I make no comment - I only pass on

Sydney. Australia is gearing up for what many see as the impending collapse of Papua New Guinea, the colony it gave independence to 31 years ago and the troubled South Pacifics biggest country.
Prime Minister John Howard, announcing that two new battalions would be raised to take the army's strength to 30,000, named PNG as the region's next big security problem. "Papua New Guinea is a country with a fair degree of instability,' Howard said. 'I think it's been bad for some time and I think in some respects it's got worse.'
Despite around 10 billion Australian dollars (7.5 billion US dollars) of Australian aid since independence, PNG is now heavily in debt and unable to protect, let alone develop, its natural resources. At the root of the problem is corruption on a mind-boggling scale. Straight-out thieving by elected officials is commonplace. Last year retiring head of state Sir Salas Atopare freely admitted that he stripped the bedrooms and kitchen of Government House at the end of his six-year term, taking away with him curtains, cookers, computers and even his official vehicles.