I had breakfast with a French guy who runs an NGO. He’s a Captain in the French Army Reserve. He was telling me how he once arranged a shipping container of medical equipment to go to a supposedly needy hospital in rural Cambodia. Later he tried to visit the hospital. It didn’t exist. So where did the stuff go? Well, I’m not stupid enough to write the most likely answer in this blog while I’m still in the country.  But Transparency International just relaeased its Index of Corruption for 2010. Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore tied for first place a non-corrupt. Cambodia came in at 154 out of 178 countries.

If you want to know more, click on the link below. There’s the actual list and scores and a color-coded map of the world. It will make you think about giving money to some charities and some countries. It’s sad but…

The French Army Captain now insists on accompanying the deliveries himself with his own interpreter.

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results