For a sixth straight year, Singapore remains the easiest place to do business, according to the World Bank report published Wednesday.
source: AFP Thursday 20 October 2011, 8:50

Top 10 Highest Paid Government Leaders

Brent Radcliffe, On Wednesday 19 October 2011, 0:28 SGT

You may think that those wishing to suffer extreme public scrutiny while making decisions that affect millions of citizens would demand the big bucks, but when it comes to pay, many world leaders look like chumps compared to the CEOs of many corporations. While most salaries pale in comparison to the likes of Warren Buffett's, some are downright huge when compared to the people a leader may govern.

Top 10 Political Leader's Salary by Country (2010):1. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): $2,183,516
2. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): $513,245
3. Raila Odinga (Kenya): $427,886
4. Barack Obama (United States): $400,000
5. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): $302,435
6. Stephen Harper (Canada): $296,400 
7. Mary McAleese (Ireland): $287,900
8. Julia Gillard (Australia): $286,752
9. Angela Merkel (Germany): $283,608
10. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): $273,676

Salary Compared to GDPWhat makes a world leader's pay reasonable or outlandish? One way of making this call is by looking at pay compared to a country's GDP per person at purchasing power parity (PPP). Using PPP helps make a better estimate of just how far money goes in a country, since the cost of living will vary from country to country. Comparing each leader's salary (in international dollars) to the IMF's 2010 PPP figures shows how much more a world leader makes compared to an average joe at home.

1. Raila Odinga (Kenya): 255.30
2. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): 38.51
3. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): 11.17
4. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): 8.92
5. Barack Obama (United States): 8.54
6. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): 8.08
7. Angela Merkel (Germany): 7.86
8. Stephen Harper (Canada): 7.57
9. Mary McAleese (Ireland): 7.29
10. Julia Gillard (Australia): 7.21

What do these numbers mean? Looking at GDP per person doesn't show how a country stacks up in terms of income inequality, a statistic that can measured using the Gini coefficient. Ranking the leaders by their country's income inequality can really show how far out of touch a leader is with those governed. The Gini coefficient changes things up (zero means perfect equality and one perfect inequality).

1. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): 0.434
2. Raila Odinga (Kenya): 0.425
3. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): 0.425
4. Barack Obama (United States): 0.408
5. Julia Gillard (Australia): 0.352
6. Mary McAleese (Ireland): 0.343
7. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): 0.327
8. Stephen Harper (Canada): 0.326 
9. Angela Merkel (Germany): 0.283
10. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): 0.249

Base Salary Vs. Perks
When it comes to what a leader is really paid, a distinction must be made between base salary and additional stipends. Leaders may receive free residences or residential stipends, free healthcare, free travel and other perks. They may be permitted expenses that most people would have to pay for out of pocket. Those figures are more difficult to come by, especially in the murky world of political influence.

Less scrupulous world leaders may pad their own bank accounts with their own country's money through corruption. "Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)," first released in 1995, tracks corruption trends in 178 countries. It assigns a rank of 10 to countries deemed clean, and zero to countries considered highly corrupt. Ranking the leaders by how corrupt their countries are, the ranking shifts to the following:

1. Raila Odinga (Kenya): 2.1
2. Nicolas Sarkozy (France): 6.8
3. Barack Obama (United States): 7.1
4. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan): 7.8
5. Angela Merkel (Germany): 7.9
6. Mary McAleese (Ireland): 8
7. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong): 8.4
8. Julia Gillard (Australia): 8.7
9. Stephen Harper (Canada): 8.9
10. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore): 9.3

Of these countries, only three would not be considered "full democracies" by the "Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index:" Kenya, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Bottom Line
What do all of these numbers tell us? Leaders of advanced economies earn very similar salaries to each other, and those countries tend to be less corrupt and more democratic. While Lee Hsien Loong may earn 38 times the average resident of Singapore, his country is considered a good place to do business even if it is not fully democratic. On the other end of the spectrum, Raila Odinga earns an incredible amount more than the people he governs, and presides over a country that Transparency International would consider one of the most corrupt around (ranked 154 out of 178 countries).

1st Oct. "Pastor" evan. little did i know that such a title can be so jarring on my ears. hearing it, seeing it in print, in emails the past few days was hard on my system! the invisible yoke of expectations and hopes (and yes, problems) of people, including my own, weighs heavy. yet i remember that His yoke is easy and His burden light.

but wow yes this is a position that i knew is mine for more than 10 years. i did take this long to get ready for it. and yet, when one reaches "it", one realises, "being prepared" is a myth just as much as the unicorn or phoenix! the state of being ready or wanting to "get ready" exists in one's mind but is as elusive as the mirage of an oasis in the desert. one can never get fully ready as we can never predict the twists and turns of events, much less prepare for every single possibility. so what is left to be done? cliches like "bite the bullet", "step up to the plate" comes to mind. even NIKE's slogan "Just do it" is apt.

i love Steve Backlund's teaching - any area that doesnt glitter with hope is under satan's deception. i'll write it out BIG and paste it either in my office or my work desk at home. life with Jesus - knowing how victorious He is and therefore we are - is saturated with, is full of, drips, overflows with, hope, peace, love, joy.... everything good and yummy and fantastic.

i asked God for a challenge. i want to stretch myself. well, i gotta say, this one is pretty tailor made for me. 2 jobs. one in christian ministry, one marketplace. I... LOVE IT! (think of M1's irritating ad as well as McDonald's "Loving it").

let me rattle on... i realised i like ads alot! interesting. haha... MVs too... well, anything abt media, communications... interesting... i'll think abt it.

listened to chen nian ren's 喜欢你. i realised i actually know how to sing this song! haha.... didnt know i knew how to sing ANY mandarin songs accept ai ru chao shui. haha...
well, i really do like this song. beautiful and self-indulgent. not really singing to the other person. singing (as if to him) but it's really abt one's liking of that person. haha... 

陳潔儀's 喜歡你

喜欢你 给我你的外衣 让我像躲在你身体里
喜欢你 借我你的梳子 让我用柔软头发吻你
喜欢你 车窗上的雾气 仿佛是你的爱在呼吸
喜欢你 那微笑的眼睛 连日落也看作唇印
我喜欢这样跟着你 随便你带我到哪里
你的脸 慢慢贴近 明天也慢慢地慢慢清晰
我喜欢你爱我的心 轻触我每根手指感应
我知道 它在诉说着你承诺言语