Papua New Guinea is ranked 151 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide with a score of 2.0 , the same as last year, indicating that levels of corruption have not changed.

The corruption index is an international ranking of countries by perceived levels of corruption drawing information and statistics from a basket of in-country surveys.

Levels of C02 emissions resulting from illegal deforestation and Illegal logging are are also perceived as being high and go hand-in-hand with the levels of corruption.

According to the index, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden are top most ranked with scores of 9.3. Somalia, Iraq and Myanmar rank bottom with scores under 1.3.

Internationally, Papua New Guinea is ranked among the 30 most corrupt countries in the world with no signs of improvement in governance.

The data on Papua New Guinea for the 2008 index is based on surveys provided by the Asian Development Bank, Bertelsmann Transformation Index, the World Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit, Merchant International Group and Global Insight.

According to Transparency International, the reasons for the country’s lack of progress in reducing corruption can be attributed to the lack of effective action by successive governments, including the current government run by Sir Michael Somare.

According to sources located in Papua New Guinea, the lack of progress on corruption may also be attributable to the dark influences of local companies such as Rimbunan Hijua and Turama Forest Industries.

The Rimbunan Hijau group is controlled by Tiong Hiew King who, according to Forbes magazine, is one of the richest men in the world.

Rimbunan, sometimes just referred to as "the group", is the largest forestry business in Papua New Guinea (PNG), and exerts a strong influence on the Papua New Guinea Forest Industries Association Inc.

Footnote: Prime minister Sir Michael Somare, has a website. In his own words, it provides details about "our major policies, and the government’s vision for its people".

Unfortunately for the people of Papua New Guinea, there seems to be no vision. It is a blank page, not even "under construction".

Perhaps there hasn’t been time to work out a vision, after all, Sir Michael has only been PM for about 15 years.

Anyway, on the underside of the base of my fan it says that the fan uses 39 Watts of electricity. My guess is that this is the amount of electricity the fan uses when it is not in swing mode and when the setting is to 1 (or low). I’m going to check this out with the shop where I bought it. 

It all adds up. I reckon I use about 100 Watts an hour when I’m running my laptop, and that is about 10 hours a day. So I’m using about 1 unit of electricity per day just for my computer and the peripherals. Makes you think.

However, I don’t feel too bad about this because laptops use a lot less than Desktop PCs, particularly PCs with the old-style cathode-ray Monitors which apparently use about 150-watts an hour.

every little counts