The Editor, Sir:

What is the criteria for an award from the National Honours and Awards committee? This question pops up every year when the ceremony is held. It has become a farce that should be discontinued.

What can be said of a ceremony where Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd and Duke Reid, giants in Jamaican culture, can be overlooked for the Order of Jamaica?

Who made it law that only persons from the corporate, legal or political sectors should get an OJ?

People all over the world were recognising 'Coxsone' and Duke Reid's work long before Shaggy and Luciano were born. Yet they are awarded the Order of Distinction the same year as these 'youngsters'.

The inconsistencies are glaring. Bunny Grant, a poor boy from Boys' Town, wins a world boxing title in 1962 the year of Jamaica's independence from Britain. He is a forgotten man when he receives an OD in 2005.

Charlie Joseph, groundsman at Sabina Park for 35 years, can only get a badge of honour, but Robert Bryan gets an OD for a one-off project - the World Cup. We must do better.

There was a time when the ordinary Joe was the toast of the National Honours and Awards. Not so anymore, because it's become nothing more than a parade for big wigs and friends of politicians.

Until there is a proper and transparent selection process, the National Honours and Awards will be nothing but a joke.

I am, etc.,

Without honour