Blood and money are two words you have to use to tell the story of Papua New Guinea in 2013.
There's been plenty of both during the year. There'll be plenty more in 2014.
PNG is preparing itself for a massive windfall from the Exxon-Mobil led Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project, due to go online in 2014.
The project is expected to push PNG's economic growth above 20 per cent - potentially making the Pacific island nation the fastest growing economy in the world.
In preparation for this, the government of Peter O'Neill in late 2013 introduced its second deficit budget in as many years, plunging the country into the red to the tune of $US5.6 billion with the aim of delivering desperately needed basic services to the nation's seven million people.
He has also put companies on notice that large scale resource projects will have to deal with a more activist government.
"I don't want us to be a `passive' investor in the projects we hold equity in on behalf of the nation," he told a Mining and Petroleum Seminar in Port Moresby in early December .
"The government will be a participant in new projects - that is not socialism, it is common sense. And it is what our law provides for and what our people expect."
With the political instability of late 2011 and early 2012 now long behind him, Mr O'Neill has emerged as the nation's most powerful prime minister, at the helm of 104 MPs out of 111.
This has been aided in part by the country's weak opposition, which has become, essentially, a running joke.
Mr O'Neill's former deputy prime minister and now opposition leader Belden Namah last month announced he would no longer engage with "mainstream media" and instead pledged to only conduct press conferences on social media.
No one really expects this political strategy to last given there is only 1.3 per cent internet penetration throughout the infrastructure poor country.
With no effective parliamentary opposition, Mr O'Neill has pushed ahead with his aggressive reform agenda for the country.
In February Mr O'Neill successfully shepherded through parliament a ban on votes of no confidence in his government for the first 30 months of its five year term.
The government later passed laws aimed at stymieing potential opposition by ensuring motions of no-confidence are made public a month before they come to a vote.
Critics argue the law simply gives the government more time to throw money at potential defectors, or simply put a stop to parliamentary sittings to avert the vote.
There have also been some unpredictable moves made by the government, such as the late 2012 banning from the country of former PNG Sustainable Development Fund chairman Professor Ross Garnaut.
Almost a year later, the charity's Australian media spokesman, Mark Davis, also found himself banned from the country for engaging in "political activity" - sending out press releases critical of the government's takeover of the Ok Tedi gold and copper mine in Western Province.
This year was also a violent year in PNG.
In February the country became the focus of intense international criticism following the torture-murder of Kepari Leniata, a 20-year-old mother of one who was accused of witchcraft.
She was burned alive just outside of Mt Hagen, PNG's third largest city, in front of a large crowd of onlookers - including helpless police - after she was accused of witchcraft.
Her horrific death was followed by similar murders.
Former teacher Helen Rumbali was beheaded after being abducted by a group of young men in Bougainville.
Her sister, Nikono, and two teenage nieces were repeatedly slashed with knives and held captive for weeks before being released to the care of a nearby aid clinic.
That same month, Gold Coast businessman Bob Purdy - known in Mt Hagen as "Cobra Bob" - was shot and killed in what was believed to be a botched robbery.
A week after that, a US academic was pack raped after she, her husband and their guide were ambushed on an island.
In May Mr O'Neill publicly apologised for the widespread domestic and sexual violence faced by women in his country, and pledged to reintroduce the nation's long dormant death penalty.
But the threat of capital punishment wasn't enough to deter a group of bandits from attacking a group of Australian and New Zealand trekkers on the Black Cat track in Morobe Province.
The September attack left three porters dead, hacked to death with bush knives.
Law and order is set to be a central theme for PNG's governing class in 2014.
There are currently 50 Australian Federal Police (AFP) in country as part of an advisory and training scheme announced by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The officers are expected to begin working with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary from the start of next year.
The scheme was announced in August in exchange for PNG's co-operation to expand its refugee processing centre on Manus Island.
The former John Howard-era centre was re-opened by Julia Gillard in 2012, and expanded by her successor Mr Rudd.
It currently houses 1174 asylum seekers in conditions that have been heavily criticised by the UN and human rights advocates.
PNG will not begin processing them early until next year.
