The Day Of The " Gongs " !

Like most countries, Australia uses it's "National Day "" as the venue to award honours to those citizens who have made achievements that deserve recognition.  At the very pinnacle is the coveted "Australian of the Year "and yesterday that title  was bestowed on Professor Alan MacKay -Sim for what some scientists describe as a more important achievement than the moon landing.

Professor MacKay-Sim has the distinction of discovering the process that allowed a paraplegic to regain the use of his legs and again walk, and that is the first time that has ever been possible.  The Professor is an authority on how humans interpret the sense of smell and the biology of nasal cells. He worked with a Polish firefighter patient suffering paraplegia to take cells from his nose, grow them in a laboratory and inject them back into his severed spinal cord.

That is not the end of paraplegia, but it has opened the door to further research that has every chance of offering hope now that this breakthrough has shown that a possibility exists. Professor MacKay-Sim is only sixty-five years old and has many years of productive research ahead of him. His discovery is being treated with awe on the medical world stage.

Recognition by way of bestowing "honours "goes back a long way in the parliamentary style of government.   In Britain it was the expected thing a dedicated public servant looked forward to receiving on retirement and it marked their place in the pecking order of that highly titled country. All such awards are tiered in a descending order of seniority and they served an important purpose in civil society in preserving the class system.

For many decades Australia adopted knighthoods as the reward for exemplary public service to this country.  At the time of Federation it had been decided that no hereditary titles would apply in this new country and we would have no Earls, Barons, Dukes or similar titles held in perpetuity.  When a knighthood was granted, it would expire with the death of the holder.

It was perhaps a sign of Australian maturity that a decision was made to discard the British honours system and replace it with one dedicated to the nature of this country.  The various levels of the Australian Order now deliver recognition across all walks of Australian life.  It is the custom to consult the newspapers every Australia day to learn who amongst those we know has been awarded a "gong ". !

Its impossible to totally disassociate the selection of awards from politics..    Putting forward names for selection is a wide process and critics will certainly question some decisions, but by and large the selection committees seem to have made the right choices.  For those dedicated people who have spent a lifetime serving to keep a charity going with their time and money it can be heartening to find that they have been recognised with one of the minor awards.

There will always be bones of contention.   This year some critics have drawn attention to the imbalance between the genders.   Many more males got a gong than females.   That seems to ignore the male/female content of the workforce which constitutes more men on selection committees. The lineup for the top award comprised five men and three women, and all of them had distinctions that deserved consideration.   Hopefully, we never reach the stage where gender equality takes precedence over whatever individuals have achieved in their lifetime.