If Sydney is Paris Hilton then Hong Kong is Nicole Richie

Where have I been? I don't know how I missed this report about Oliver James, the author of Affluenza who recently visited Sydney and proclaimed that Sydney is the most vacuous city in the world. I thought I was currently living in the city where shallowness breeds like rabbits.

The South China Morning Post's* report likened Sydney to Paris Hilton and so begins the article: "Is Sydney the Paris Hilton of international cities - vain, shallow and materialistic?"

I think it all started after the city held the Olympics. I mean this is what comes after holding "the best Olympics ever". I still think it's ludicrous that Sydney ranks ahead of Hong Kong in terms of mass materialism and capitalist values. In Hong Kong, domestic helpers are plentiful to do all the housework, walk the dog and look after children. At least in Sydney, the North Shore mum still has to walk her own poodle and hang her family's clothes on the Hill's hoist.
Ask any Hong Konger on the street what their hobbies are and the reply will be most definitely be shopping, eating and gambling. At least in Sydney people's attentions can be diverted to some form of outdoor activity or sports watching.

It's alarming when I read in the SMH report that more people are increasingly treating friendship as a commodity with a "what's in it for me" mindset. Generally, this is the feeling I get in Hong Kong when I meet new people. You see it at work here all the time but I'm still not and don't intend to play the game. Maybe that's why I have so few friends here. Whenever someone does you a favour, they expect something in return. What kind of an attitude is that? Whatever happened to friendship? The fakeness can be detected so quickly I don't even know why some people even bother trying.

People judge you by what you wear, what car you drive and where you live. From that, they gauge how you are to be treated. For me, living here has placed the question of trust in the spotlight. I never use to ask the question why do you want to know me for? I use to be open to people who wants to offer their friendship to me. It doesn't matter if you're a decent person and expect nothing in return for doing something for someone because the expectation is that you do want something back as well.

Anyway, I hope this affluenza disease does not spread elsewhere to other Australian cities. I can see symptoms of it in Brisbane with all the people from the southern states moving up there. As long as you can still walk into a department store wearing shorts and t-shirts and not get sneered at it'll be fine by me.

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