The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survery revealed that Vancouver is the most liveable city in the world, followed by Vienna & Melbourne.
For Asian cities, Singapore ranks 54th, Hong Kong ranks 39th.
I have serious doubts about the accuracy of this survery.
How can it be possible that Hong Kong ranks higher than Singapore? It is not that I am biased because I live in Singapore, but the undeniable fact that most Hong Kongers live in match-box like flats. I had been to my aunt's flat, and also one of my friends' flat. They are both ordinary Hong Kong residents, making a decent or ordinary living in Hong Kong. The size of their flat? About 40-50 squared meters. The washing machine has to share with the toilet. Everything is so small.
Beside small flats, the environment is not that good either. Air quality in Hong Kong is forever in the unhealthy range. Sky is hardly blue.
For the five categories that the survey looks at, stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, & infrastructure, I don't think Singapore lags behind Hong Kong in any of them, other than culture.
Ok, it is just a survey. It is good to know that we are lagging behind, time for our government to put in some more efforts to make this tiny country more liveable. :)
PS. Oh, I just saw that Sydney ranks in No. 9, tied with Zurich. My foot, man. I strongly disagree. I spent a year in Sydney, I only feel everything is over-priced there, city streets are narrow and dark. Life is boring. Personal safety is in doubt. This survey is really unbelieveable.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Kill Yourself - For the Sake of the Environment
Reading an article somwhere saying that taking public transport may not be a good idea to reduce carbon emission. Public transports have lots of hidden carbon emission, and it may not be effective at all in reducing CO2.
I would like to know who are these people actually. What are their backgrounds. A possible suspect is that these researches are funded by people who will benefit from people who not taking public transports.
Well, you can argue whatever you want, and it is actually possible that public transports still have a large amount of carbon emission. But, hellow, please, unless you go to the kitchen now and grap a knife and kill yourself, you won't reduce carbon emission to 0. CO2 is a natural part of the air, and its existence has a purpose. Too much CO2 is bad, but then as long as we can strike a balance, then nobody will get hurt. You can't ask everyone to die so that the earth can be saved. If that is the case, what is the purpose of saving the earth? If we need to kill all the babies in the world so that we can have a better world, what is that so-called better world for?
The so-called environmentalists sometimes are insane. Humans no doubt need to care for our mother nature or she will take her revenge, but we have to be realistic as well. Taoism promotes the balance between Ying & Yan and the world will be in peace. You have to strike a balance too. And then some hypercrits just want to make use of environmental issues to work for their own benefit, making a fool of the rest of the world.
I have enough of those stupid idiotic research findings.
I would like to know who are these people actually. What are their backgrounds. A possible suspect is that these researches are funded by people who will benefit from people who not taking public transports.
Well, you can argue whatever you want, and it is actually possible that public transports still have a large amount of carbon emission. But, hellow, please, unless you go to the kitchen now and grap a knife and kill yourself, you won't reduce carbon emission to 0. CO2 is a natural part of the air, and its existence has a purpose. Too much CO2 is bad, but then as long as we can strike a balance, then nobody will get hurt. You can't ask everyone to die so that the earth can be saved. If that is the case, what is the purpose of saving the earth? If we need to kill all the babies in the world so that we can have a better world, what is that so-called better world for?
The so-called environmentalists sometimes are insane. Humans no doubt need to care for our mother nature or she will take her revenge, but we have to be realistic as well. Taoism promotes the balance between Ying & Yan and the world will be in peace. You have to strike a balance too. And then some hypercrits just want to make use of environmental issues to work for their own benefit, making a fool of the rest of the world.
I have enough of those stupid idiotic research findings.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
City Wandering
Yesterday, after attending CMC's trader's psychology seminar, went over to Chinatown to have fish-head rice noodle (mee hoon) at the coffee shop opposite CK departmental store. Heard that that coffee shop is a famous one, for their Cantonese style congee.
Anyway, I still ordered the rice noodle instead of congee. The taste is not too bad, especially the soup.
Once stomach is filled, I wandering over to Orchard to take a look at the sales at Robinson's at Center point. Wow, a lot of people. The queues were long. Bought a T-shirt for my Dad. For the first time ever, I stood in the long queue to pay for the item. It was quite insane, but somehow this time I did it.
Opposite Centerpoint, the new shopping mall - Orchard Central, has already opened its doors to welcome visitors, although unofficially. A handful of shops are open, while the rest are still doing their renovation work.
The place is quite fanciful. Heavy use of glass panels. I always have this phobia that people will just break the glass and jump off to their ... And also I always worry that the glass may break, people may fall... All the pessimistic & weird thoughts, haha....
Orchard Central has a nice viewing platform at the top level. You can have a good view of Orchard Road and its surrounding areas. All you see now is just construction sites and the air-con units at the roof-tops :P
Somehow I have the feeling that Orchard Central will be a disappointment. Looking at the layout, it has the similar concept as the Central Mall. Small alleys, winding walkway, giving people this feel of being squeezed, a sense of insecurity, and most importantly, inefficient use of floor space. I hope my feeling is wrong.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Orchard Linkway Re-Opened
After a long long time, the underground linkway between Orchard MRT station and Wisma Atria has finally re-opened. People now can go to Takashimaya, Ngee Ann City without going up to the ground level, avoiding the sun & the rain.
Trader Psychology
Attended a trader's psychology seminar organized by CMC markets this morning, with Henry Pek as the speaker.
The seminar is from 9am till 1pm, lasting for a full 4 hours, including half an hour tea break. This 4-hour long seminar, however, only touched superficially about trader's psychology, just the superficial part, although they are all very important and they are essence of trader's psychology. Then in such a short seminar, with a couple hundred people in an auditorium, the messages being sent to the audience, I am afraid, will not be strong enough, and will not get to the people who need it most.
Well, once someone told me that I should attend as many workshops, seminars, talks etc as possible. You won't learn a lot from any one workshop or seminar, but as long as you learn something, it is already good enough. So today, what I learnt is this:
THINK LIKE AN INVESTOR, ACT LIKE A TRADER.
And also some quotes from the famous Kungfu star, Bruce Lee:
Knowing is not enough, we must apply; willing is not enough, we must do!
Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.
The seminar is from 9am till 1pm, lasting for a full 4 hours, including half an hour tea break. This 4-hour long seminar, however, only touched superficially about trader's psychology, just the superficial part, although they are all very important and they are essence of trader's psychology. Then in such a short seminar, with a couple hundred people in an auditorium, the messages being sent to the audience, I am afraid, will not be strong enough, and will not get to the people who need it most.
Well, once someone told me that I should attend as many workshops, seminars, talks etc as possible. You won't learn a lot from any one workshop or seminar, but as long as you learn something, it is already good enough. So today, what I learnt is this:
THINK LIKE AN INVESTOR, ACT LIKE A TRADER.
And also some quotes from the famous Kungfu star, Bruce Lee:
Knowing is not enough, we must apply; willing is not enough, we must do!
Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Financial Freedom
Most people have the perception that if a person achieves financial freedom, he/she then will live in the lap of luxury. And for that reason, it is very difficult to achieve financial freedom. I thought so too, until I read Dr. Van Tharp's book on financial freedom.
His definition of financial freedom is just your passive income is enough to cover your daily expenses and your lifestyle. If you lead a frugal life that does not need a lot of money to support, then it is easier for you to achieve financial freedom.
For example, if a person only needs $100 to survive for a month, isn't it obvious that he only needs to find a passive income that gives him at least $100 a month? Comparing with someone who needs $10,000 to survive for a month, don't you think it is much easier for the $100 guy to achieve financial freedom than the $10,000 guy?
Life is full of choices, financial freedom is also a matter of choice. I constantly remind myself that my goal is to achieve financial freedom, not living in a lap of luxury. You don't need a well-paid job to survive. A job you don't like will only tie you down, make you unhappy everyday. If you can step back, there may be a much great world awaiting you, a much happier life waiting right there for you. Keeping your current job may not be everything, losing your current job does not mean you lose everything either. It may only mean one door is slammed right in your face, while many doors are wide-open for you.
His definition of financial freedom is just your passive income is enough to cover your daily expenses and your lifestyle. If you lead a frugal life that does not need a lot of money to support, then it is easier for you to achieve financial freedom.
For example, if a person only needs $100 to survive for a month, isn't it obvious that he only needs to find a passive income that gives him at least $100 a month? Comparing with someone who needs $10,000 to survive for a month, don't you think it is much easier for the $100 guy to achieve financial freedom than the $10,000 guy?
Life is full of choices, financial freedom is also a matter of choice. I constantly remind myself that my goal is to achieve financial freedom, not living in a lap of luxury. You don't need a well-paid job to survive. A job you don't like will only tie you down, make you unhappy everyday. If you can step back, there may be a much great world awaiting you, a much happier life waiting right there for you. Keeping your current job may not be everything, losing your current job does not mean you lose everything either. It may only mean one door is slammed right in your face, while many doors are wide-open for you.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Electricity Bill Going Up Soon?
Just watched the news, which said that our electricity tariff might be going up soon. Oil prices has gone up to about US$68/barrel from its low of US$38/barrel?
OMG, price increase again, just when the weather is getting hotter and hotter day by day. I thought recession will bring price down, but not this one. This current recession is one of the worst I have seen. Prices don't go down, they go up. A meal used to cost me only S$2.50? Then S$3.50? Now it is inching up to S$4.00, sometimes even S$5.00.
I firmly believed that after this current recession, there will be hyperinflation. All commodities will go up in price, as they are getting mroe and more rare. But then I say only lor, no action one. Don't even dare to touch the commodity ETF, so volatile. Weak heart will sure get heart attacks often. :(
OMG, price increase again, just when the weather is getting hotter and hotter day by day. I thought recession will bring price down, but not this one. This current recession is one of the worst I have seen. Prices don't go down, they go up. A meal used to cost me only S$2.50? Then S$3.50? Now it is inching up to S$4.00, sometimes even S$5.00.
I firmly believed that after this current recession, there will be hyperinflation. All commodities will go up in price, as they are getting mroe and more rare. But then I say only lor, no action one. Don't even dare to touch the commodity ETF, so volatile. Weak heart will sure get heart attacks often. :(
Monday, June 1, 2009
Carbon Footprint Calculator
I read in the newspaper that you can calculate your own carbon footprint at this site: http://www.mycarbonfootprint.sg/.
Out of curiousity, I gave it a try. Here are my opinions.
1. They should as an English language teacher to check the grammer. Mistakes such as "does you & your family..." are aplenty in the questions.
2. Carbon footprint, to me, is something intangible, and all those calculations, at best, are guesstimates. The calculator asks you lots of questions to give you an estimate. For your reference only, don't get too upset about it.
3. What I don't like the most is at the end of the questionaire. They ask you for your NRIC number, email, name, etc, before they will proceed to give you the guesstimate of your carbon footprint. Hello, what are you trying to do? Why do you need to collect my personal information? If you want to compile an emailing list, fine, give visitors an option to opt in or opt out or to subscribe. (If you don't want to give out your personal details, just fill in some rubbish there)
The intention of the website may be good, but then please put in a bit more effort to make the site at least look more professional. Good intentions need good results to back them up. You can talk the talk, you have to be able to walk the walk, too.
Out of curiousity, I gave it a try. Here are my opinions.
1. They should as an English language teacher to check the grammer. Mistakes such as "does you & your family..." are aplenty in the questions.
2. Carbon footprint, to me, is something intangible, and all those calculations, at best, are guesstimates. The calculator asks you lots of questions to give you an estimate. For your reference only, don't get too upset about it.
3. What I don't like the most is at the end of the questionaire. They ask you for your NRIC number, email, name, etc, before they will proceed to give you the guesstimate of your carbon footprint. Hello, what are you trying to do? Why do you need to collect my personal information? If you want to compile an emailing list, fine, give visitors an option to opt in or opt out or to subscribe. (If you don't want to give out your personal details, just fill in some rubbish there)
The intention of the website may be good, but then please put in a bit more effort to make the site at least look more professional. Good intentions need good results to back them up. You can talk the talk, you have to be able to walk the walk, too.
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