International Anti-Corruption Day--9 December 2023

Special News and Events! Note- Into Integrity has two parts. Part One (2020-current) Materials related to a) the Into Integrity FAST and b) news and resources emphasizing Global Integrity Day-9 June and International Anti-Corruption Day--9 December. Part Two (2019) Materials related to the Into Integrity FAST emphasizing the 14 podcasts and the 18 blog posts. Into Integrity Special News and Events! International Anti-Corruption Day--9 December 2023 Theme: Uniting the World Against Corruption I “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord… Therefore love truth and peace.” Zechariah 8:16,19 Warm greetings as we continue into our fourth year of Into Integrity, taking action and sharing resources to support integrity.  ----------   Into Integrity Update Read the full Update on the Into Integrity weblog Overview Into Integrity FAST, involving 40 days of food fasting and hunger striking, featuring special podcasts and blogposts, was launched June through December 2019. We continue FAST via the ongoing call for the assistance and integrity of specific Christian organizations, leaders, and people affected by the international Nordic Capital investment KB (NCI) fraud: verifiably disclose via internal and independent reviews, make right the wrongful dismissals, and do what is “good, right, and true before the Lord your God" (2 Chronicles 31:20).    We encourage you read the Into Integrity weblog to review why it is so important for the moral health and reputation of the Church-Mission Community to resolutely persevere in the FAST call. We also encourage you to listen to the Into Integrity podcasts, such as: Confronting Corruption in Our Midst: Principles for Courage, Integrity, and Action and Awaken the Good--A Personal Exhortation to Specific Leaders. There is more information about Into Integrity below towards the end.   Thank you for your encouragement, support, and prayers, Kelly and Michèle O'Donnell Live in integrity--Unite for integrity prointegritynet@gmail.com   Special News and Events! International Anti-Corruption Day--9 December 2023 In this Update (#26) we highlight five items. We feature this year's International Anti-Corruption Day and the next online Virtual Cafe by the Global Integrity Network (both are on 9 December 2023) as well as the webinar by the Faith and Public Integrity Network (8 December 2023). We also encourage you to listen to our special Into Integrity podcast, Fearing the Lord: Learn from the Ghosts of Corruption—Live in the Light of Integrity—Love Truth, Peace, and People. Finally we share information in anticipation of the fifth Global Integrity Day (9 June 2024) that we help to facilitate.  ----------- Item 1. UN International Anti-Corruption Day (9 December 2023) Uniting the World Against Corruption for Development, Peace, and Security “The 2023 International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) seeks to highlight the crucial link between anti-corruption and peace, security, and development. At its core is the notion that tackling this crime is the right and responsibility of everyone, and that only through cooperation and the involvement of each and every person and institution can we overcome the negative impact of this crime. States, government officials, civil servants, law enforcement officers, media representatives, the private sector, civil society, academia, the public and youth, alike, all have a role to play in uniting the world against corruption. The 2023 IACD [also] commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). As we celebrate this milestone, we reflect on the positive changes brought about by the collective efforts driven by the Convention. Equally crucial is our examination of the remaining gaps that require attention to ensure that this mechanism continues to strengthen in the years ahead.” Check out the website for resources and events! Item 2. Virtual Cafe (9 December 2023)--Save the date and register! Follow-up of the Conference on Integrity and Christian Identity (9 December 2023) Global Integrity Network (GIN), Lausanne-WEA This special online event--an interactive Virutal Cafe--builds on the presentations and discussions at the GIN Conference in August 2023 whose theme was Integrity and Christian Identity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Item 3. The Role of Christians in Fighting Corruption (8 December 2023) webinar Faith and Public Integrity Network Item 4. Fearing the Lord: Learning from the Ghosts of Corruption—Living in the Light of Integrity—Loving Truth, Peace, and People (podcast) "Marley's Ghost" in Dicken's A Christmas Carol. An excerpt is featured in the podcast below.   This is the one of 14 Into Integrity podcasts that we have done to advocate for truth, repentance, and healing in the past and ongoing NCI KB et al. corruption and related dismissals (Into Integrity podcasts, June and December 2019). For example: Fearing the Lord: Learning from the Ghosts of Corruption—Living in the Light of Integrity—Loving Truth, Peace, and People (Christmas Eve 2019). We share three powerful exhortations that can inform our efforts to stand in solidarity; to promote good practice and integrity; and to bring healing to the international Church Mission Community and to the specific organizations, leaders, and people affected by the international NCI fraud. This theme also serves to summarize the messages from all seven podcasts-blogposts done during FAST in December 2019.   You can listen to the podcast HERE You can read the blogpost HERE Item 5. Global Integrity Day (GID)--9 June 2024 Theme TBA--Confronting Human Trafficking--Sharing Our Stories and Strategies Four Features GID is a positive day to reflect, teach, and collaborate on ways to integrate integrity in all we do throughout the entire year. GID is also a strategic day to promote a) cultivating lifestyles, cultures, and systems of integrity from the individual through the international levels; b) joining together to understand and address the causes and consequences of corruption in its many forms; and c) working towards just and equitable societies marked with wellbeing for all people and for the planet. GID is a solemn day to consider our ways: if we are lying and/or stealing in any way big or small, then we need to stop it. If we need to right a wrong we have done, then do so. If we need to prudently confront wrongdoing, preferably in solidarity with colleagues for mutual support and greater impact, then do so. GID is a companion day to complement UN International Anti-Corruption Day, 9 December (and vice versa). Both Days are practical rallying points, six months apart, for fostering common ground, organizing events, sharing initiatives, and involving the public. Into Integrity Make every day an integrity day!   "Corruption is criminal, immoral and the ultimate betrayal of public trust.….We must hold leaders to account….A vibrant civic space and open access to information are essential. And we must protect the rights and recognize the courage of whistle-blowers who expose wrongdoing….As an age-old plague takes on new forms, let us combat it with new heights of resolve.” UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, Statement on corruption (15 October 2020).     The purpose of Into Integrity is to call attention to--and confront--the lack of disclosures by specific organizations/leaders/people affected by the international Nordic Capital Investment KB fraud (NCI) as well as the related, wrongful dismissals directed at Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell. It has featured a 40 day FAST (part one 6-26 June 2019 and part two 6-26 December 2019): FAsting for genuine contrition and STriking for resolute action within the Church Mission Community (CMC).   Integrity is moral wholeness—living consistently in moral wholeness. Corruption is moral rottenness, the opposite of integrity--the distortion, perversion, and deterioration of moral goodness, resulting in the exploitation of people. Global integrity is living consistently in moral wholeness at all levels--individual, interpersonal, institutional, and international--across sectors and settings, local through global.   Going Further See the  Into Integrity weblog-updates for more background information including:  --Links for comments by colleagues expressing their strong support for the specific calls to people and organizations for integrity, disclosures, and confronting wrongful dismissals; --Links for the Into Integrity podcasts and blogposts: seven by Kelly (Part One, June 2019) and seven by Michèle and Kelly (Part Two, December 2019); --Links to the latest PETRA People weblogs focusing on a) new resources for integrity and anti-corruption and b) continuing the call for assistance by specific leaders, organizations and others affected by the international NCI fraud: the Professional Review, the Healing the Body summary-summons (Part Two of every weblog entry), and the Integrity Petition  (see below).   I Integrity Petition Shine the Light--Together!   This petition is an ongoing, international call for the organizations (current and past staff, leaders, board members, etc.) and people affected by the Nordic Capital Investment KB (NCI) fraud to share and help uncover the truth—to transparently and verifiably disclose. There must be zero tolerance for corruption and its cover ups, complicity, and cowardice. Act with integrity--live in integrity. Read it, sign it, share it. Thank you!   "Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t hesitate to go public now. Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands."  Matthew 10: 26-28, The Message

Global Integrity Day-9 June 2023

Note- Into Integrity has two parts.

Part One (2020-current)
Materials related to a) the Into Integrity FAST and b) news and resources emphasizing Global Integrity Day-9 June and International Anti-Corruption Day--9 December.

Part Two (2019)
Materials related to the Into Integrity FAST emphasizing the 14 podcasts and the 18 blog posts.

Special News and Events! “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord… Therefore love truth and peace.” Zechariah 8:16,19 Warm greetings as we continue into our fourth year of Into Integrity, taking action and sharing resources to support integrity.  ---------- Into Integrity Update Read the full Update on the Into Integrity weblog Overview Into Integrity FAST, involving 40 days of food fasting and hunger striking, featuring special podcasts and blogposts, was launched June through December 2019. We continue FAST via the ongoing call for the assistance and integrity of specific Christian organizations, leaders, and people affected by the international Nordic Capital investment KB (NCI) fraud: verifiably disclose via internal and independent reviews, make right the wrongful dismissals, and do what is “good, right, and true before the Lord your God" (2 Chronicles 31:20).  We encourage you read the Into Integrity weblog to review why it is so important for the moral health and reputation of the Church-Mission Community to resolutely persevere in the FAST call. We also encourage you to listen to the Into Integrity podcasts, such as: Confronting Corruption in Our Midst: Principles for Courage, Integrity, and Action and Awaken the Good--A Personal Exhortation to Specific Leaders. There is more information about Into Integrity below towards the end. Thank you for your encouragement, support, and prayers, Kelly and Michèle O'Donnell Live in integrity--Unite for integrity prointegritynet@gmail.com        Spotlight Activities Global Integrity Day-9 June 2023 Faith-Based Champions Fighting Corruption Sharing our Stories and Strategies In this Update (#25) we highlight the upcoming Global Integrity Day (GID)--9 June 2022. The theme is "Faith-based Champions Fighting Corruption--Sharing Our Stories and Strategies." We are excited and encouraged to see colleagues in different countries getting involved! GID is "a positive day to reflect, teach, and collaborate on ways to integrate integrity in all we do throughout the entire year..." Visit the GID website to explore the latest integrity and anti-corruption resources (50+ for this years theme) and some of the suggested ways to connect with GID. GID Spotlight Activities GID this year features a selection of special "spotlight activities" such as radio broadcasts, gatherings, and webinars.  Specifically, we encourage you to note three of the special spotlight events for GID this year. Let us know if you would also like to organize an activity related to GID and share your stories and strategies for integrity and anti-corruption on the GID website. 1. Joint Webinar. We are thrilled to invite you to a special spotlight event (one-hour webinar) for GID-9 June with both Tear Fund and the Faith and Public Integrity Network. The webinar is Perceptions on Corruption from Faith Leaders in Latin America. RSVP here to receive the join link. This is a public webinar and please feel free to share about it with your colleagues and networks. More details are on the GID website--update August--the Full Report, Executive Summary, and short animated video are now available of the Tear Fund Study that the webinar was based on. ------------------- 2. Cameroon Initiative. We also highlight a special GID activity that has already begun in Cameroon. A pastor there who heard about GID has enthusiastically designed special shirts and hats for GID with a GID motto, "Make every day an integrity day." He is also planning to do radio broadcasts on and around GID-9 June to educate and advocate for integrity and anti-corruption. More information is posted on the GID website along with the pastor's inspiring story about his experience confronting petty corruption in his church (written) and his short video greetings and encouragement about GID. --------- 3. You! Affirm someone you know (or know of) who is acting with integrity. Use GID as a special occasion to encourage them! ---------- Making the most of the spotlight activities: 1. Let us know if you would also like to organize an activity related to GID and share your stories and strategies for integrity and anti-corruption on the GID website. 2. Watch the main spotlight webinar on 9 June (or the archived recording later), including doing so interactively with friends and colleagues. --What did you find the most interesting or helpful? --List a few things that you would like to explore more. --Was there anything you thought to be controversial or not helpful? --List some practical applications for you/your settings. 3. Participate and spread the word! Make every day an integrity day! Global Integrity Day (GID) Four Features     GID is a positive day to reflect, teach, and collaborate on ways to integrate integrity in all we do throughout the entire year. GID is also a strategic day to promote a) cultivating lifestyles, cultures, and systems of integrity from the individual through the international levels; b) joining together to understand and address the causes and consequences of corruption in its many forms; and c) working towards just and equitable societies marked with wellbeing for all people and for the planet. GID is a solemn day to consider our ways: if we are lying and/or stealing in any way big or small, then we need to stop it. If we need to right a wrong we have done, then do so. If we need to prudently confront wrongdoing, preferably in solidarity with colleagues for mutual support and greater impact, then do so. GID is a companion day to complement UN International Anti-Corruption Day, 9 December (and vice versa). Both Days are practical rallying points, six months apart, for fostering common ground, organizing events, sharing initiatives, and involving the public. Into Integrity Make every day an integrity day! "Corruption is criminal, immoral and the ultimate betrayal of public trust.….We must hold leaders to account….A vibrant civic space and open access to information are essential. And we must protect the rights and recognize the courage of whistle-blowers who expose wrongdoing….As an age-old plague takes on new forms, let us combat it with new heights of resolve.”  UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, Statement on corruption (15 October 2020)   The purpose of Into Integrity is to call attention to--and confront--the lack of disclosures by specific organizations/leaders/people affected by the international Nordic Capital Investment KB fraud (NCI) as well as the related, wrongful dismissals directed at Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell. It has featured a 40 day FAST (part one 6-26 June 2019 and part two 6-26 December 2019): FAsting for genuine contrition and STriking for resolute action within the Church Mission Community (CMC).   Integrity is moral wholeness—living consistently in moral wholeness. Corruption is moral rottenness, the opposite of integrity--the distortion, perversion, and deterioration of moral goodness, resulting in the exploitation of people. Global integrity is living consistently in moral wholeness at all levels--individual, interpersonal, institutional, and international--across sectors and settings, local through global.   Going Further See the  Into Integrity weblog-updates for more background information including:  --Links for comments by colleagues expressing their strong support for the specific calls to people and organizations for integrity, disclosures, and confronting wrongful dismissals; --Links for the Into Integrity podcasts and blogposts: seven by Kelly (Part One, June 2019) and seven by Michèle and Kelly (Part Two, December 2019); --Links to the latest PETRA People weblogs focusing on a) new resources for integrity and anti-corruption and b) continuing the call for assistance by specific leaders, organizations and others affected by the international NCI fraud: the Professional Review, the Healing the Body summary-summons (Part Two of every weblog entry), and the Integrity Petition  (see below). Integrity Petition Shine the Light--Together! This petition is an ongoing, international call for the organizations (current and past staff, leaders, board members, etc.) and people affected by the Nordic Capital Investment KB (NCI) fraud to share and help uncover the truth—to transparently and verifiably disclose. There must be zero tolerance for corruption and its cover ups, complicity, and cowardice. Act with integrity--live in integrity. Read it, sign it, share it. Thank you! "Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t hesitate to go public now. Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands."  Matthew 10: 26-28, The Message

International Anti-Corruption Day-9 December 2022

 Into Integrity
Special News and Events

Live in integrity--Unite for integrity
#HealUsToo  --  #MyOrganizationToo  --  #PetraPeopleNet

“These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other
and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other,
and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord…
Therefore love truth and peace.” Zechariah 8:16,19

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Warm greetings!

Into Integrity Update
The Into Integrity FAST, involving 40 days of food fasting and hunger striking, featuring special podcasts and blogposts, was launched June through December 2019. We continue FAST via the ongoing call for the assistance and integrity of specific Christian organizations, leaders, and people affected by the international Nordic Capital investment KB (NCI) fraud: verifiably disclose via internal and independent reviews, make right the wrongful dismissals, and do what is “good, right, and true before the Lord your God" (2 Chronicles 31:20). 

We encourage you to: 

--Read the Into Integrity weblog entries to review why it is so important for the moral health and reputation of the Church-Mission Community to resolutely persevere in the FAST call.

--Listen to our podcast: Awaken the Good—Heal the Body: A Personal Exhortation for Specific Leaders (20 December 2019). We continue the ongoing efforts to call for and pray for repentance and healing in the international Church Mission Community. 

--Listen to our podcast: Confronting Corruption in Our Midst: Principles for Courage, Integrity and Action (12 December 2019). It is a reflection of this Updates message to "go boldly into the darkness as we live in integrity and unite for integrity."

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Spotlight Events
Save the Dates, and Register!
Solidarity with International Anti-Corruption Day--9 December 

International-Anti-Corruption Day--9 December (IAD). This year's theme is UNCAC at 20​: Uniting the World Against Corruption (UNCAC refers to the 2003 United Nations Convention Against Corruption). "On 31 October 2003, the [UN] General Assembly adopted the United Nations Convention against Corruption and...also designated 9 December as International Anti-Corruption Day, to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the Convention in combating and preventing it...Governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, the media and citizens around the world are joining forces to fight this crime. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are at the forefront of these efforts.” (quote from UN IAD website) 

Also note that at the forefront are the many civil society organizations, networks, and efforts  around the world--including faith-based ones--that are engaged in confronting corruption and promoting integrity. We are actively involved in four of them: Global Integrity Network, Faith and Public Integrity Network, PETRA People Network, and Global Integrity Day--9 June.

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Spotlight Event 1
Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:9,17,21

Spotlight Event 1--Overcome Evil With Good Watch the archived recording HERE

Global Integrity Network (GIN) Online Conference-Webinar, 10 December 2022, broadcast at two different times: 9am Manila time and 9am New York time. Click HERE to register. This spotlight event is organized by GIN Lausanne Movement--World Evangelical Alliance. More information is in the images above and  below. Note thatt a  follow up "Virtual Cafe" is to be held on Saturday, 17 December, to provide more informal time for interaction.

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Spotlight Event 2
 

Spotlight Event 2--Uprooting Corruption, Defending Democratic Values

International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC), 6-10 December 2022, Washington DC. “Established in 1983, the IACC takes place usually every two years in a different region of the world, and hosts from 800 to 2000 participants from over 140 countries worldwide. [It] advances the anti-corruption agenda by raising awareness and stimulating debate. It fosters networking, cross-fertilisation and the global exchange of experience that are indispensable for effective advocacy and action, on a global and national level.

The conferences also promote international cooperation among government, civil society, the private sector, and citizens by providing the opportunity for face-to-face dialogue and direct liaison between representatives from the agencies and organisations taking part." (quote from IACC website).

There are 60 workshops and 7 plenaries scheduled. Check the IACC website to see which events are (hopefully!) available publicly by livestream and/or archived. Here are two examples of workshops related to faith-based issues:

--Workshop on Corruption and Impunity in God's Name: How to Tackle Trafficking, Money Laundering, Dark Money, and Much More in Religious Organizations

--Plenary on Defending the Defenders, Those Who Uncover the Truth and the Victims of Corruption and the Violations of Human Rights

Note that there are also ongoing IACC initiatives to keep up momentum between Conferences such as Social Entrepreneurs Initiative, the Young Journalists initiative, Fair Play Anti-Corruption Concerts, and series of Films for Transparency.

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Making the most of the spotlight events:
Watch one or more of the events, including doing so interactively with friends and colleagues.

--What did you find the most interesting or helpful?

--List a few things that you would like to explore more.

--Was there anything you thought to be controversial or not helpful?

--List some practical applications for you/your settings.

Fight the evil of corruption--in all its forms.

Live in integrity--Unite for integrity

Kelly and Michèle

prointegritynet@gmail.com

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Into Integrity
Thank you for your encouragement, support, and prayers. 

The purpose of Into Integrity is to call attention to--and confront--the lack of disclosures by specific organizations/leaders/people affected by the international Nordic Capital Investment KB fraud (NCI) as well as the related, wrongful dismissals directed at Kelly and Michèle O’Donnell. It has featured a 40 day FAST (part one 6-26 June 2019 and part two 6-26 December 2019): FAsting for genuine contrition and STriking for resolute action within the Church Mission Community (CMC).

Integrity is moral wholeness—living consistently in moral wholeness. Corruption is moral rottenness, the opposite of integrity--the distortion, perversion, and deterioration of moral goodness, resulting in the exploitation of people. Global integrity is living consistently in moral wholeness at all levels--individual, interpersonal, institutional, and international--across sectors and settings, local through global, systemic and structural.

Going further--See also:
--links for comments by colleagues expressing their strong support for the specific calls to people and organizations for integrity, disclosures, and confronting wrongful dismissals;

--links for the Into Integrity podcasts and blogposts: seven by Kelly (Part One, June 2019) and seven by Michèle and Kelly (Part Two, December 2019);

--links to the latest PETRA People weblog focusing on a) new resources for integrity and anti-corruption and b) continuing the call for assistance by specific leaders, organizations and others affected by the international NCI fraud: the Professional Review, the Healing the Body summary-summons, and the Integrity Petition. 

.

The Integrity Petition

Shine the Light-Together!

Don’t be intimidated. Eventually everything is going to be out in the open, and everyone will know how things really are. So don’t hesitate to go public now. Don’t be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands. Matthew 10: 26-28, The Message