Integrity

Do you ever secretly do something that is not possible, or allowed? Do you secretly park your car somewhere where it is not allowed, for example in a disabled parking space, or do your business in the middle of the night behind the church? Were all your possessions legitimately acquired by you? Do you "neatly declare all your income to the tax, and never jockey?" You never fool another human being when you act or speak to this person?

So, you are completely eager?

You are eager, and you only have honest people around you. You are also responsible for your life partner and for your children. You come from an honest and well-behaved family. You have always behaved according to the existing rules. You have learned this from your parents since childhood. Behaving honestly is in your blood. You have always been annoyed by the unfairness in our world. And you are pleased that, in your opinion, there is more and more improvement in our world in this regard.

Are you with the right bank?

You will undoubtedly have made the choice of the bank with which you do your banking business with great care. You probably also sit at a green bank? Green is, isn't it: "Treat each other nicely?" Green is the color of respect, isn't it? These banks promise to invest our money in environmentally friendly business and other honest business? These banks are very often part of larger global banking conglomerates where things sometimes go wrong, but they are as green as grass. In any case, they will make sure that you can think that they are handling your finances in the right way.

Do you donate to charity?

Of course, you also make sure that you spend enough money on the so-called charities. You choose these goals yourself based on the way in which they present themselves to you. You can be sure that your money will go to the causes that these foundations have mentioned to you. What you and I often forget is that these foundations do spend an awful lot of money on promotion on commercial TV channels. A thirty-second commercial can easily cost quite a bit, and the average charity director no longer works under two hundred thousand a year, but then again, they are charities. An additional advantage that our society has arranged is the fact that we can also deduct part of these donations from our tax bills, so what are we complaining about?

You are well behaved?

In our experience, we do things right and we have our affairs in order.

We are eager, and we have always cracked down on corruption whenever it is in our power. So, we're doing very well. Together, we are very happy with all the rules that have been drawn up to combat corruption. We are glad that we have a Europe, and an excellent tax administration that watches over us as our watchdog. We have Europol, a European collaboration of police organizations such as the FBI and the CIA in America, and in addition to our green bank, also the European bank. Money transactions are so well organized that I hear more and more of my friends talking about the fact that they don't fully trust everything anymore. Some of these friends are already talking about money-filled old socks under their bed, or in their linen closet.

Do you feel safer and understood?

Lovely all neat people around us and a perfectly functioning board throughout Europe! Well, that's what I thought until I turned on my radio this morning and listened to a news broadcast. The broadcast I listened to was about those directors. There was talk of administrators from Europe and the USA who were playing politics with Russia and China. These politicians do not seem to be averse to a few bribes here and there. Kickbacks that they receive if they give these countries small advantages or if they let the decision fall in the right direction. In the past, not so long ago, we used to call this corruption and receiving bribes. But then again, times change, but we wanted to eradicate corruption, didn't we?

Beyond corruption?

In the sixty-two years that I have been alive now, I think that has been the motto, at least if I have understood correctly? In this morning's radio broadcast, there was also an interview with a corruption specialist who, to my surprise, casually claimed that there was no way to prevent these things. After all, today's technical possibilities and ICT facilitated these things. He called it all not that important and almost impossible to control and prevent.

So don't worry.

I then thought, "Why have I been so careful all these years, and why have I lived so neatly all these years?" Why have I always thought that the leaders and politicians of this world gave us a "good example" and that good example makes us follow suit? In short, we are starting all over again! Keep children away from the radio, computer, and TV, because otherwise they might follow the "good" example of the administrators and politicians. How a person can make a mistake and be fooled.