Stranger & Stranger
The Queen's birthday honours list has some very strange ones this year. It adds weight to the argument that these awards are being devalued, particularly when compared with some of the ordinary people who get them.
Joe Corre the founder of risque lingerie label Agent Provocateur and his partner Serena Rees have been made MBEs. Hairdresser to the stars Nicky Clarke becomes an OBE as does the singer Joe Cocker. Perhaps most bizarre of all is Salman Rushdie getting a knighthood.
Of all the singers and rock and pop artists why Joe Cocker? For a start he’s lived in America for decades and just because he played the Queen’s Jubilee concert it hardly seems enough
5 comments:
Salman Rushdie is political though.
He is getting his knighthood to show that standing up to islamic fundamentalists is 'in'. He's seen as a lone fighter against al queda/the Taliban/ Saddam/Iran before the rest of us cottoned on to this 'axis of evil'.
It's done to remind us of the the war against terror.
Purely cynical.
ah, but Joe Cocker, Richard! With a little help from my friends - who'd a believed that was a classic without his version? ;o)
it's easy for me to be cynical about this stuff and I'm reminded of the parable of the widow's mite. It seems you get honoured for being famous and you consent to your fame being used to promote charitable organisations, yet I expect the majority who work tirelessly full-time for good causes don't get recognised nearly as much.
Surely we can do better than that. Have you nominated anyone for an honour? I did once, and was successful. It was for a children's author called Jean Adamson who lives in my village and writes the Topsy and Tim children;s books. I like them because they promote real values for children. She also does community work. There is a big section on the paper work about the community involvement of the person being recommended for an honour. The application has to have two letters supporting it. Why not suggest someone you feel deserves an honour?
Good point, Ellee. It does take a tremendous amount of work to nominate someone. I nominated a man for a Medal of Honor here in the States, and the forms took hours to fill out with many more hours of follow-up. In the end, he did not get it, but there is a Post Office named for him in Florida as a sort of compromise.
Anyone's free to nominate me...
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