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.

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.

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?