World's most liveable cities:Vancouver No.1, Singapore No.54
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World's most liveable cities: Vancouver No.1, Singapore No.54
Seelan: Please note that Singapore did not even make it in the top 20. This is especially for some of you out there who think that Singapore is the best place on Earth even though you've never even seen a quarter of the rest of the planet.
World's most liveable cities
Brisbane Times
Australian
cities occupy five of the top 20 places in a British survey ranking the
liveability of 140 of the world's major centres.
Melbourne ranked third in the world, behind Vancouver in Canada and the Austrian city of Vienna in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2009 Liveability survey.
It assessed 140 cities based on stability, health care, education, infrastructure and culture and environment, giving each one a rating out of 100.
Perth was equal fifth with Calgary in Canada, with Sydney sharing ninth place with Zurich in Switzerland and Brisbane in 16th place.
As well as Vancouver and Calgary, Canadian cities also featured strongly in the top 20, with Toronto (4th) and Montreal (17th).
The New Zealand cities of Auckland and Wellington finished 12th and 23rd respectively.
US centres were well down the list. Pittsburgh ranked highest, in 29th place.
The highest-ranked Asian city was Osaka in Japan (13th). The next highest was Hong Kong (equal 39th with Madrid, Spain) followed by Singapore (54th) and Seoul, South Korea (58th).
The worst city to live on earth is Harare, the strife-torn capital of Zimbabwe.
"The performance of Asian cities reflects the diverse levels of development throughout the region," EIU spokesman Jon Copestake said.
"Australian cities represent many of the best aspects of liveability, while instability in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh means that cities in South Asia fare much worse."
The Economist Intelligence Unit is a branch of The Economist Group, which publishes The Economist, a weekly news magazine, in London. -
Singapore Island. The standoff.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The standoff between the democracy activists and the Singapore Island dictatorship of Lee Kuan Yew continues. There are 19 human rights activists who are now on trial in Lee Kuan Yew's courts for staging a peaceful protest, the "Ta Boleh Tahan" (meaning we cannot take it anymore) in 2006 in front of Singapore's make believe Parliament. Except for 3 of the 19 who pleaded guilty for personal reasons, the rest remain defiant in their determination not to succumb and give this government a run for their money.
Lee Kuan Yew's ever willing Attorney General Walter Woon finds himself in a quandary. With the earlier trials against other peaceful protesters which had all backfired resulting in the government getting very bad publicity throughout the world for human rights violations for jailing peaceful protesters, they find the prospect of sending these 16 peaceful protesters to jail in this case would tarnish their already damaged reputation even further. Lee Kuan Yew's enforcer, Walter Woon would rather let all these protesters go for damage control if they would only plead guilty, but they are simply refusing to budge.
In the meantime, with this government not knowing what to do, they keep postponing the case, as if they rather keep the day of reckoning as far away as possible. As for these brave young men and women, they on their part refuse to let up, no matter how long the government keeps postponing the case. And the one that actually suffers the most are the island's taxpayers, as their money is being wasted in this totally unnecessary court case which simply refuses to end.
The message from this case should be very clear. This dictatorship has finally realized that there is a very high price to pay in the damage to their international image if they are seen repeatedly to throw peaceful protesters in jail. Each time they do it, it is picked up by the international press who relish the opportunity to paint this government in as bad a light as they can; not surprisingly since Lee Kuan Yew repeatedly sues them in his courts for no rime or reason.
In this standoff between Singapore's human rights activists and Lee Kuan Yew, Mr. Lee appears now to be suffering from prosecution fatigue. He is now beginning to realize that abusing the law to jail peaceful protesters does not appear to deliver the desired results. Too many of these prosecutions against these innocent men and women tends to be counter productive, it angers the general public which see the government as bullies who go about punishing innocent victims.
One example is the recent arrest of human rights activist Seelan Pallay and Kai Xiong who had demonstrated in front of the ministry of Manpower about 4 months ago, in support of Burmese nationals who were being deported. It appears that until today, the police have not taken any action against them, since nothing has been reported in the press. So finally, this government has seen the light, it seems. Prosecuting them and sending them to jail would only tend to show this government even further as the ruthless intolerant fascist government that it is.
At the present moment, this government finds itself hard put to charge anyone for any new peaceful protest incidents. They appear to have learnt their lesson finally which is, it hurts their image more to abuse the law repeatedly. There comes a point where fear turns to hate, and that is the point which this dictatorship has reached.
So with the standoff now ongoing with these human rights activists and this dictatorship which relies on fear to stay in power, I feel that from this point on, Singapore's freedom fighters have the upper hand in peaceful protests. This government has finally become powerless. So seize the moment. I think you have the upper hand now.
Gopalan Nairhttp://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2009/06/
Singapore island. The boxing match.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Singapore Stadium.
Singapore heavyweight boxing match of 10000 rounds. In this corner weighing 2000lbs the undefeated Singapore island national champions for the last 50 years:1. Lee Kuan Yew the dictator who governs through fear
2. His son, the Prime Minister, Lee's sidekick
3. Lee Kuan Yew's minions, Wong Kan Seng, Vivian Balakrishnan etc.
4. His other minions, the PAP Members of Parliament etc.
In the other corner weighing 10,000 lbs,
1. Dr. Chee Soon Juan, political opposition leader who stands for truth justice and democracy2. His supporters and political activists
3. Gopalan Nair from Fremont, California
4. The majority of Signaporeans who oppose the dictator's rule, standing for freedom and justioce
5. The thousands of Singaporeans abroad who are waiting for the dictator's regime to collapse
6. The interantional media who are dying for every oppurtuunity to expose the fascist regime.
7. The thousands of human rights organizations abroad who daily expose the truth about Siganpore from under the veneer of respectibility
8. The local and interantional blogging community who fight to expose this distatorship.
Who do you think will win?
Gopalan Nair -
wow
u flame pap
buey sian 1 ah
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looks at boxing match...........decides to bring in foreign talent from WWF to be sole winner!
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Proof: Edison Chen lives in Vancouver.
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But it seems to me that there are so many views from different countries regarding most livable cities.
I don't trust stuffs from Australia, the people there discriminate asians so much, I guess they will lower the asian countries to a lower rank instead.
Just my point of view
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Vancouver doesn't have F1, IR and Singapore Flyer.
Hrmph.
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Originally posted by Kutter:
But it seems to me that there are so many views from different countries regarding most livable cities.
I don't trust stuffs from Australia, the people there discriminate asians so much, I guess they will lower the asian countries to a lower rank instead.
Just my point of view
I agree, you got that right.
Ever wondered why Oz isn't like singapore? Because the govt takes the citizen's interests in heart.
It protects its citizens more than the people who come into their country, thats why their rules to get PR, and such are so strict. -
Originally posted by charlize:
Vancouver doesn't have F1, IR and Singapore Flyer.
Hrmph.
Vancouver has Edison Chen.
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vancouver huh ......
*thinks back to the fights I've witnessed .... .
nah .... not really ....
if you're a millionaire ... I definitely agree that vancouver is a much much better place to be than Singapore ....
if you're in the lower income brackets, I'd say Singapore is better ....
at least here, you're safer from drugs and crime ..... for now ...
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If any study shows that Singapore is in the top 5, they will say its a fake study, or propanganda by PAP, selective publishing by the media... then if this kind of results shows that Singapore is way down the pecking order, they will say this is the bibilical truth. Wow, how unbiase.
You just cant win with these people huh haha
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If any study shows that Singapore is in the top 5, they will say its a fake study, or propanganda by PAP, selective publishing by the media...
No choice lah, our state media you also know, all PAP propaganda.
Where got show negative or critical stuff about government or state?
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You see!
Canada has 3 cities which are in the Top 3 list.
It's near the most powerful nation in the world, contains oil and gold reserves as natural resources and is tolerant towards nationalities.
I wish to migrate there someday and settle down in Toronto.
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vancouver number 1? TORONTO NUMBER 4??? ahahahhahahahaha. wtf. who the fuck did this ranking? and calgary? how did it get so high????
if i had to stay in Canada, Vancouver and Toronto are the last places you'll find me.
if anything, canada's no less fucked than singapore. maybe in somewhat different ways. that's all.
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They rich Singaporeans quitters are not idiots are they? They have been rushing to Australia and Canada.
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Originally posted by udontknowme:
vancouver number 1? TORONTO NUMBER 4??? ahahahhahahahaha. wtf. who the fuck did this ranking? and calgary? how did it get so high????
if i had to stay in Canada, Vancouver and Toronto are the last places you'll find me.
if anything, canada's no less fucked than singapore. maybe in somewhat different ways. that's all.
Why do you hate Canada so much?Ain't USA much worse?
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It is really hard to say which city is more livable.
Why are singaporean who migrate to vacouver all stay at coquitlam? Why not stay at Burnaby and speak cantonese, or stay at surrey with the singh? go to the abedeen mall in richmond and you will wonder where are the native canadian? but who are native? the red indians or the caucasian?
if you have money, anywhere is livable.
if you come to singapore, board a taxi and you will always meet a singaporean uncle who speak good about singapore and bad about PAP. Everytime i took taxi in vancouver, the driver is a singh, just arrived, have to tell him the way. So far I have never taken two taxis driven by the same ethnic group in toronto, one italian, one polish, one pakistani, one hungarian.....and here is hear people say the government don't protect job for locals.
If you have the right mindset, everywhere is livable.
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Singapore don't even deserve to be no 54
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Originally posted by Fantagf:
Singapore don't even deserve to be no 54
Then what ranking does it deserve? -
Originally posted by dare82:
Then what ranking does it deserve?It deserves to be No.1, as usual.
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The little red dot is fading off the liveable city's radar.
We should be relieved that we are better than the 55th liveable city.
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liveable does not imply workable
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What were the factors considered in the definition of 'liveable'?
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Hi every body,
There is no point to envy any city when u cannot afford.
i am very frank sorry lah..'
with the sky high mortgage interest rate in oz,can u
afford to stay there?
Pl note that there are two banks in oz just make a U turn
to increase interest rate by 0.1 to 0.5 %!!
Is the housing party over in Oz?
Three-year fixed home loans now stand at 6.49 per cent, while both four and five year loans will cost new customers 7.14 per cent in interest per annum.
Rates on one-year fixed mortgages was raised by 10 basis points to 5.44 per cent, and by 20 basis points on two-year fixed mortgages to 5.94 per cent.
http://www.news.com.au/business/money/story/0,28323,25654511-5016110,00.html
St George joins rate hike party
ST GEORGE is the latest bank to raise rates on fixed home loans.
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FYI,Singapore HDB current rate is just 2.6%,and
most of SG banks is cheaper!!
Pl do your home work carefully.
can the so called high gross salary,better welfare etc
off set the higher mortgage rate?
say u have a loan A 250,000,
u have to pay at least 3% more than u are in SG ,is A $7500 a year.
How much can u get per month net,after the high income tax in OZ!!
gg
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wow wow very high,mates
Income Tax in Australia
-For example, a salary of $50,000 would be taxed at:
0% on the first $6,000 = $0
15 percent on $6,001 - $35,000 = $4,350
30 percent on $35,001 - $50,000 = $4,500
Total tax levied on $50,000 = $8,850jj