Singapore most liveable city in S-E Asia: Survey

Ok, we're used to covering purpose by analysing who said what to whom, when, where and for what. Here's another dimension to uncovering purpose: spin headlines. These findings are not stuff for celebration but the editors have put the positive spin to the content by re-defining the benchmark. In a global survey, Singapore is supposedly doing well by narrowing the competition and confining your comparisons. In fact, google the same survey and you will find only the local media captioned this survey with this headline. Why? You tell me!

LONDON: Singapore is among the four most liveable cities in Asia - after Osaka, Tokyo and Hong Kong - and ranks 54th worldwide, according to the latest assessment of 140 cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Canadian and Australian cities did well in the assessment, taking six of the top 10 spots in the rankings, which were based on ratings assigned to 30 factors across five broad categories - stability, health care, education, infrastructure, culture and environment.

US cities were well down the list. Pittsburgh, which ranked highest among US cities, was in 29th place. New York at No.56 was two notches below Singapore.

Singapore, top among South-east Asian nations, scored 88.5, putting it ahead of Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, which came in 79th and 123rd, respectively.

The highest-ranked Asian cities in the list were Japan's Osaka (13th) and Tokyo (joint 19th with Frankfurt, Germany), Hong Kong (an equal 39th with Madrid, Spain), Singapore (54th) and Seoul, South Korea (58th). The lowest-ranked city in South-east Asia was Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which came in 128th.

Top-ranked Vancouver scored 98, benefiting from strong infrastructure, while Harare languished with just 37.5 'thanks to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe'.

A string of US cities filled the rankings from 30th to 50th position - Washington D.C. in 35th place, Los Angeles in 48th - followed by another smattering of European conurbations: London in 51st spot, Rome 52nd, while Athens was given Western Europe's lowest showing in 63rd spot.

Lower down the list came Moscow in 69th spot, Beijing in 76th, Johannesburg - which shared a joint 92nd spot with Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo - and Bangkok in 100th place.

The bottom rankings were occupied by a swathe of Asian and African cities: Manila in 108th, New Delhi in joint 114th spot with Cairo, Mumbai in 120th, Nairobi in 122nd and Lusaka, Zambia in 126th.

Cities scoring below 50 which 'present daily challenges to living standards', the study noted, included Teheran, Iran, in 129th place; Karachi, Pakistan in 135th; and Lagos, Nigeria, in 136th.

Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, Algiers in Algeria, and Dhaka in Bangladesh rounded off the list at the bottom. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE