What is integrity?

Isabel Vasquez

Integrity is about values, principles, morals and a consistency ensuring that a person always treats others the way they deserve to be treated.  “Love thy neighbour as thyself”  is synonymous with integrity.

Yet despite having a hugely religious component in this country, we still apparently lack integrity.  How is it possible that the managerial girl who “appears” like a caring and sharing sort is actually robbing her company out of tens of thousands of dollars, and encouraging those within her jurisdiction to “keep quiet” about the scandal?  How is it that the policewoman who so convincingly gained her role as front of desk at one of the country’s leading police stations is, in fact, incompetent, rude, disrespectful and an incredibly poor representative of the Belizean justice system; she is “lousy” even according to her colleagues, and yet she maintains her role even without the necessary integrity.  And how on earth did the Clerk of Court in Belize City receive her posting when the list of complaints against her is almost longer than the list of customers served altogether.  Accusing perfectly respectable citizenry of “lone foolishness”, handing out mis-copied memos and official letters and confronting people with a growl rather than a smile are all definitive examples of the opposite of integrity.  And yet these people seem to flourish in Belize.

Integrity is like respect, in my opinion.  Having a reputation for integrity needs to be earned just as to receive respect requires hard-work.  Similarly, if people are under the authority of someone who shows no sign of integrity, then they are liable to slip into similarly displeasing patterns of personal relations.  Is that the problem afflicting Belizean society at the moment, perhaps, that we are ruled by a political party that shows little or no integrity, and therefore we too are becoming careless and lazy in our day-to-day existence?

It is time for integrity to once again take centre stage in all aspects of Belizean society from the carefree shop-assistant, to the off-duty police officer, to every government official and employee in every district of our country.  A great philosopher once said that “our character…is an omen of our destiny, and the more integrity we have and keep, the simpler and nobler that destiny is likely to be”.  Surely, even the most sour-faced of public servants realises that “from dust we came, and to dust we shall return”.  It is not who we were born, nor what undeservingly good job we can boast of on our CV, nor who we die, but how we live our life in between that determines our destiny.

Integrity is not something to write home about.  It is not a characteristic that you proudly shout about from the rooftops.  It is just how we should behave.  And how we should expect others to behave.  So this festive season, let us all try and display a little more integrity for the betterment of our fellow men.   Just maybe it will make for a more promising start to 2010.

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