In Transparency International's just-released 2009 survey of world corruption, Afghanistan was only one step above the bottom rung,ranking 179th out of 180 countries surveyed.
VOA: standard.2009.11.17
They ride the escalator down in silence, staring out the large windows toward Broadway, toward the familiar thickening rush-hour crowd, until they reach the bottom and step off.
"It's always easier to come from the top and take a step down than to do what Xerox and HP are trying to do: Come from the bottom and take a step up, " says Susanne Schwartze, an analyst with M.