Illustration by Kevin Christopher M. Tee (2015); editing by Allister Roy S. Chua (2015)

| ɪnˈtɛgrɪti |

If you take a bird’s-eye view on the content in this site, as well as the categories and tags, you’ll see that they cover a rather diverse array of fields or topics, but all with a central theme of responsibility or godliness (or both). At first, you may think that there’s no one clear direction for this blog, but the very fact that there’s such an array is direction enough for me.

It’s all about integrity.

Let’s take a look at the first definition below: it’s about being honest and having strong moral principles. This is obvious: I advocate everyone to practice such behavior, such behavior of which may be taken for granted or compromised especially in the world of today – the world that is full of war, of mistrust, of sex abuse (or abuse of any kind for that matter, especially cyber abuse); but the world that is also equally full of hope, of opportunity, of the desire for change. I invite everyone to reflect on their lives and see if there were, and are, any opportunities to become more honest and have stronger moral principles (that they actually live out).

I also invite everyone to practice such behavior wholly, in everything they do – from at home to at work and business, and everywhere in between. There’s the concept of the Sunday Christian, or the cafeteria Christian, who act Christian-like only on Sundays or when they feel like doing so – definitely not what Our Lord intends for us to do! We should live a life of godliness – and responsibility, by extension – all the time, everywhere.

Which leads us to the second definition: being whole and undivided. This refers to things such as national territory, but it can and should begin with where it always begins: the human individual. We should be whole and undivided, and by that I mean we should live whole honest, moral lives – where honesty and morality dictate everything we do, for a purpose, that purpose of which is giving glory to our Creator. We should develop integrally and, in our service to others, encourage and help them to develop the same way, too.

A classic example is economic or financial development that comes at the expense of social or emotional development – whether it be an entire country or a business. Or even a single person. True, the Philippines is the second-fastest-growing economy in the world today (behind only China), but it is far from integral: Our infrastructures are still subpar compared to the rest of the world, we have one of the highest tax rates in the world, many of our government leaders are not acting integrally (in the first sense of the word), and both poverty and mistrust remain widespread. The SM conglomerate is the largest company (or group of companies) in the Philippines, yet their bottom-line employees remain on eternally probational, benefits-free employment while their higher-ups earn more and more. An individual who becomes firmly fixated on earning as much as he can does so at the expense of his relationships with others or worse, even his health. Where there is inequality, there is no integrity – regardless of whether it is in the organizational or the personal sense.

This is why the individual approach is still the best way to go. Through it, we ensure – or rather increase the chances – that a person or persons develop slowly, but rooted and with a solid foundation. This is much better than “enforcing” a supposedly widely beneficial system en masse that fails to take into consideration individual needs or concerns.

Definition

noun (mass noun)

• the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles
• the state of being whole and undivided
  • the condition of being unified or sound in construction
  • internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data

Etymology

Late Middle English, from French intégrité or Latin integritas, from integer (“intact”).

In other languages

• Bahasa Indonesia: keutuhan
• بهاس ملايو:
  • كاوتوهن (keutuhan)
• Cebuano: kaligdong
• Deutsch: die Integrität; die Einheit (wholeness); die Rechtschaffenheit
• Español: la integridad; la honradez
• Filipino: katapatan; kalinisang-budhi
• Français: l’intégrité (fem.); la probité; l’honnêteté (fem.)
• 한국어: 청렴 (cheonglyeom); 고결 (gogyeol)
• Italiano: la integrità; la probità
• ភាសាខ្មែរ: ភាពសុចរិត (pheap sochrit)
• Latino: integritas; probitas
• မြန်မာဘာသာ: ကိုသမာဓိ (ko samardhi)
• 日本語: 保全 (ほぜん hozen); 精錬 (せいれん seiren)
• ພາສາລາວ: ປະສົມປະສານ (pasompasan)
• ภาษาไทย: ความสมบูรณ์ (Khwām s̄mbūrṇ̒)
• தமிழ்: நேர்மை (Nērmai)
• Tiếng Việt: toàn vẹn
• 中文: 廉正 (liánzhèng); 氣節 / 气节 (qìjiè)