Public urged to nominate people for new gongs
(CNS): After what appears to be a paucity of nominations for government’s new set of revamped national gongs, officials are urging people to identify individuals to get the awards at the first investiture in the New Year. Officials said the deadline for nominations for the Council for the Order of the Cayman Islands closes next Friday.
“We know there are many out there who have inspired and uplifted us through exemplary contributions,” said Premier Alden McLaughlin, who is the Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order.
“This is an opportunity for the community to tell us who these individuals are and to have their contributions honoured. We are looking forward to receiving more nominations before the nomination period closes next week,” he added.
The gongs will go to people who have made “exemplary contributions to life in the Cayman Islands”, officials said adding that both Caymanians and permanent residents are eligible to be appointed as Ordinary members, while all residents are eligible to be appointed as honorary members. Any person or organisation may submit a nomination.
Even though the honour has only just been created, officials said admission to the order “is one of the highest national honours and awards in the Cayman Islands” and it is reserved for those “who have demonstrated an outstanding level of talent, un-paralleled devotion to service or other exceptional contributions”.
The first investiture ceremony for the relaunched Order of the Cayman Islands will take place during National Heroes Day in January 2021.
Nomination forms are available at here
or from the Government Administration Building reception desk
or via email request to nationalhonours@gov.ky
Category: Local News
Ironically, everyone has trophies to claim in the Cayman Islands besides local Caymanians. The only right here so far is the Right to be Caymanian, which still isn’t reserved to any particular group. (Check the Constitution) How is that fair? America and Great Britain have birth rights and accolades that cannot be usurped.
We all feel like hostages in this island-wide smash-and-grab and being pro-local Caymanian is somehow become a cardinal sin.
In contrary to what some people may leave you to believe, fair opportunities and lifetime achievement awards have only been handed out to the chosen ones and doled out with equivocation.
Everyone disenfranchised and unrecognized is expected to not say anything until one day they have little to nothing, and when that happens they get called lazy, boneheaded, ignorant, shortsighted and every other Caymanian stereotype in the book. (The few do not speak for the many, and these kind of people exist everywhere you go in the world; prove me wrong)
This conquering type of bullying needs to stop!
Is fair-sharing and preservation for future generations too much to ask? That is all locals are asking for.
These principles are being ignored, so there should be no surprise why the hibernating bear is now angry. Nobody likes forced opinions and honorees down their throats and people here are no different. Take it or leave it.
By the way, no amount of money or worldly accomplishments will save you from any kind of eternal suffering.
Are these like the Ig Nobel Prize?
What’s higher, being called a “Cayman Hero” or getting one of these trinkets? It seems that these days everyone is a hero and everyone has a trinket.
National Hero is much higher; it is the highest. With one exception it is only awarded posthumously (it may be awarded in life but by convention it is not). There are only 9 of them, even with an objectionable inflation in that award too where 5 were honoured at once, whereas hundreds of people were given the earlier version of these medals. Also, National Hero comes with the style The Honourable, and since the award is posthumously given, there is no element of glorifying living people. It is purely about what your contribution in life amounted to, judged when you are gone. The one exception is Sybil McLaughlin, the first Speaker and therefore first female Speaker, earlier than many major countries had ever had a female Speaker. Prior to this she was Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, the first woman to hold that post in the entire Commonwealth, from 1959-1984. She retired as Speaker in 1996, so she gave 37 years of unbroken, trailblazing service to parliamentary democracy here and we didn’t need to wait to recognise that.
National Hero is not to be confused with the ‘heroes’ they name on Heroes Day. Those are ‘small-h’, everyday heroes advancing Cayman step by step. A National Hero is one so named pursuant to the National Heroes Law, which gives Cabinet the power to do further things like declare a public holiday, erect monuments, name public places etc. in the person’s honour.
Gag
Did it ever occur to you that in a small community, where individual contributions count for more, that there might be quite a few people to recognise who contributed significantly to the whole? If you were the only doctor in a town for your whole career, wouldn’t you be an important person? Wouldn’t you expect such a person to be recognised for carrying that burden for so long? Cayman was trailblazed, people have to understand. It started off as absolutely nothing. Its people made it what it is and back when there were only a few thousand of them, the few who could read, write, speak and carry themselves well enough, with enough life experience and wisdom to help in building a future nation, were extremely important. They are rightly recognised. My grandfather is one of those national heroes that makes you gag. I assure you he was a man of dignity far beyond that of anyone alive commenting on CNS today, including you.
Et erit omnis praemiaque.
Occidens sinus maritimus eunt domus
Pig latin? Is that the best you can do?
Sero autem. Tragicus.
West Bayers go home?
Domus’? Nominative? ‘Go home’, this is motion towards, isn’t it, boy
Asphincter says what?
To hell with Gongs, fix the post Office mail service. Come on PMG, why it takes 16 days for mail to get to Grand from Brac ?
Why are post offices still closed on saturdays???
I nominate Andre the chicken man. A true hero on the frontlines doing God’s work during these perilous times!
His $10 jerk chicken plate with festivals has personally helped me through the last 3 months for lunch and dinner times.
If that is not helping the community what are we doing Cayman?
Pre-election votes paid for with medals..
Why the hell are we spending money on this foolishness at this time when we as a country cannot afford it?
Yep. Election is now 6 months away. Silly season full on now. Expected to last for 4 years. No cure. Lets fool the voters who we dont care about. Caymanians foo fool. Dont worry aldart mcmose and hazardkoo they all the same. So sad no one looks out for caymanians.
Jealously is a really bad thing.
Your answer is in your question.
The only gong I want to see / hear is one after I take a nice fat bong rip.
I would like to nominate the Perpetually Honourable Dr McKeeva Bush OBE JP whose many talents and manifold contributions to Cayman life have been shamefully overlooked and unrewarded so far. His contributions to probity in public life, to gender relations, to financial integrity, to nation building, to casino outreach, and most recently to Parliamentary rectitude are too many to be detailed here, but must be recognised with a mark of public honour. We don’t know how lucky we are to have been blessed by having this colossus among us.
It only makes sense. He is Caymanians biggest Hero.
Sadly, McKeeva is the Best and Brightest of Caymanians. Gets no better than him as has been demonstrated time and time again, while people in West Bay think he is a God.
We really are politically doomed here.
Might as well make him King of the Cayman Islands.
The greatest Caymanian ever and wonderful giver of turkeys and refrigerators.
No bigger hero in Caymanian history. 3 medals 🏅 🎖 🥇 next year fo de man.
Captain Cook used beads, mirrors and nails. Nothing has changed in 250 years.
Mac for his comedy and escapoligy acts throughout 2019 2020
I would like to nominate Dwayne Seymore for a big ding dong dumbass of the year award!
Yeah, a gong in the shape of a donkey braying at a fool moon….nudge, nudge, wink, wink…..
Hey now, it’s jackass not dumbass!
The British honor system is the last thing Cayman needs. Fix the dump or maybe the schools.
Can we take away the Hon before Policiations name from those that are not honable
5.06pm Typical expat comment, you can tell by the spelling.
8:01 Don’t you mean, ‘You can tell from the fact they actually can spell?’
No, Dumbass.
If you can live of 6$ an hour, you deserve a medal.
If you elect to move here and know that is the prevailing wage for unskilled labor then you deserve nothing!
They didn’t move here.
My father had campaign medals from WWII and an OBE. He never wore either, as he said the only medals worth anything were those for valour – the OBE reflected a lifetime of his simply doing his job and the campaign medals “came down with the rations”. I suspect our proud peacock will not have the same restraint or modesty.
That’s because your Father was a wise man. People who get an OBE, MBE here actually believe they deserve It and are better than those without one.
The wise don’t go to war.
Like Donald Trump you mean?
The presentation cases are awesome!.
Boring
Can we stop wasting public funds? One would think with the COVID 19 impact on Government revenue, expenditure would be reduced. The gravy trains needs to be halted, there is no magic money tree #facepalm
As expected. People know the difference between a real honour and this garbage.
Certainly time for another gong for McKeeva. Let’s go West Bay.
Another of his pre election wote buying schemes.
Year after year CNS likes to use the word “gong’ for a medal. I’ve never heard this anywhere but CNS. Again and again. Yeah, we get it CNS gong for medal, tee hee
CNS: In British English a “gong” means a medal. I’m sure your tittering was excitement at learning a new word. You’re welcome.
Ever heard of the Gong Show, a 70s USA TV game show? This the Cayman Gong Show remixed. Sort of like how Caymanians gave lists to Mac for his infamous status grant. I hope CNS doesn’t have to elaborate further on this for you to get the gist.
Jamaican Pastors & Security guards gave Mac lists not Caymanians.
Commonly used in the UK, especially in the military.
2:05 Cambridge dictionary definition of gong: UK informal – an honour that is given to someone for the public service they have done, or to a performer for a particular acting or singing performance.
Good enough for you?
Oh please CNS enough with the English lessons. The word Gay used to mean happy, now it has been hijacked because the LGBT community wanted a word for themselves. A Gong is/was a musical instrument long before the English chose it to mean some sort of award. Yes language has evolved into the current vernacular, let us us not forget the origins and true meanings. I spent my first 20 years of life in the UK and do not recall the word ‘gong’ used this way. If you really want to learn English as the language it should be, my suggestion would be that you read some of the classics written by authors such as Jane Austen. Here you can learn there is a word to describe almost everything to avoid the use of ambiguous words (This is one of the reasons they became classics!). You might also want to think about departing from the mainstream media of today, that no longer reports, but feeds the public the information they believe should be read. Myself being of Greater than three score and ten years, have witnessed reporting evolving into agenda driven diatribe. XXXXX ….end of rant (and no doubt with some grammatical errors too).
CNS: Sorry, we’re not going to limit ourselves to your vocabulary, or Jane Austin’s for that matter. Yes, I’ve read all her novels and, amazingly, lots of other “classics” as well. No, you cannot comment on that case yet.
LOL 7:03 I’ve read some nonsense in my life but that really does take the biscuit.
I am also, ‘Greater than three score and ten years,’ (incidentally, it’s ‘greater’ not ‘Greater’) and went to an old-fashioned grammar school in the UK where our studies of classical English literature were supplemented by works in Latin and Greek.
The use of ‘gong’ with reference to medals and awards goes back to WWII (and possibly earlier) so your rant is without any merit at all.
The origin of the term is apparently based on the use of a ceremonial gong at the award presentations.
As for anyone at CNS needing to re-learn the English language? Without trying too hard I can count at least 15 errors in grammar and punctuation throughout your comment so maybe you are the one who should go back to school.
I wish you grammarians would give it a rest. Many of us are typing on tiny phone screen keyboards with various auto-cap and spell check programs Working against us, Typos are easy to overlook and often not worth correcting. We understand how proud you are of your classical education, but don’t turn it into a negative personality trait.
Can we not just give every Caymanian a $25 gift card one time and stop this crap for good?
Only if it comes with a medal commemorating receipt of the gift card. On the front of the medal there will be a likeness of a 25 dollar bill and on the back in Latin the words “$25 FOR ALL”. Each year, all medal recipients will receive certificates honouring their possession of medals and another $25. Once you receive 10 such certificates, you are automatically inducted into the Order. Its weekly, monthly and yearly celebrations are mandatory.
You sir/maddam are in the running for top comment of the year!