Transparency International just released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index. Al Jazeera notes very little improvement in the Arab Spring countries. Olga Khazan highlights how broken Afghanistan still is:
Afghanistan ranks as one of the most corrupt countries, and it seems bribes and fraud permeate nearly every level of life there. One Afghan in seven paid a bribe in 2010, and the average bribe is equal to one third of the average Afghan salary. A recent report found that high-level political interference and institutional failures thwarted efforts to probe the 2010 collapse of Afghanistan’s Kabul Bank, recover hundreds of millions of dollars from fraudulent loans and prosecute the people who profited, the Washington Post’s Pamela Constable reported. The Transparency International authors concluded last year, "Corruption, weak institutions and a lack of economic development pose a fatal threat to the viability of Afghanistan," and it seems the situation this year is sadly no different.
The Dish 