The annual list of most corrupt countries in the world has been released by Transparency International, and South Africa didn’t do all that badly, as these things go. I mean, 54th out of 178 countries? It’s not the kind of thing you put up on your fridge or anything, but it’s not bad.

We tied with Kuwait, and Malaysia & Namibia are about a decimal point more corrupt, in whatever unit it is you measure corruption with. We’re better than Turkey, worse than the Czech Republic.

The cleanest nations were Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore, all known for their thriving night lives, while the four people in Somalia https://www.aldaorg.net with internet access will be disappointed to know that they came in last. Or first, but for the ‘Most Corrupt’ portion of the competition.

They have some other fun stats too. Like for instance, apparently 21% of the journalists killed since 1992 have been researching corruption. And Greece is the most corrupt country in the EU (78th). And that nearly 75% of the 178 countries score less than five out of ten for corruption index, ten being ‘the cleanest.’ And that South Africa is the fifth least corrupt country in Sub-Saharan Africa, after Botswana, Mauritius, Cape Verde and Seychelles.

So that’s something to talk about.