The Order of Distinction is an award in the Jamaican honours system. It is the sixth in order of precedence of the Orders of Societies of Honour, which were instituted by an Act of Parliament (The National Honours and Awards Act) in 1968. The Motto of the Order is "Distinction Through Service".
The Order of Distinction is conferred upon citizens of Jamaica who have rendered outstanding and important service to Jamaica, or to distinguished citizens of a country other than Jamaica. The former are made Members of the Order, and the latter Honorary Members.
The Order has two ranks: the higher class of Commander, and the lower class of Officer. Commanders take place and precedence immediately after Members and Honorary Members of the Order of Jamaica. A Member or Honorary Member may be promoted from the rank of Officer to that of Commander.
Commanders of the Order of Distinction are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CD in the case of Members, or CD (Hon.) in the case of Honorary Members.
Officers of the Order of Distinction are entitled to use the post-nominal letters OD in the case of Members, or OD (Hon.) in the case of Honorary Members.
Famous quotes containing the words order and/or distinction:
“The only privilege literature deserves—and this privilege it requires in order to exist—is the privilege of being in the arena of discourse, the place where the struggle of our languages can be acted out.”
—Salman Rushdie (b. 1947)
“Met face to face, these Indians in their native woods looked like the sinister and slouching fellows whom you meet picking up strings and paper in the streets of a city. There is, in fact, a remarkable and unexpected resemblance between the degraded savage and the lowest classes in a great city. The one is no more a child of nature than the other. In the progress of degradation the distinction of races is soon lost.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)