Ho Chi Minh City on world’s most livable cities list!

Most of the chatter around yesterday’s announcement by the Economic Intelligence Unit of its 2010 ranking of the world’s most livable cities has been given over to the fact that Vancouver – presently hosting the planet’s largest convention of jocks and former high-school bullies – nailed a perfect 10 by landing at the very top of the list. Indeed, Canada scores three total spots in the top ten (with Toronto and Calgary), while Australia, at least as dark a horse as Canada, finds its way into no less than four of the top ten positions, along with the Australian Mini Me, a.k.a. New Zealand, which wriggled into number 10 with capital Auckland.

Talking heads have had some fun kicking around the losers at the bottom of the list – Columbo, Sri Lanka; Karachi, Pakistan; Harare, Zimbabwe; and poor little Kathmandu in Nepal (where, adding insult to injury, neighboring Bhutan measures Gross Domestic Happiness instead of GDP). But we haven’t heard much about the middle of the list, those flag-bearers for mediocrity. Partly that’s because the Economic Intelligence Unit wants cash for the full list and prohibits news outlets from reporting the whole thing (although some scofflaw posted it here). But more than that, who really cares about the also-rans?

Well, I do, for one. Yes, I’ll admit the fact that I’m living in Vietnam is more a matter of serendipity and blind chance than careful planning, but still, it’s a little discouraging to find Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi making a nastly little sandich of Nairobi, Kenya, only 15 spots from dead bottom. On the other hand, we’re better than Tehran and Lagos, Nigeria, which I suppose counts for something. And surely it’s worth keeping our chins up about being within poking distance of Mumbai, Istanbul, Jakarta, and, er, Mexico City…

I also can’t help but notice that the mothership for my current place of employment – the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology – is located in the number-three spot on this list. I don’t think it’s a stretch to claim residence in Melbourne by proxy, do you?