The seminar on promotion of integrity was excellent

Thanks to every one who showed up for the seminar, despite the cold gloomy weather. It was quite insightful and the discussions were inspirational. I do really look foward to a social movement that is committed to pursuing integrity. It will start with our own individuals lives and progress to the public arena. This is my sincere desire and i take each day at a time.

NB for the people who were not able to attend the seminar, i will be uploading the video recording of the seminar very soon.

Warmest regards,
Mary

Finally a motivational talk geared towards promoting integrity

I am happy to report that i have finally managed to organise motivational talk that seeks to encourage and promote integrity in our society. The seminar will take place in the University of Queensland room 214, building 32 st. lucia campus. The speaker is a former UN advisor on political corruption. The respondent (the expert who will be responding to the speaker) is a researcher and an expert on integrity aspects in public sector especially in Australia. The seminar will take two hours as it runs from 1pm to 3pm.

My prayer is that the participants will be encouraged to promote integrity in all areas of their lives and that this seminar will attract the sincere persons who are deeply concerned about matters of Integrity and honesty. Hopefully this will go a long way in reducing corruption from our society.

Cheers
Mary

Taking honesty for granted

Lately i have been wondering to myself, is that some people are created honest and others are not.How come for some. honesty is a big deal yet for others, they dont even think twice, when they tell lies. I have come across on many occassions an individual who lies without any remorse. I often wonder is there hope for such people to ever change.

LET US PUT OUR FAITH IN GOD

It is now beyond a shadow of doubt that the root of corruption is spiritual.The word of God expects us to have excellence and integrity in our work. Some of you have acknowledged that God is faithful to His word. In this blog, there is a page on prayer, titled 'PRAYER CORNER' the page is dedicated to God and all those who beleive that God answers prayers. Please share your testimonies of how God has helped you in your workplace, your career, dealing with a harsh and corrupt boss etc. These testimonies will help us focus on God and give Him thanks. They will also be a source of encouragement for those of us who will read them. It is not just testmonies, but also include prayers to God that you think are relevant for our concerns about integrity and honesty, for such a time as this.
Thanks. To God be the Glory and all Praise.

Let us share our personal motivations

As we have already seen human beings have the freedom to choose to maintain personal integrity or not. Fair enough. Then i wonder to myself, If there are many people out there who live decent honest lifestyles, what could be motivating them to live uprightly and avoid being involved in corruption. What is the driving force that encourages people to do the right thing in their daily encounters.? Please lets share these experiences with one another so that we can learn from each other.Every single individual has valuable wisdom within them and i encourage you to post your experiences and your motivations!
I am waiting..........
cheers!!!

A motivational Talk......?

I have noted with concern that matters relating to morals and ethics are rarely discussed in the open. This issue is treated like a very personal matter. Indeed it is a matter of personal choice to be ethical or not to be. That could be the reason it is not easy to teach ethics in the traditional classroom setting.Ethics and integrity is all about our actions and our thoughts when no one is looking. It is against this background that i feel convicted to organise a motivational talk instead of a forum.The talk aims at demonstrating that there are some leaders who have made a difference in the society by their choice to uphold moral and ethical convictions. I have in mind a speaker who is an extremely experienced person in the issue of corruption especially corruption in governance. He has advised the United Nation on corruption related matters for many years.I can not give out his name at this stage because i need to talk to him first. Do you have suggestions of your own? I have never organised a motivational talk before , so please feel free to share some tips that will make this event a success here at UQ. I think it is better we have the event in middle of June. What do you guys think? looking forward to hear from you.....

The Ethics and Integrity Club -face book

I am delighted to inform you that the online group that we proposed to form during the sunday meeting is up and running.I hereby take the opportunity to invite you guys to join and even spread the word so that we can broaden the membership.I am encouraged by the assistance i got from one of the community member in setting up the group. Thanks Don. I really appreciated the time and the energy you put into it.I would prefer the new members be encouraged to make their comments on the blog as regularly as they would wish. I know i have not put up all the details of minutes of sunday meeting. i am just overwhelmed by assignments,
cheers. DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE WE CAN DESIGN A FLYER FOR THE UPCOMING MOTIVATIONAL TALK?
please help
cheers, mary

Some of the stories that were shared during the meeting

The first agenda on the meeting was to introduce ourselves and tell our stories especially on the issue of corruption.The stories revealed that corruption is real especially in the work places.The stories were based on experience and it was interesting to hear how young graduates get employed only to realise their seniors are involved in some unethical practices. The situation can be very tricky and yet we desire to remain ethical and maintain our personal integrity in the matter.Indeed the matter can be so troubling and one of the members said that when he was in such a situation he had to pray to have the senior removed from that institution, and guess what the corrupt senior officer was removed after six months. Is prayer one way of dealing with this dilemma of corruption?share your wisdom

The community members are lookin great!

The day is 16th may 2010 between 2-3pm and the persons appearing in the photo comprise the first community of persons who are interested in promoting ethics and integrity as a lifestyle in work places and in the society.The location is in University of Queensland here in Brisbane, Australia. The main issue that was discussed is how we can utilise education system to encourage and inspire a mentality and conduct that fights corruption both in private and public life.The fact that they could spare a few hours on a sunday afternoon in the middle of a hectic semester, really demonstrates a sincere committment to th the cause. Is that inspiring or what?

The meeting was inspirational-Thanks

The possibility that some UQ students can spare a few hours to attend a meeting on a sunday afternoon in the middle of a busy semester is quite inspirational. The meeting went well and about twelve community members attended. We were able to share our thoughts which i will post soon after i receive the photos of the meeting. I was personally encouraged that there are many people out there who care to make the society around us a better place and i cant wait to see where this journey takes this community. I should be able to upload the details of the meeting by tomorrow and those of you who did not manage to attend can still post your thoughts,

Thanks to all of you who came,you inspired, you encouraged and you offered you wisdom free of charge.

You have all passed through the education system,Do you think we can use it as tool of fighting corruption

If you have had a chance to look at my profile you may have realised that i have recently been involved in the prosecution of a few anti corruption cases. My experience is that criminal law is only one way af tackling corruption. Indeed the last case i prosecuted the accused was convicted and sentenced to a maximum of five years in custody. I was happy that the system had managed to put one corrupt person behind bars. However when i reflect on the situation i feel abit sad. I managed to talk to the wife of the accussed after the sentencing and she told me that the case had strained the family so much that they were no longer on talking terms, indeed they were now separated. She also revealed that the Accussed had been threatening to commit suicide. This is just but one example of how corruption ruins a family. How do we get to warn the young and naive generation still protected behind the walls of classrooms?. How do we utilise the education systems to protect the untainted young ones? Thats my concern, post your ideas because this will form the foundation of our community

The update about sunday's meeting

As i had informed you earlier, the members of this community that have already expressed their interest in the matters of reducing corruption will be meeting this coming sunday outside UQ Union at 2pm. The meeting will be brief and it is informal as it is a preliminary one. The members will get to see each other face to face and share experiences on how this concern has affected us and the society in general. It is also important to have an online network that is specific to our concern.There are other community members who are not yet reached and it is crucial we devise ways of reaching to them. Do you have any additional ideas?
cheers!

Are you excited about the coming meeting?

The inspiration is within us

You are a new employee in this department of particular institution and you are glad you got the job. A few months down the line, your new workmates start asking; why do you work so hard this is the public sector. or they inform you that there are two kinds of salary one is the official salary on the pay slip and the other one is from the bribes.Life is tough and you must make survive, they say.Every thing in you lets you know that all is not well, yet you are just a junior officer and these are your seniors. How is one to deal with this situation? This one thing i know, it is not easy but it possible to influence the workplace for the better.If you beleive what i am saying lets share those experiences,

mary

What will motivate us?

Is it possible to enhance integrity through the education syatem?Can the universities lead the way?

This education system has in the past been used to shape people's attitudes and beliefs.It is against this background that i remain convinced that the education system offers a fantastic opportunity to fight and reduce corruption by enhancing and integrating core values of the society into the learning enviroment. The education system is a vast and complex one and i thought the universities are the least complicated as they have some degree of autonomy.This is the reason my main focuss has been the university community. Indeed how prepared are the graduates that are churned out of universities each year to deal with the ethical dilemmas that are out there in the work place?. Is there a way the universities can partner with other stakeholders like the employers and students and the government to determine the core values that should be enshrined in every academic programmes?
These are just but a few concerns that keep popping in my mind when i think of how we can reduce corruption from the society. Let me know what you think.
cheers!!!

The message that never reached my community

Technology is both a blessing and sometimes can be a little bit annoying. last week i sent the message through email to my commnity of interest and i was confident they would reply to my invitation. so far i havent received any. Yesterday i bumped into two of my community members and they were shocked to hear there is a meeting on 16th may for the face to face meeting. Indeed i intend to organise a conversation cafe during this informal meeting as a way of getting started.Back to the frustrations of technology i dont know why the email never reached and i have to resend the invite again. The problem with the technology is that it does not talk back to you and i may never know what became of my emails. Today while trying to sign in to my blog i just couldnt find the dashboard as it had disappeared and it took an a hour for me to discover that i had signed in using a different email address.Yesterday was a fruitful day as one of my community members offered to help me with the idea of the online network. I have always feared joining facebook but i guess i will have to do it for the sake of this project. i cant wait to see how the online network will come along.
cheers!!

cheers!!

Who would have ever thought that judges would be corrupt

Today i received encouragement from some keen supporters of the fight against corruption. It was only last night that i was reading this American journal and was able to see how some corrupt judges had negatively impacted on the justice system. The Journal article is titled BAD JUDGES and it made me realise that truly corruption is still an issue even in the so called developed world. It would seem that societies are normally at a loss of how to convince people to do the right thing even when no one is looking. This is a challenge and i think its the high time the society recognised the need to clearly state some of the strategies that we can put in place inorder to discourage corruption apart from the already existing criminal punishment system.For starters those who beleive that corruption is a spiritual problem what are they doing about it. May it is the high time we started praying about it on a serious note.That can be the first step. The second step we need to take is to act with confidence and trust that our actions will bear the desired fruits. It is for this reason that i have decided to take action and seek out a community of people who are as concerned as me. I trust we are many of us out there. I have already sent some emails and now i am sending out some more today and i should surely expect some people to respond. It is a good feeling to just know that you are doing the right thing. Can you imagine a world where people were just honest about their lifestyles. Just try to visualise it and see how it looks.
warm regards Mary

The project documents are not yet up

Hi great people, i know i have set up a page on this blog called the project documents. I just want to let you know that it is empty for now because i still need to figure the best way to put the documents. The documents are just supposed to show you some of the ideas i have been having concerning how we can join our wisdom in enhancing and encouraging ethics and integrity in to our work places through our education system. So bear with me as i try to seek wisdom on how to post the documents. In the mean time feel free to drop in your ideas. i cant wait to hear from you.

It is refreshing to know that there are many citizens out there who want to make a positive impact in their sphere of influence. Having shared my concern about the serious issue of corruption to a few people here in the university of Queensland i have been truly inspired to join hands with this community. Today i will send the emails out to this community suggesting of a date when we should meet and have a face to face conversation with each other. It will be on 16th may 2010' the agenda should be to see how to capture a broader community of interest that has not yet been reached. I trust they will respond well and i just trust that they will be as enthusiastic as i am. All things work out for good for those who trust in the Lord. I will also be giving my blog address and i am already looking forward to their comments.

cheers!!!

The journey has surely began

It was only yesterday i was talking to guest speaker here at the University of Queensland who has been a judge for a long time and he was sharing with us(students) his experiences about his observations about some specific inquiries on corruption here in queensland. The conversation made me realise corruption is a complex issue and even the countries we call first world have not managed to eradicate it. The positive side is that it can be reduced and controlled by putting up measures that make it a very expensive affair to all those who engage in it. However my concern has always been that as a society we have a responsibility to the young generation to be examples of integrity. How do we do that when majority of leadership is into self serving interests? Is it a spiritual concept, if it is, what happens to those who have no spiritual or religious affiliations. How come we have had leaders like Nelson mandela and leaders like Hitler. When we talk to the young ones which one of these two do we want to see in the future. If we dont not research into these types of leaders, and talk about them and encourage our core values what happens then to ethics, values and integrity. what happens to the concern of my neighbour?Every thing we do or not do is a decision. When we choose not to take a stand when it comes to the values that form the foundation of our society then we have choosen that anything goes and soon we begin to see the consequences. As a result of this internal dialogue i am well encouraged to take baby steps to start connecting with people who share similar thought patterns. I love this quote by Margaret Mead' Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, its the only thing that ever has.

Hello world?
I have stopped watching news on T.V. because i am sure of seeing a news item about corruption. These stories are all over the world and the saddness i feel is just beyond me. As a way of protecting my emotions i have resulted to ignoring news, i guess burying my head in the sad and assuming that the problem of corruption will one day just dissappear. The reality of the matter is that EVIL PROSPERS WHEN GOOD DOES NOTHING. Today marks an important day because i have made a deliberate decision that GOOD WILL HAVE TO PROSPER BECAUSE THE GOOD WILL NO LONGER SIT AND DO NOTHING. I am currently doing a masters programme in the university of queensland and i have been truly provoked to think about how i can move a private concern to the public domain. As a parent, a career woman, a wife, a student i desire to join hands with others who think that honesty can go a long way to reducing corruption amongst our societies. We need to encourage it, to applaude it and to strategically enshrine it in all spheres of our lives in order to reduce and eventually eradicate corruption from our countries.Those who think that encouraging an honest mindset is a major strategy that can reduce corruption, please stand up and be counted.

kind regards

mary