We always track with interest Transparency International's annual "Corruption Perceptions Index." This year Mexico got a score of 3.6 (with 0 being "highly corrupt" and 10 being "highly clean") and ranks as the 64th in the list, a place it shares with Ghana and Thailand. In case you're interested, the US only got a score of 7.5 and shares 17th place with Belgium and Ireland.

Two statements in the brief report really struck me:

"Corruption robs countries of their potential."

"If we hope to reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, governments need to seriously tackly corruption in public contracting."