The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) inaugural Global City Competitiveness Index announced this week placed Singapore as the third most competitive in the world, just behind New York and London. In financial maturity and physical capital, two of the eight categories, Singapore emerged as number one.

Khoo Teng Chye, executive director of Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities, called Singapore “a hub open to the flow of people, ideas, capital, goods and services.” One example from the list of firms making the decision to relocate to Singapore is BHP Billiton, one of the world’s largest mining firms, which recently announced the relocation of its marketing and trading hub from The Hague to Singapore.

As the managing director of Savvis Asia, which plans to build a second data center in Singapore, Mark Smith says Singapore is “fast becoming a springboard for businesses abroad to expand into and broaden their market reach.” On top of its geographical advantage as a natural port in the South China Sea, Singapore, unlike many of its Southeast Asian neighbors, offers robust government stability and tax incentives.

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The alleged rape of a 16-year-old Muslim girl by Thai soldiers in Southern Thailand is threatening to push relations between Bangkok and the Islamic south to their lowest ebb since the troubles flared in early 2004.

The incident in Pattani was captured on video by one of the soldiers and has been passed around Thailand’s newsrooms and military offices where some have made the galling and insulting comment that perhaps the girl didn’t resist enough.

One columnist, on International Women’s Day, went so far as to suggest the girl was unfortunately caught-up in the perennial issue of cross culture romance between Buddhist soldiers stationed in the south and local Muslim women, adding the alleged rape had made public an ongoing but unacknowledged issue.

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For tourists, Southeast Asia conjures visions of exotic islands in places like Phuket, Bali, and Boracay. For investors, it’s a relatively safe destination, where their capital can flourish in global cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok. Its ancient history is preserved at Angkor Wat, its rich biodiversity is visible in Borneo, and its readiness to blend with foreign cultures is highlighted by the folk Catholicism in the Philippines. 

But Southeast Asia is more than just white sand beaches, temples, and resorts. 

Unfortunately, it’s seldom mentioned that Southeast Asia is actually one of the most war-ravaged places on the planet. Indeed, there are still several unfinished wars in the region. For example, the world's longest ongoing civil war involves the Karen National Liberation Army, which has been fighting for independence from Burma’s central government for the past 60 years. Meanwhile, the Maoist-influenced Communist Party of the Philippines has been waging an armed revolution in the Philippine countryside since 1969, making it the world’s longest communist insurgency. 

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When it comes to neighborly relations, Laos has often walked a fine line. Its insistence on, then a “maybe, maybe not” attitude to the construction of the Xayaburi Dam that threatens fish stocks in the lower reaches of the Mekong River, has tested relations with Vietnam and Cambodia.

More broadly, its inability to curb wildlife trafficking has been a bone of contention among international authorities seeking to stop unscrupulous trade in live animals and their body parts.

Now, a British report has warned that thousands of monkeys are being held in overcrowded and appalling conditions, and in breach of international animal welfare guidelines, before being shipped off to research laboratories in the United States and Europe.

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Cambodia doesn’t always get its man. Many well-connected criminals have often walked away from crimes as serious as murder, which remain unresolved and the perpetrators still at large.

So it was in the case of three hapless women who worked for German sports shoe maker Puma and who had joined a thousand others on a protest demanding better working conditions in their Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Bavet City.

A gunman dressed as a bodyguard opened fire and shot the three. They were rushed to hospital and survived, although one is still listed as critical. The gunman, despite a heavy police presence, escaped. And thus began a song and dance routine known all too well in the country.

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