Mahendra Shah

To me, integrity means being what you are,regardless of circumstances or environment. We suffer from conflict between how others evaluate us and what we think of ourselves. This interferes with our self-image. We confuse what we are and what we want to be with what people want us to be.

Three former Prime Ministers of Australia were among the 300 who attended the State Funeral of Kim Edward Beazley on 20 October 2007. In 1953 Beazley spent seven weeks at the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Caux, Switzerland – an experience which profoundly affected his life and political career.

Kim Beazley Senior was that rare breed – an honest politician who earned the admiration and trust of all sides of politics.

Much has been said over the last several years about business ethics. The reasons are obvious: high profile corporate scandals and abuses that have grabbed the public’s attention. My concern, in the midst of this media blitz and legal chaos, has been on how much attention has been given to compliance as a remedy for ethical lapses and how little attention has been focused on integrity.

“If a corporation wants to run a marathon, it requires a value system.”

While returning home to Australia after nine months with Action for Life, a nine month programme of IofC in Asia, I said this during the inevitable discussion on men that occurs amongst young female passengers on long plane trips. My fellow traveler's reaction was to burst out laughing, “A man of integrity – you can’t be serious – do they even exist!”

I almost share a birthday with free India and Pakistan. I was born exactly a month before the two countries gained their freedom from British rule. Even more important than economic growth, can India, Pakistan and China become known as models of trust, integrity and good governance?

Michael Smith takes part in a conference that brings together business professionals, farmers and journalists seeking ethics at work.

‘It grew out of a concern for the climate and times we live in,’ says Upper School Head Todd Huebsch.

Such euphemisms as ‘presents’, ‘brown envelopes’, ‘collateral things’, even ‘bribes’ do not describe the reality. This system of bribes is best described as medical terrorism. Bribes are what doctors receive. Terror is what the population experiences.