What exists is possible: stories of honest behavior
What problem are you solving?:
We live in a country in which many basic values have broken down: cooperation in the public sphere is weak, the value of education is undercut by purchased diplomas, the mass media is full of stories of using political and other positions for personal gain, doctors and other healthcare professionals expect under the table payments in order to provide quality care. Average citizens believe that they have no choice but to participate in these small and large corruptions which are a factor of everyday life.
Describe your idea:
We know that there are different stories which also exist, like professors who ripped up envelopes full of cash which were offered for a good grade. We believe that the internet offers a unique platform for collecting and propogating these stories. We aim to affect peoples’ behavior by showing that moral behavior, based on common values, is possible because their neighbors are already living this way. We hope to gather these stories from far and wide – and to use these positive examples as a motivator. Concretely we envision several stages:
1) Create website which will allow people to register and submit new stories, as well as rating favorite stories and indicating ones that have been verified.
2) Use initial stories to advertise the idea using both “new” media (facebook, existing email networks) and “old” media – radio and print
3) Once we have a rich fund of stories, begin offering awards for some of these outstanding individuals as a way of strengthening them.
What country will this operate in?: Bosnia-Herzegovina
Who are you?:
This idea is a collaboration of two faith-based organizations, one Christian and one Muslim, one international and one local. Our focus is peacebuilding projects. The two principal initiators bring both technical (computer, internet, development), project management, and public relations experience.
I like this link and my proposal how to promote honest behavior is only positive personal example what we will give others people. In this year we in our building sucesfully finished two small mikro-local projects. The first one is making green grass, flowers and plants in the garden infront our building (entrance A,B and C). The secund one is fill big hole on entrance in our neighbourhood. As a result these positive eforts we won first place for most buatiful entrance in Municipility Center.
Wormiest regards
Almir
I think this is a great idea! Living in a society that, in a way, promotes egocentrism, corruption and bribe, by focusing attention to all those negative examples, especially in print media (famous “black chronicle”, doesn`t leave much space for the other side. I believe that people can and will identify with ordinary members of society who did something good and honest, it`s just that someone needs to remind them of their existence.
I find this idea very interesting and promising. I do agree with the fact that the public is overwhelmed with negative stories which create very much negative perceptions thus prejudices and possible conflicts. New media makes possible to reach the audience in a new way that can affect people’s lives and opinions at its very best in this example. However, building the common platform to exchange stories i.e. experiences of positive examples is necessary and encouraging.