African cities, the cost [of living] can be extraordinarily high -- particularly the cost of secure accommodation."

The 214 cities assessed in the survey were selected based on Mercer's client feedback. All the data for the survey was attained during March 2010 and exchange rates from that month were used to determine relative value.



Excluding Australia and New Zealand, 33 of these cities are based in Asia. The 10 most expensive Asian cities were Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Singapore (ranked 11th overall), Seoul (14th), Beijing (16th), Nagoya (19th), Shanghai (25th), Guangzhou (38th) and Shenzhen (42nd).

In a comparative index put out by the Economic Intelligence Unit, which measures cost of living based on the liveability of each city, the results are very different, with the top 10 rankings being dominated by Western and developed cities.

Top 10

Vancouver, Canada

Vienna, Austria

Melbourne, Australia

Toronto, Canada

Calgary, Canada

Helsinki, Finland

Sydney, Australia

Perth, Australia

Adelaide, Australia

Auckland, New Zealand



Bottom 10

Dakar, Senegal
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Kathmandu, Nepal
Douala, Cameroon
Karachi, Pakistan
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Algiers, Algeria
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Lagos, Nigeria
Harare, Zimbabwe


Source: Economics Intelligence Unit



EIU measured the cost of living across 140 cities with a focus on stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.

The heavy dominance of Australian and Canadian cities in this index is a reflection of the standard of living for the general population and not just for expatriates who would experience a relatively on par standard of living (from the base city, New York) in any one of the above.

For example, Vancouver and Melbourne are ranked 75th and 33rd respectively in Mercer's index. Vienna is 28th.

However, Pakistan's Karachi is the cheapest city on Mercer's index and in the bottom 10 for the EIU.

Original World Cup Funnies and Otherwise

First, lets scan for the current crop of World Cup jokes:


Carlos Tevez walks into a night club in Johannesburg after his team's victory over Mexico and sees a stunning leggy blonde beauty on the dance floor. He approaches her and says, "Get your coat, you are coming back to my hotel with me tonight."

She looks at him and replies, "Goodness, You're a little forward!"

Capello phones Gus Hiddink to find out how to improve his training methods.

"Dustbins" says Gus, "Position dustbins around the training pitch and get your players to pass the ball between them, dribble round them, chip the ball over them, it'll improve all round ball control".

The next day Gus' phone rings, it's the England manager, "Hi, The dustbin's are winning 4-1. What do I do now?"

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Messi, Kaka and the pope are at a lake to find out who can walk on water. Messi runs on the water across the lake to the other side and runs right back. Then Kaka's turn, he did the same thing. Now the pope, he gets two steps into the water and falls.

Kaka looks at Messi and say's, "That's harsh, didn't you tell him about the stepping stones" and Messi replys, "What stepping stones?"

Best player in USA team, England's goalie.

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Football is not the biggest game in the world, it is second after Farmville.



Somehow, I think my original ones are better ... lol ; )
I have made fun of the vuvuzelas and England team, Samson and Torres, and the Cristiano Ronaldo ball. While watching the Holland vs Slovakia match, I thought of giving the teams some better branding. They should latch onto the advertisers for naming rights:

ITALY should be called "The Toyota Team" - as the entire team should be recalled

FRANCE should be called "The BP Team" - as they just stand around and watch as their problems get worse

ENGLAND should be called "The Penicillin Team" - cause when you need to use them or need to rely on them, that means you are already in a lot of trouble

Goooooooooooooooo SPAIN!!!

Opinion - Sports Betting

I have been quiet on the Ascot betting license fiasco. Trying to get more info and facts first. While Vincent Tan may have erred in announcing the news a tad earlier, he did have a letter. However, he should have been more careful, knowing this is a time bomb and won't be easy to railroad the thing over. Should B Group be penalised by Bursa/SC on this. Well, yes and no, though I would sway towards "yes". Listed companies should be more careful when making announcements, in particular when it comes to market moving announcements. It has to be a yes owing to the amount of shares traded and the share price volatility after the announcement and its subsequent retraction.



No, because the company did have a letter, but it would have been wiser to highlight and underline (again and again) that it was a conditional thing.

Back to the issue on hand, should we have legalise sports betting. Yes on all accounts. Its like prostitution and casino gaming. For prostitution its not legal but it carries on. We are just fooling ourselves if we think not legalising will dampen the activity. Casino gaming is legal, but I am sure some bits of it still carries on illegally in small gaming dens. That is not the point, the point is the bulk of the casino gaming would have surfaced to the legal top and the country gets a tax on it. Want to guess how much in tax receipts the government has obtained from Genting and the 4-D listed operators for the past 20 years!!!

Sports betting is about the last bastion. Not legalising it will force much of the revenue and tax receipts to flow to the international betting sites anyway. Its like locking up your virginal daughter in her room 24 hours a day but she has a secret passageway to be naughty anyway. Why keep up appearances? 'She' is not going to be a virgin anyway, you'd be fooling yourself telling everybody otherwise.

Legalising it (including prostitution) will help not just in tax receipts but allow the government to regulate and monitor the activity. For example in prostitution, the government could force all "service workers" to go for monthly health checkup for proper certification so that fatalistic diseases would be kept at bay. If there is legalised sports betting, you would close off a large portion of the black market and push human resources back to the mainstream economy. Most would not bet with bookies if they have a CHOICE. There is none at the moment.



If you do decide NOT to legalise, then by all means possible show the country that you can eradicate the problem of illegal betting by hook or crook. If you do not legalise prostitution, then make bloody sure they will find it hard to exist - now I think too many of the spas, karaoke joints and even hotels front as prostitution joints. Prove to me otherwise. By not legalising it, you basically give those who are supposed to enforce more room and booty for "bribes" and "grease money".

I find Vincent Tan's claims that the illegal bookies spent millions to fund a campaign to nix the Ascot deal, believable. Organised crime is more organised than you think. Take the pirated DVDs business. For Chinese movies, you can get almost all pirated versions in the marketplace BEFORE it gets to the cinemas .... EXCEPT if the movies were produced by these two companies (check it out, they will only appear as pirated DVDs after they have been on the screen for 2 weeks): Media Asia and Emperor Group ~ go figure the rest ...

Despite the so called clamp down on football betting, I am pretty sure I can easily place my bets with a couple of phone calls, and so can everybody. Not legalising and no/poor enforcement makes for a man with a very weak argument or defence.



This should not be a question of morality or social values. This is a question of pragmatic and proper governance with a firm grasp of reality. I do agree that one cannot and should not impose their moral values on the rest of the nation, but there is also a line somewhere, I mean you cannot be legalising heroin just because some people will do it anyway. Trying to find that line is very difficult I agree. Unlike heroin or LSD usage, sports betting is more pervasive and more "acceptable" globally, thats all I can say.

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Malaysian Insider / KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 — Tycoon Tan Sri Vincent Tan today accused illegal bookmakers of spending millions of ringgit to fund a campaign to torpedo his plans for legalised football betting, and would wait for the right conditions to revive plans, gaming analysts said today.

He also told gaming industry analysts that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) was to blame for the Najib administration’s backtracking, and alleged that illegal bookmakers had spent between RM100 million and RM300 million to smear his attempt to introduce above-board football betting.

Illegal bookmaking activities in Malaysia are estimated to be worth up to RM20 billion a year.

Tan said this at a luncheon with about 40 gaming analysts, where he was also said to have shown them a Finance Ministry letter dated Jan 13, 2010 that gave him conditional approval for the licence.

However, sources who saw the letter said the conditions made no mention of the government having to first gauge public support and that they had essentially been fulfilled.

A Berjaya Corp press statement released earlier today said the company was extremely disappointed at the government’s decision not to re-issue the licence “despite having granted its approval for the re-issuance of the same” — a phrase which was underlined for emphasis.

Berjaya Corp reported that the government had last month re-issued the licence to Tan-owned Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd after the original licence was cancelled by the previous Abdullah administration.

The gaming, property and hospitality group had told Bursa Malaysia in a May 12 filing that it intended to acquire Tan’s 70 per cent stake in Ascot for RM525 million. The tycoon’s son — Datuk Robin Tan Yeong Ching — would have retained control of his 30 per cent stake.

Tan had first obtained the licence in 1987 but had “asked the government to take it back” when the venture was unsuccessful while retaining the right to get the licence back.

His most recent attempt to revive long-suffering Ascot — which posted a loss of RM4.6 million at the end of 2008 — ran into a concerted hail of criticism from opposition parties who managed to turn the issue into a national talking point on the back of apparent anti-gambling sentiment.

Tan-controlled Berjaya Corp had planned to offer football betting services through the telephone and at selected Toto outlets nationwide.

It is understood that the tycoon had spent a considerable sum in preparation for the start of play in European football leagues this August.

The licence itself is said to be worth RM10 million, an amount which was refunded to Tan following the government’s capitulation to public opinion on Friday.

Sources said Tan had used the money to obtain a bank guarantee worth the same amount as a first-right-of-refusal claim, and suggest that he is biding his time until conditions are more agreeable before attempting to launch the football betting service again.

It was also revealed during the get-together with analysts today that after Ascot’s licence was withdrawn in 1990, RM8 million in licence fees was refunded to the company by the Finance Ministry and that it was also given compensation of RM10.9 million for sports betting equipment by the Totalisator Board.

Tan’s meeting with gaming analysts from both buy and sell sides this afternoon is seen as a move to repair his company’s image after Berjaya Corp shares were battered today at the start of trading.

Trade was resumed at 10am after a one-hour suspension on trading following Berjaya Corp’s announcement that it was calling off plans to acquire Ascot.

As at 4pm Berjaya Corp’s share price was down 14 sen from its opening price to RM1.22.

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by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee
Centre for Policy Initiatives
27 June 2010

Life as a gamble

The cabinet decision not to issue a sports betting licence to Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd is the right one but it was made for the wrong reasons. According to prime minister Najib Razak, the reason for not legalizing sports betting was “the impact it will have from the perspective of religion and politics.”

To get a proper perspective of the issue, it is necessary to get off the religious and political high horse and acknowledge that we are a nation that loves the occasional flutter. And also let us admit that there’s nothing wrong with gambling so long as it is not taken to extreme lengths and becomes a pathological, compulsive or destructive habit.

In a sense, all of life and the various decisions that we make are gambles. Although it may be too much to say that we all have gambling in our genes, scientists have been debating on the extent to which gambling is a manifestation of human behavior for a long time – at least during the last 200 years or so.

In an article, ‘Human Behavior and the Efficiency of the Financial System’ (February 1998) Robert Schiller, the noted financial economist, wrote that “a tendency to gamble, to play games that bring on unnecessary risks, has been found to pervade widely divergent human cultures around the world and appears to be indicative of a basic human trait.”

Further he pointed to studies that estimated that 61% of the adult population in the United States participated in some form of gambling or betting in 1974. They estimated that 1.1% of men and 0.5% of women are “probably compulsive gamblers,” while an additional 2.7% of men and 1% of women are “potential compulsive gamblers.” These figures are probably much higher today.

Similar numbers are recorded in all the highly developed countries whose status the country aspires to. All the countries that our elite regard as role models whether in the East or West, North or South take a liberal position on gambling or gaming as it is sometimes referred to.

En Bloc Sale, Almost A Love Story

I was browsing through my older postings and I thought this was pretty good. Good enough to repost here after a year and a half. Something completely different... Readers, do indulge me a bit as I write a short story. I don't even read much fiction, and I don't aspire to be a fiction writer. Its fiction, I tell you, completely fictitious.....



The year was 2006, it was the end of October in Singapore. Sitting idly in her barely rocking, rocking chair - the chair must have seen better times, the ones you know may have existed when Kennedy was president, the rattan barely clinging on to the wooden frame. In many ways, the frail 82 year old lady was barely sitting in her chair. Siu Lan was her name, most of her family has already passed on. She knows she was closer to her time to exit, the way most older folks somehow know.

As the evening soft sun rays bathes her face, her eyes looked as if she was crying but there were no tears. Maybe she has cried all the tears she needed to in her life time. Yet she still cannot believe the events unfolding before her over the last few months.



She lives in Apartment C-412 Lincoln Lodge for over forty years. It was bought for a princely sum of S$85,000 even then. She did not own the apartment but she was told by her lover then that she will be able to live her life out in that grand apartment.

That was forty years ago. Fifty three years ago she was the third mistress of one of Singapore's wealthiest retail tycoon, let's call him Mr. Tang. Those were simpler times, when a man's word meant something. Mr. Tang would also make sure that Siu Lan will be able to get a decent monthly allowance banked into her account for the rest of her life, even after his death. There was no need to draw things up legally then. Those were more decent times. Maybe people were more long-suffering then, maybe they had less distractions, maybe life was simpler then, maybe times were crueler that way too.



Siu Lan, in many ways led a life of quiet desperation. The apartment was bought under one of Mr. Tang's private company. Siu Lan knew her status and her position. She was happy to just have the occasional visit from Mr. Tang. Sometimes its once a month, sometimes not even that. She bore him a daughter, and called her Su Shan, though she now go with the name Susan.

For an 82 year old woman, the rest of the world seems to be bypassing her for most of her life. Singapore evolved and developed for most of the 40 years Siu Lan stayed in her apartment.

While the rest of the country modernised, the lady stuck to her ways. She was very house proud, keeping every corner spankingly clean, almost unchanged for most of the 40 years. She stayed indoors most days, went for her evening walks and would then sit at the balcony to enjoy the sunset.



The rest of the world left her alone in her ways, except for when both worlds collided 6 months ago. The whole country was stirred into a frenzy by the "en-bloc sale" extravaganza. Murmurs by the corridors turned into vicious rumours in elevators. An initial offer of S$1.8m was offered a couple of weeks later. That was later raised to S$2.1m and was accepted by more than 96% of the owners. All were instant millionaires, when you consider that the market price was just $1.2m last year. Well, almost all...

As Siu Lan sat in her barely rocking chair, her eyes was welling up like a well of her memories. She had to move out of her apartment. But it was more than a place of abode for her. Did she loved her man, she asked herself. She could not say for certain, after all, a woman then usually followed the path that was dictated to her, rather than making out a path for herself. But that was all she had. A large part of her identity was being the mistress of Mr. Tang.

When he passed away twelve years back, she dare not attend his funeral, she wasn't invited, she wasn't welcomed, she wasn't even notified of his passing till three weeks after the funeral. Now she has to move out of the apartment.

She did not begrudge him for not transferring the apartment to her name. It never came up. To her, the apartment was more than just an apartment. It was a testament of the relationship she had. She had never been with another man all her life. That boxed her in, or rather she willingly was enclosed, or she did not have a choice. How to have a choice when your options are so limited then?



Mr. Tang's two sons from the first wife knew of her existence many years back. They allowed her to stay on but stopped the monthly payments six months after their father passed away. They voted in favour of the en-bloc sale.

She could have ranted and complained but that was not her nature. She ate her bitterness all her life and the moments of joy, far and few in between, were deep in the recesses of her memory.

A week before she was due to move out of her apartment, Siu Lan commited suicide. The coroner wrote that the cause of death was suicide, only that that wasn't the cause of her death.

Ball Talk Cock or Talk Cock Ball or Talk Ball Cock

Who has time to talk about business and stocks currently? Of course its the World Cup talk and how you are running out of excuses to get medical cert or sick leave.

The vuvuzelas will be big in EPL next season, because the England team plays like the vuvuzelas, makes a lot of noise but is pathetically and increasingly boring and annoying the more they play in the tournament.

This Brazil is not like the Brazil of old. This Brazil seems to have drunk a lot of Weizenbock, Klosch and Bock as their defence is BMW-solid.

Argentina is playing like the eventual winners, in spite of having Maradona as the coach - goes to show you how insignificant a role a coach plays to a team, just ask Capello.

South Korea, Japan and even North Korea did Asia proud, and was David Beckham masquerading as a Japanese player when they scored the two brilliant free kicks?

The French should be barred from the next World Cup so that they can have 8 years to think about what it means to be in a World Cup and what it means to play for your country.

I have a new nickname for Fernando Torres, I call him "Samson" now. He's no fucking good when you cut off his hair.



Best goal so far, Luis Suarez's (Uruguay) second goal against the Koreans.

Why is it that the game have 3 referees and we STILL always get goals that should not have been given (for offside / handball) and we get goals not given that should have been (crossed the line). It would be OK if the occurrence was once every 20 games, but its happening once every other game. C'mon, when there is available technology and its not too intrusive, USE IT - here, I agree, is where the US games are a lot smarter and better.

Mind you, Blatter said that the game is about controversies, ... BULLSHIT, if it is, then use only one referee and the person should be a non-neutral referee as well. For example, Brazil plays Spain, and you appoint an Argentine referee. Now you get all the controversies you want. Look at the American games, they use the best technology for aiding the umpires, and still they have sufficient controversies leftover. Go resign la Blatter, the only thing you have in common with football is your first name (ala Sepp Maier).

Now to the Jabulani ball, I call it the Cristiano Ronaldo Ball because it flies through the air even if you just tap it lightly. Why do you tinker with the ball every World Cup? Obviously its a marketing gimmick. It almost never happens in other games. Scoring was down by 16 goals after the first round compared to the 2006 World Cup. How much was due to the increased difficulty to control the ball?



Herein lies the conspiracy theory. Look at who has scored the most (disregard the Portugal / North Korean match). Apparently the Germans had a few months to play with the Jabulani balls (this line would be really funny if there was actually someone named Jabulani). The German team is good but seriously, not great, but look at how effective they were when finishing their shots, they were so precise and effective. Look at the 4 goals each against Australia and England.

Hence Germany could be a good dark horse even though its still just #5 probably in odds to win the World Cup now, ... behind Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the Netherlands. If they really have a strong familiarity with the ball, they may well need only a few live shooting chances to score, while the rest will need more chances. For example, Brazil may convert at 15% which means they will score once for every 6.6 chances. While Germany may have a 35% conversion rate owing to their better ball familiarity, thus may only need less than 3 live chances to get a goal.

Which Meat You Can Take Off Your List

I was salivating over the posting by Camemberu over the 7 celebrity chefs operating at Marina Bay Sands. They include: Daniel Boulud, Guy Savoy, Santi Santamaria, Tetsuya Wakuda, Justin Quek, Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck.


http://www.camemberu.com/



Since it will be sometime before I get to go down to Singapore to try their dishes, something came up which I would like to share with all my readers. This is actually a great conversation topic. If you have to give up one meat, which is the first and which is the last. Let's just focus on lamb, beef, pork, fish, poultry and duck.

If you are Chinese the majority would put lamb as their first meat to cut, duck would be a close second. If you are Muslim of course take pork out of the equation. I have tried this topic among colleagues from differing countries. If you are Middle Eastern, lamb is number one. They would cut fish out as they do not have much of that and duck as well.

If you are from South America, beef is your favourite meat, same for Brits and Americans. Naturally, Japanese would cut fish out last.

For me, my favourite in order: lamb, pork, duck, beef, fish, poultry. Duck is such a silly thing, there are not that many dishes you can do with duck and yet I rate it higher than beef. I love lamb or mutton, I love the sou-mei, the more the better. In any case pork would win out anytime due to its versatility and that you can eat every part in plenty of imaginative ways.

Poultry is just poultry even if you get the best Shatin pigeon. The biggest drawback of duck is that it has the highest concentration of uric acid ~ nitrates ~ gout. Sigh!

Movie Review: Dream Home

When I was in HK a couple of weeks back, I had a free afternoon and wandered in to watch a just released HK movie Dream Home. Had no bloody idea what the movie was going to be all about. OMG, it was a slasher movie in the vein of Takeshi Ishii (Freeze Me) and Takashi Miike (Audition & Ichi The Killer), he would have been proud of this one.




Directed by Hong Kong director Pang Ho-cheung (‘Exodus,’ ‘Isabella’, 'You Shoot I Shoot'), this movie probably would have a hard time to find backers if it wasn't executive produced by Josie Ho (the lead) and also the daughter of Stanley Ho. Owing to her clout, the cast include many big names in the industry, people you wouldn't dream of being in this kind of movie.

The movie is UNLIKELY to get passed to be screened in Malaysia or Singapore, so make sure you get your authentic copy online. If the censors get their hands on it, that thing would become a 4 minute movie.

With a style that’s both lucid and extreme, the film tells the story, without holding back on any of its most violent particulars, the mad obstacle course of a young woman capable of doing anything in order to obtain her dream home (with a sea view). The film is also a solemn, and at the same time psychotic, homage to the city of Hong Kong, to its high-rises, its houses, and its miniscule apartments, all destined to remain for many young single people, unobtainable goals, due to the extortionate prices of the entire real estate sector!

Defined and announced as the craziest and the most bloody slasher movie ever made in Hong Kong, Dream Home stars the superb Josie Ho Ho who with her company “852 Film” is also responsible for the film’s production. For Pang Ho-cheung, the film was a truly unique opportunity, not only for the extraordinary budget of US$4 million (entirely unusual for the cinema of Hong Kong today) but also for the possibility to bring to the big screen one of his numerous bizarre and irresistible stories about ghosts and black humour.

A curious fact: the film’s soundtrack is entirely Italian, composed by the musician Gabriele Roberto, who has already worked with Pang in 2007 for the thriller Exodus. Roberto has lived in Tokyo for many years, and is responsible for the music of many cinema projects; the musical scores of Memories of Matsuko and Paco and The Magical Picture Book being amongst his most famous compositions.

Cast :

Josie Ho Chiu Yee
Anthony Wong Chau Sang
Michelle Yip Suen
Eason Chan Yik Shun
Norman Chu Siu Keung
Lawrence Chou Jun Wai
Nina Pau Hei Ching
Derek Tsang Kwok Cheung
Lo Hoi Pang
Juno Mak Jun Lung



Its graphic, senseless at times, but extremely well executed (pardon the pun). Not for those with weak hearts.