His Excellency the Honourable Usain Bolt, OJ, Ambassador-at-large, has apologised for the antics he did during the playing of Jamaica’s National Anthem at the recent International Association of Athletics Federations sports meet in Daegu. Yohan Blake has also apologised. I am not surprised at what Bolt did. Two years ago, some of us said and wrote that Bolt was awarded far too many honours. Given Bolt’s obviously low level of maturity, some of us felt that it would go to his head. But the prime minister did not budge. Indeed, Bruce Golding defended his action.

Some responded that athletes in England got knighthoods. My counter-response was: first, for someone to be awarded an English knighthood these days, character and maturity would also be taken into consideration. And second, in the traditional sense, English knighthoods are not to be taken seriously, as the pirate Henry Morgan was also knighted on being made Governor of Jamaica nearly 340 years ago.

In 2009 I interviewed people in many parts of Jamaica after it was announced that Bolt would receive the Order of Jamaica in addition to being Ambassador-at-large. I also spoke to teenagers in Falmouth and in Montego Bay. All of them opined that it was overdone. In response to one of my columns, 21 out of 24 responders on Jamaica Observer online agreed with me. One went as far as to say that with Bolt, OJ means “orange juice”.

Still, it is not fair to Usain Bolt to be so ridiculed, even if he brought it on himself. It is hard to be expected to live up to such awards at such a young age. Blame for Bolt’s antics during the national anthem should also be on the shoulders of all who encouraged or gave so many awards to him just for profit or for reasons of maintaining power. They should also apologise.

There was a news item last week that two parliamentarians, Olivia “Babsy” Grange and Lisa Hanna have been named to a special committee to select national heroes. I am not in favour of any new national heroes at this time because if you give to one you have to give to the other, and so it will continue until the award becomes meaningless.

The honour roll of Jamaica should be a history book of people who have served Jamaica just like the list of saints in the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, a knowledge of our national heroes is in a nutshell the history of Jamaica. But in terms of best practices, we should look at the two millennia long tried and tested system of canonisation in the Roman Catholic Church. As inappropriate as Bolt’s antics were, I can live with that. I really hope that worse is not to come in his expected long life ahead of him. But to effect damage control, Bolt should be told that one more inappropriate public act should result in the withdrawal of the Jamaican honours.

For more than two decades I have written my concerns in newspaper columns about the way in which Jamaican honours have been awarded. A few of these columns were: “Let us praise illustrious men” (Jamaica Record, January 29, 1990), “Heroes sheroes and zeroes” (Sunday Herald, March 20, 1997), “How far is too far” (Jamaica Observer September 24, 2009), “The things politicians do” (Jamaica Observer (October 22, 2009) and ‘Why abuse our heritage’ Jamaica Observer (October 14, 2010). Space does not allow me to list my columns on black pride and dignity.

Obviously, I have not had much success in getting governments of either political party to award national honours more objectively or in halting mental slavery. One manifestation of mental slavery is the insistence by some employees for lighter complexions at the workplace as highlighted in the Sunday Gleaner of September 11. Despite the teaching of Garvey and the example of Monsignor Gladstone Wilson, a black Roman Catholic priest and a Jamaican who was in his day the seventh most learned man in the world, the mental slavery has not stopped. Despite Barack Obama becoming US president, we still have not learnt.

Despite the fact that the Credit Union Movement in Jamaica was set up by the Roman Catholic Church because black people could not get bank loans and despite all that National hero Norman Manley and his son Michael Manley stood for, the ugly and disgusting self-degradation has continued. In Russia, after 75 years of classical communism, the return of capitalism in 1992 brought with it “ethnic cleansing”.

The only consolation for me in this difficult struggle are the words of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta who said, “Our Lord did not ask us to be successful. He asked us to be faithful”. And being faithful and committed to the task of ending mental slavery as Marcus Garvey said and Bob Marley sang, I make the call again for Garveyism to be taught in schools. This is the only way that Jamaicans will gain self-respect to the point of resisting and protesting against colour prejudice.

ekrubm 765@yahoo.com