Well, Singapore is the favourite place in Asia for expats if I recall properly the last survey I read, so it seems my opinion is not that odd. Also, fwiw, I do tend to compare Sgp to HK, but there appears to be quite enough activities for kids (you can google Singapore for kids), and most of Singapore, including children activities, is amazingly well made - kindda East meets West and does better than both. It's a small territory but from experience even when living in bigger cities/countries, we tend to stick to the same smallish areas, and going to the airport is a breeze, although HK is quite good for that as well. I don't like the weather much either, but (my) kids sure do, it's even more desperate than before now we are back in Asia to try and take them to the icy areas i'm very fond of. Also it is very clean, safe and i like the english/mandarine atmosphere. People are more relaxed than in HK as well We just spent 1 week in the Marina in Singapore and i found it awesome, as usual. About prostitution i'm not up to date on what's going on, but I doubt girlie bars, escort services or hookers on the street have disappeared. I like it that way actually, more german than swedish in that domain, although either way won't impact much my daily life.
fair points, I guess it comes down to taste and preferences between the 2 cities. Education wise both cities are a nightmare considering that getting kids into a decent private school is at times harder than getting your butt into Harvard. I know friends who visited more than 15 schools in either city in their attempt to get their kids into school and in the end it was never the merit that got kids the coveted spot in the class but the debentures and other outright bribes. No other jurisdiction degrades education to a corruption contest more than HK and Singapore. A lot of my friends who were supposed to be sent by their companies to HK or Singapore declined simply because they could not get their kids into school, either because their companies did not have access to debentures and hence the parents would have to trade them in the "secondary market" or because they did not want to participate in this obvious bribery game.
Breaking news : Faced with an increase of vandalism from visiting German youth, the Singapore parliement has unamimously voted in favour of toughening the law. Any german altering the beauty and purity of Singapore architecture, no matter how trendy it might be considered in arty Berlin, will no longer be housed in the city state clean jails, fed and spanked around friendly. Instead they will immediately be deported to Greece. Tsipras was seen salivating and sharpening his paper cup at the announcement. Merkel choked. Schauble muttered " we're doomed"
These Greeks are really getting me to dig into Greec sovereign debts history * 4th century BC : 10 out of 13 Greek states defaulted on loans from the Temple of Delos * 1826 default. War of independence 1824: loan of 472,000pounds on London Stock Exchange to continue war. Oversubscribed loan. Additional loan of 1.1 million pounds floated in 1825 Greece settled the loan in 1878, it had ballooned to 10 million pounds Profits : 9.9 million pounds over 50 years *1832 loan: 60 million drachmas ( France, Russia, UK gvt ) aim: build economy. Greek paid it till 1843 where it stopped payments Greece was then shut out of international capital markets Greek government borrowed from National Bank of Greece at a rate higher than international lending rates *1894 Greece settled all outstanding laons in 1878. Global capital markets enthusiastically loaned to Greece. Greece defaulted in 1893. 1898: foreign pressures so Greece accepted conditions from the International Committee for Greek Debt Management. Committee monitored Greece' economic policy, tax collection and management systems of Greece *1932 : great depression Greece put a moratium. Eleftherios Venizelos was Greek Prime Minister that defaulted on Greece sovereign debt in 1932, he was the Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of finance in actual Greek currency crisis!!!! * nowdays : is history repeating itself? If so, there should be an intenational commitee to manage Greece: - greek budget - greek taxation Then Greece will reimburse its debts ( profits range of at least billions over 50 years). And then Greece will borrow again and lenders will be even more enthusiastic to lend. Greece is actually a good customer for government loans.