COVID-19 has shown us things!
Yes, we now blame everything bad, limiting, and anything in between on COVID. Due to COVID, the Ministry of Health issued prevention guidelines in line with what WHO had issued as well as add others as per our local context. One of them was avoiding hard cash. It picked up well but recently, I have noticed business owners are hesitant. Some without payment subscriptions will insist that you withdraw and pay in cash. Out of curiosity, I asked one grocer why. He explained that people have been buying goods and services via mobile money, and as soon as they walk away, they cancel the transaction. So they carry home the commodity as well as keep their money. Like Really!!!
I recently saw a post on social media of a guy who went into a supermarket to buy an electronic. An attendant presented him with a tempting backdoor deal that would see the guy save quite a bit as compared to the shelf price, while the attendant would make some cash from the deal. According to the attendant, this was to be a win-win for him and the buyer. The responses blew my head. The poster had identified the shop in question in his post. Some respondents were mad at this, accusing the poster of being a snitch, that the supermarket management would approach him for details of the attendant and have him fired. Some others accused him of spoiling business for them. It was clear this has been a trend with many beneficiaries. Some even went further to castigate the poster for what they termed "foolishness," the reason he will never become rich. Still, wondering why our chain supermarkets and such other businesses are collapsing? Wonder no more.
There was another similar but different story. Someone picked a phone that fell from a passenger who had hurried to catch a public service vehicle. The poster stated that it was an expensive phone. He had waited for the owner or at least a contact to the owner to call it for him to be able to hand it back but nothing. Instead, he saw a notification of a sim swap, which is likely that the owner had deemed the phone lost and replaced the sim-card. Responses were equally crazy. Lots of people advised the poster to discard the phone since it could be a case of a deliberate discard if it's connected to a crime, while others advised him to take it to a police station.
The above scenario speaks of an unfortunate culture of a people who will not stop at anything to selfishly gain at the expense of another. Yet we are the same people who will shout on hilltops about bad economic times, corruption, and the ills that bedevil this society.
But why?
Wikipedia defines integrity as the practice of being honest and showing consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. It adds that in ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Google gives the following as synonyms to integrity; honesty or uprightness or noble-mindedness or sincerity or truthfulness or scrupulousness or trustworthiness. I often hear it said that integrity is doing the right thing even no one is watching.
Someone shared a story of a small town he lives in that has a tuck-shop owned by one of the local farmers in a European country. There is no shopkeeper neither CCTV cameras at the shop to monitor the activities, but the buyers come in and after making their pick, they record in a record book all that they have picked and the quantities. At the end of the month, the shop owner tallies the records and bills his clients as per the records! This is integrity redefined! Indeed doing what is right when no one is watching.
It reminds me of a story I read from the Bible this past week. It's entitled "David and Bathsheba," found in 2 Samuel 11. I Want to focus on Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. Uriah was a soldier in the army of King David. He had been away at war when the king slept with his wife. The king wishing to cover his sin sent that Joab the army leader sends Uriah back home. This was so that Uriah would go and be with his wife, thus be believed that he is responsible for the pregnancy. Uriah did come back home, but he didn't go home to sleep with his wife. He in fact slept out at the city gates. David attempted to trick him the second time by giving him too much to drink. Being a man of high integrity, even in his drunkenness still remember his high calling - a soldier of the army. And so to Uriah, as long as the army was out battling in war, he was not going to engage in pleasure. Once again, he slept out with the king's guards. I am not sure why so but if I could relate it to football (soccer) madness I have heard as I grew up, it used to be said that footballers (soccer players) would not be allowed to sleep with a woman just before a match. It was believed that was a bad omen. The players literally looked out for each other so no one breaks that unwritten law. I do not know how true this is. Seems like the same rule applied in the Israelite army. Uriah being as committed to his course as he was, would not break that silent law. He did what was right even when no one was watching! His ultimate price for his act of honesty? He paid with his own life. Yes, the king had him murdered so he could marry Bathsheba. It's even more painful to imagine that Uriah carried a letter that instructed the leader of the army on how he would get rid of Uriah. His integrity ruled over curiosity. He did not peep in the letter on his way back to the battlefield. His main focus was to do what was right even when no one was looking.
What a great learning!!!
Have you while at a banquet served more than you can maybe finish without care about those who will come after you? You need some learning.
Have you walked into a shared toilet and packed the tissue paper placed in there? You have some reforming to do.
Do you sell stuff at exorbitant prices so as to "make a kill" out of the proceeds? You have no integrity.
Has your child come home with something that you know is not theirs and you let them keep it? Your moral standing is in question.
This concerns all of us. Take a retrospect and judge yourself for yourself.
I want to do what is right even when no one is looking.
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