Sunday, October 5, 2008

Reason #2 to love Taiwan

Safety.

I occasionally hear people talking smack about Taiwan and life in Taipei. There are folks who seem to think that this is a dodgy city, or that it's mean&dirty in some way. That you've got to be tough to hack it here.

Uh, no. My great-great grandma's sitting room is more dangerous than Taipei.

You want a dodgy capital city? Try Manila (though I like it there) or Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. Thank your lucky stars you don't live in the latter:

In 2004, Port Moresby was ranked the worst capital city in the world to live in the Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking of 130 of the world's capital cities . High levels of rape, robbery and murder and large areas of the city controlled by gangs of thugs, known locally as "rascals" (Tok Pisin raskol), were cited. According to a 2004 article in the Guardian newspaper, unemployment rates are estimated to be between 60 and 90% and murder rates three times that of Moscow and 23 times the rate in London.[2]

(From Wikipedia, that bastion of truth and accuracy)

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