In 1938, demonstrations swept across the island. The worldwide depression had made the normally hard life of the Jamaican peasant often intolerable.

For Norman Manley, achievement of excellence was the norm; he was a world-class high-school athlete, Rhodes Scholar, decorated World War I military hero, prize man of Gray's Inn, acknowledged as the Caribbean's finest legal mind, and the first Jamaican to appear before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

The outstanding leader of the 1831 Christmas slave revolt, often referred to as the ‘Baptist War’ because of the denomination of most participants, was Deacon Samuel ‘Daddy’ Sharpe. Wesleyan missionary Henry Bleby described him as the most remarkable and intelligent slave he had ever met.

MARY JANE Grant was born in Kingston in 1805 to a Scottish army officer and a free Creole woman. Her mother ran the Kingston hotel Blundell Hall at 7 East Street, and was also a 'doctress' versed in the use of African herbal remedies, a knowledge she passed on to her daughter.

BY 1865, the American civil war and a severe drought had dramatically increased food costs in Jamaica, while collapsing sugar prices had cut estate wages and made work scarce.

BY 1865, the American civil war and a severe drought had dramatically increased food costs in Jamaica, while collapsing sugar prices had cut estate wages and made work scarce.

WHEN THE white English missionary, William Knibb, was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit in 1988, Devon Dick wrote: "No other person of his era demonstrated such faith in the prowess of the black people."

WHY 'TOP 10 greatest Jamaicans'? Well, why not? Fifty years of Independence is a long enough time to reach some agreement about which of this country's sons and daughters have fought for justice and equality, and giving Jamaicans pride in themselves as a people. And is this not a reasonable definition of greatness?

In his June 7, 2012 article 'Wrong picture of Paul Bogle?', columnist Devon Dick mentions that he was sent "a February 2012 issue of BET magazine in which the identical picture and pose most Jamaicans identify with National Hero Paul Bogle was ascribed to Thomas L. Jennings".

Peter Phillips' Budget speech accepted Jamaican and international realities - the cupboard is indeed bare! Yet it's possible to do the right thing in the wrong way, as the angry public reaction is proving. When both the poor and rich are bashing you, something is amiss.