Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Least Corrupted Countries in the World

The 2007 corruption rankings for 179 countries in the World Democracy Audit are listed below (www.worldaudit.org):

Country Corruption Rank Democracy Rank
Finland 1 1
Denmark 1 2
New Zealand 1 4
Singapore 4 74
Sweden 4 3
Switzerland 6 5
Netherlands 6 6
Norway 8 7
Canada 8 8
Australia 10 9
United Kingdom 11 9
Austria 12 12
Germany 13 11
Japan 14 31
Ireland 14 14
France 16 16
United States 17 15
Belgium 18 12
Chile 19 21
Spain 20 19
Uruguay 20 22
Slovenia 22 19
Estonia 23 18
Portugal 23 17
Israel 25 32
United Arab Emirates 26 77
Taiwan 26 38
Botswana 28 41
Hungary 29 24
Italy 30 29
Czech Republic 30 23
Korea, South 32 32
Malaysia 32 82
South Africa 32 40
Bhutan 35 78
Costa Rica 35 25
Slovakia 37 27
Lithuania 38 25
Latvia 38 39
Oman 40 87
Jordan 40 84
Mauritius 40 32
Greece 43 32
Namibia 44 43
Kuwait 45 80
Tunisia 46 112
Poland 46 29
Cuba 46 128
Bulgaria 49 36
Turkey 49 55
Croatia 49 45
El Salvador 52 48
Colombia 53 65
Ghana 54 35
Romania 54 50
Senegal 56 58
Brazil 57 53
Mexico 57 63
Peru 57 53
China 57 121
India 57 47
Morocco 57 92
Saudi Arabia 63 119
Trinidad & Tobago 63 44
Serbia & Montenegro 63 50
Georgia 63 86
Bosnia 67 78
Gabon 67 104
Jamaica 67 42
Lesotho 67 57
Macedonia 67 61
Montenegro 67
Thailand 67 88
Sri Lanka 74 96
Panama 74 37
Madagascar 74 83
Tanzania 74 84
Lebanon 78 93
Algeria 78 98
Armenia 78 103
Mongolia 78 52
Dominican Republic 78 58
Egypt 83 100
Burkina Faso 83 76
Argentina 83 66
Bolivia 83 55
Albania 83 68
Moldova 88 106
Eritrea 88 143
Mozambique 88 61
Uganda 88 88
Guatemala 88 96
Rwanda 88 136
Mali 94 46
Ukraine 94 69
Malawi 94 88
Benin 94 49
Nicaragua 98 64
Vietnam 98 122
Zambia 98 106
Niger 98 98
Iran 103 138
Libya 103 146
Yemen 103 132
Honduras 103 69
Nepal 103 100
Philippines 103 85
Burundi 103 125
Paraguay 110 73
Syria 110 138
Ethiopia 110 127
Cameroon 110 113
Pakistan 110 110
The Gambia 115 128
Russia 115 125
Indonesia 115 71
Togo 115 122
Angola 119 111
Nigeria 119 100
Guinea-Bissau 119 88
Kazakhstan 122 132
Zimbabwe 122 144
Azerbaijan 122 128
Ecuador 122 66
Kenya 122 106
Tajikistan 122 132
Congo, Republic of 122 95
Liberia 122 115
Kyrgyzstan 122 116
Sierra Leone 122 72
Belarus 122 144
Cote d'Ivoire 122 118
Papua New Guinea 134 58
Central African Republic 134 106
Venezuela 134 128
Turkmenistan 134 149
Cambodia 134 106
Bangladesh 134 116
Laos 140 141
Congo 140 140
Guinea 140 119
Afghanistan 143 122
Sudan 143 142
Chad 143 136
Uzbekistan 146 148
Haiti 147 113
Iraq 148 132
Somalia 149 146
Myanmar 149 150

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Only in New Zealand...Armless Man caught driving

Armless Tauranga driver Colin Raymond Smith got off a dangerous-driving charge after satisfying police he could steer well with his left foot, but a Florida man wasn't so lucky. Michael Wiley, an enthusiastic driver despite having lost both arms and half a leg in a childhood accident, lost his licence long ago and has reckless driving charges as long as your ... well, you get the idea. His most recent charges weren't driving-related. They involved a domestic assault, in which he used his head. See news abstract below

Armless man caught steering car with foot at 121km/h
Friday, March 24, 2006

A man with no arms was caught speeding at 121km/h yesterday - using one foot to steer and the other to operate the pedals.

The man told shocked police he was born with no arms and said he'd never held a driver's licence.

The 32-year-old unemployed Waikato man was clocked on State Highway 2 at Papamoa, Bay of Plenty, at 10.30am.

He was given a $170 fine and has been forbidden from driving. Police say he will probably also be charged with dangerous driving.

Senior Constable Brent Gray approached the driver's window, spotted a foot up on the dashboard and noticed the seat was reclined.

Mr Gray told colleagues he thought the man had an "attitude". But then he noticed his armless torso.

"He was pretty shocked by that, as you would be," acting Senior Sergeant for the road policing unit, Deidre Lack, told the Bay of Plenty Times this morning.

The armless speedster told the stunned highway patrol officer he had been driving for years, without any issues.

Ms Lack said she had spoken to several officers with lengthy careers and none had heard of anything remotely like it.

She had nothing against people with disabilities who drove motor vehicles, but had absolutely no sympathy for this speeding driver.

"Obviously driving at a speed like that, arms or not, you're just waiting for an accident. You're asking for an accident at 120km/h, whether you've got arms or not. Look at the risk he was posing."

The incident was a particularly unusual example of the sort of ridiculously dangerous driving that police encountered while on patrol, she said.

Ms Lack had no idea how the man had driven for years - as he alleged - without being caught.

Tauranga double below-the-knee amputee, Pat Barry, said he was amazed to learn the man had been driving so long without being caught.

"For obvious reasons it was good the police stopped this man when they did before he killed himself or someone else, but there are avenues for this man to go to, to seek funding to get his car converted and modified, and quickly get lessons so he can obtain his licence to drive."

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES

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Days in Picture, 11-JULY-2008, Auckland, New Zealand

Men run in front of a bull during the fourth day of the annual bull-running festival in Pamplona, northern Spain. One man was gored and six others taken to hospital. Dozens have been hurt since Monday.

A sadhu, or Hindu holy man, emerges from a swim in the River Ganges near Allahabad, India.

A boy collects spent bullet casings from the ground in the northern city of Tripoli after the Lebanese army is deployed to end renewed sectarian clashes there in which four people were killed.

Kashmiri women wait outside the only maternity hospital in the north-western Indian city of Srinagar.

An elderly Tibetan shouts slogans against the Chinese government at a protest in the Indian capital, Delhi.

A French army paratrooper rehearses his landing on the Place de la Concorde in Paris ahead of the Bastille Day parade on 14 July.

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Wednesday, July 9, 2008

iPhone 3G prices and plans for 20 countries (updated)

With less than a week to go before the launch of the iPhone 3G, we thought we'd be able to compile a list of iPhone prices for the 20 countries where the new version or Apple's phone will be making its debut on the 11th. But surprisingly, seven operators still haven't announced any pricing. Maybe that's good decision-making on their part, because in a good number of cases, the pricing of the phone and especially the plans were disappointing, often translating in significantly more than the $199/$299 indicated by Steve Jobs in his WWDC keynote.

The pricing diversity around the world—or even within Europe—is staggering: you can pay anywhere from $94 to $377 for an 8GB iPhone 3G and between $24 and $128 for plans that may only have a (few) hundred MB worth of data or are "unlimited." Denmark isn't as bad as it looks, because the minimum contract is only six months and prices drop by a third if you stay after that. The Netherlands is pretty good, especially considering that you can have your iPhone unlocked for free after 12 months.

Update: added Canadian iPhone prices; Belgium is no longer getting the iPhone this Friday; added Telstra; added Vodafone Portugal plans.

Update 2: added prices and plans for New Zealand, Mexico, ONE in Austria.

CountryCarrier8GB16GBPlanMinutesSMSDataContract
AustraliaOptusuncomparable pricing
AustraliaTelstrano prices yet
AustraliaVodafoneno prices yet
AustriaT-Mobileno prices yet
AustriaONEuncomparable pricing
CanadaRogers$199$299$6015075400MB36 months
DenmarkTelia$298$426$128300unlimited300MB6 months
FinlandSonera$250$385$50100100100MB24 months
GermanyT-Mobile$94$236$7710040Unlimited24 months
Hong KongThree$377$479$24500unlimited500MB24 months
IrelandO2$265$360$711751001GB18 months
ItalyVodafone$313$423$93400400600MB24 months
ItalyTIMno prices yet
JapanSoftbankuncomparable pricing
MexicoTelcel$331$454$44200100100MB24 months
NetherlandsT-Mobile$126$252$47150150Unlimited24 months
New ZealandVodafone$414$527$60120600250MB24 months
NorwayNetCom$275$452$79100100100MB12 months?
PortugalOptimusno prices yet
PortugalVodafone??????$47100100250MB24 months
SpainMovistarno prices yet
SwedenTelia$284$451$50100100100MB24 months
SwitzerlandOrangeno prices yet
SwitzerlandSwisscom$249$349$25--100MB24 months
United KingdomO2$196$315$5975125Unlimited18 months
United StatesAT&T$199$299$70450-Unlimited24 months

Here come the caveats: although I think I managed to decipher plans on non-English language web sites, I may have made a mistake here or there. I've chosen the cheapest usable plans. The dollar conversion was taken from earlier reports in some cases, so it may not reflect the most current conversion rates, and for Canada and Switzerland, I've used a one-to-one conversion rate because the difference was only two percent or less. In some countries (Canada...) basic services incur extra fees, while in the US and Canada there are significant extra fees that come on top of a plan, as well as sales tax, which is included in most European countries. Use the links to see all the details.

Note: You can get your phone repair, iPhone unlock and unblock by the leading mobile phone repair specialist Omni Tech Limited, 378 Great North Road, Henderson, Auckland. Tel: (09) 8383943, info@omnitech.co.nz

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