How big should the income gap be in Asia?
Curtis Chin says social inequalities can tear apart even the most stable communities, and it's up to each to decide just what is acceptable
Recent riots in Sweden - by some measures the most "equal" nation on earth - raise some interesting questions about the state of equality in Asia, including in Hong Kong.
For several days, the Scandinavian nation was rocked by protests attributed mostly to young immigrants, some of whom set buildings and cars ablaze, perhaps testimony to the reality that inequality exists everywhere.
The news also had me revisiting the latest rankings of inequality in Asia, as measured by the so-called Gini coefficient.
Whether in Beijing or Jakarta, further discussion and actions may well be needed to address what some perceive as a persistent, if not growing, divide between the haves and have-nots, between the connected and disconnected, and the educated and uneducated across the region.
The inconvenient truth is that two-thirds of the world's poor live in Asia, and an estimated 1.7 billion people still struggle on less than US$2 a day, according to the Asian Development Bank.
Too often, ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples are among those who remain marginalised and excluded from the benefits of growth. Indeed, by some measures, more than 40 per cent of the Asia-Pacific region's population still do not have access to improved sanitation facilities, and Asia's cities are often marked by deteriorating sanitation and environmental conditions, and inadequate housing and infrastructure.