Special News!
International Anti-Corruption Day--9
December 2024
Uniting with Youth Against Corruption Shaping Future Integrity
Defining Integrity--How much do you have?
Futurizing Integrity--How will you embody it?
“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… Warm greetings as we continue into our sixth year of Into Integrity, taking action and sharing resources to support integrity. ---------- Into Integrity Update
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).
Thank you for your encouragement, support, and prayers,
Kelly and Michèle O'Donnell
Live in integrity--Unite for integrity
prointegritynet@gmail.com
Special News!
International Anti-Corruption Day--9 December 2024
Defining and
Futurizing Integrity
In this Update (#28) we
feature this year's International Anti-Corruption Day with its
theme, "Uniting with Youth Against Corruption--Shaping Tomorrow's
Integrity" (Resource 1). We also feature three resources that probe into
the nature of integrity and how much integrity you have now and into the
future: a) definitions of integrity and corruption based on Global Integrity Day-9 June (Resource 2), b) an
insightful podcast by Tim Keller on "Integrity"
as he delves into Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Resource 3), c) and three
compelling readings in Fearing the Lord, one of our podcasts from Into Integrity.
-----------
Resource 1. International
Anti-Corruption Day (9 December 2024) (IAD)
The theme this year is Uniting with Youth Against Corruption--Shaping
Tomorrow's Integrity. This is the 22nd annual IAD which was initiated
the same year as the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC, 2003). Have
a look at the website to see the resources and activities that are happening
around the time of this international day and into the coming year.
Consider how you can connect and participate including how to involve
young people in your spheres of influence. Note also the work of the UNCAC Civil Society
Coalition which serves as a support and a watchdog for the extent to
which UN member sates are fulfilling their commitments to the UNCAC.
IAD 2024 Overview. "Our world confronts numerous challenges,
tragedies, inequalities and injustices, many of which are tied to corruption.
With 1.8 billion young people in the world, fighting corruption is vital for
the future of nearly a quarter of the global population. While young people are
significantly affected by corruption, they also have the potential to become
powerful agents of change in the fight for a future rooted in
integrity....Therefore, the campaign for International Anti-Corruption Day
2024-2025 focuses on the role young guardians of integrity play as advocates,
raising awareness about corruption and its impacts on their communities. They
will actively participate in discussions, share their experiences and propose
innovative solutions to combat corruption. The campaign will amplify voices of
integrity leaders of tomorrow, allowing them to express their concerns and
aspirations, with the hope that their appeals will be heard and acted upon.
" (quote from the IAD website)
Check out the IAD website for resources, activities, and
events!
Note also the new edited book, We the People: The UN Whistleblowers--Whistleblowing and Retaliation in the United Nations, edited by Caroline Hunt-Matthes.
Defining and Futurizing Integrity
How Much Do You Have? How will you
embody it?
Resource 2. Integrity and Corruption
'Shaping future integrity" is an emphasis of this year's IAD. Bravo! Yet
what exactly are we trying to shape--what is "integrity"? And
how is it actually being shaped--how do we develop and maintain
"integrity"? And how do you and others know if you are
acting with integrity--how do you evaluate "integrity"? Our
default is too assume and to affirm that we got it--but that is not always
true. Integrity is is often "mixed"--true in some parts of our life
but not all parts--and with mixed motives. All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the
LORD. (Proverbs
16:2)
Defining Integrity and Corruption (adapted from Global
Integrity Day-9 June)
Integrity is moral wholeness—living consistently in moral
wholeness—with honesty, humility and all the virtues--and with an
awareness of one’s potential to deceive and harm oneself and others. Integrity
needs external moral referents--standards of virtue with accountability--and
not simply positive self-appraisals--in order to safeguard us all from both
blind and willful hypocrisy.
Global
integrity is living consistently in moral wholeness at all
levels--individual, interpersonal, institutional, and
international; across sectors and settings; local through global; the
systemic and structural.
Corruption is moral rottenness, the opposite of integrity--the
distortion, perversion, and deterioration of moral goodness, resulting in the
abuse and exploitation of people and the planet. It is integroty. 'If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, then how great
is your darkness!" (Matthew 6:23)
 Note that the above definitions of integrity and
corruption open the door wide to the crucial discussion and clarification
of "external moral referents" and "standards of virtue and
accountability" as well as the process and accuracy of one's
moral perceptions of self and others.
Note also that theme for this year's Global
Integrity Day (GID) is Fighting Human Trafficking with Solidarity, Skill, and Integrity. Fighting human trafficking is a crucial area
to rally behind and involve youth! One of GID's four features is that it is
"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, affirming anti-corruption workers, and involving the
public." (quote from GID
website) Image from Pixabay
Fighting Human Trafficking with
Solidarity, Skill, and Integrity
Resource 3. Integrity podcast--Matthew 5:33-37 by Tim
Keller
"We’re going through the Sermon on the Mount and we
have Jesus Christ telling us how he wants us to live. He has dealt with the
commandment on murder and adultery, and now he’s dealing with the commandment
on lying. He’s going to talk to us about integrity, truth, and honesty. We have
as big a problem in our culture with this. Therefore, let’s take a look and see
what Jesus says about integrity. He gives us the principle behind integrity and
tells us something about the practice of integrity. And finally, he hints at a
problem we all have with integrity, and how to solve it.”
Image courtesy and © 2019 ENOD
Acknowledging and being aware of God's presence is key
for practicing integrity consistently and courageously and to
counter our own daily propensities for succumbing to the 'corruption that
arises from the lusts of deceit' (Ephesians 4:22 and 2 Peter
1:4). Live in God's light always and everywhere!
Note: Tim Keller died in May 2023. You can read reflections on his
life and ministry in various places such as the 21 May 2023 article
in Christianity Today. "In an increasingly divisive
world, the pastor theologian’s legacy was walking the higher road—the one less
traveled." Listen to more of his podcasts HERE.
Resource 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
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
--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).
 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." |
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