Eye Opener
Promoting a culture of integrity, cultural excellence
Loc Vandebon, head of political, economic, trade and public affairs section of the European Commission who gave his remarks on the occasion of the Visayan Awarding Ceremony of the Multi-Event Competition on October 6, 2005 at the Cebu Normal University was highly impressed of the role of all the stakeholders and talented winners of the multi-event competition for having contributed to a culture of integrity and excellence by way of sharing their skills and talents in developing posters, essays and slogans.
Vandebon is the head of the delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines and he was pleased to be involved in the student-government-private multi-event activity as the undertaking. The Belgian national said it generates awareness and understanding in promoting two vital and key values: integrity and excellence. Loc defined integrity as a matter of persons integrating various parts of their personality into harmonious intact whole, and therefore, integrity is keeping the self intact and uncorrupted. The self and being attuned with one self is not, however, the end all and be all in integrity, because integrity is also associated with keeping core commitments and standing up for one's best judgment in what is worth doing in life.
Cheshire Calhoun, a philosopher on integrity, said: “Persons of integrity treat their own endorsement as ones that matter, or ought to matter, to fellow deliberators. Absent a special sort of story, lying about one's views, concealing them, recanting them under pressure, selling them out for rewards or to avoid penalties, and pondering to what one regards as the bad views of others, all indicate a failure to regard one's judgment as one that should matter to others. Vandebon said a person has to stand up for his or her beliefs but lacks respect for the judgment of others; on the contrary, integrity should also be equated with proper regard and respect for the judgment of others.
The winners and participants during the awarding ceremony of the multi-event competition can certainly do a lot in promoting a culture of integrity in their own spheres of influence—be it in their families, communities, schools, respective offices and parishes, and this, all for the common good.
Promoting a culture of integrity, however, goes together with promoting a culture of excellence: the two, integrity and excellence go hand in hand with each other. A culture of excellence is not simply a choice which can be seen as a commitment to go beyond the ordinary, to go out of the box. It is more a journey to discovering and rediscovering oneself, to contribute to a shared vision or a shared goal, or to achieving harmony and synergy using one's strengths and energies, innovation and creativity.
(To be continued)