I have always had a problem with the Jamaican national honours, not the concept; but I have never quite understood how they came up with the ranking of the various honours. The titles do not seem to match their relative importance. At the top of the list is the Order of National Hero. Well the word hero does make it sound very important so no problem here; but next is the Order of the Nation, then the Order of Excellence (the latest addition reserved for foreign heads of state or government), then Order of Merit, then Order of Jamaica and at the bottom is Order of Distinction.

I will not comment on the ranking of the Order of Excellence since it is not for locals but I have always felt that the Order of Jamaica should rank above the Order of the Nation by virtue of the fact that it has the name Jamaica in it and the nation is Jamaica. Many countries could have an Order of the Nation but only one country can have the Order of Jamaica.

And then finally, when I went to school, you were given a distinction when you did extremely well and you got a merit when you did OK, better than a pass but not excellent, so can someone explain to me why the Order of Merit ranks above the Order of Distinction?

Iimportant awards'

The reason why I felt compelled to bring this up is that whenever the honours are announced I have to remind myself of the ranking so that I can get a sense of who got the more important awards. In fact, I wonder how many people engaged in the debate over whether Usain Bolt should have got the Order of Jamaica realise that his award is ranked just one above the bottom.

It may not always be possible to instinctively tell which honour is more important than the other but I think we could have done a better job. If the current ranking could be defended, I would love to hear the supporting arguments.

I am, etc.,

Stewart Spencer

stew@cwjamaica.com