Do you have one of these?
No? Then you are not a Grand Officier de L’Ordre National de la République de Côte d’Ivoire. Unlike, for example, Ban Ki-moon:
Mr Ban has received numerous national and international prizes, medals and honours. In 1975, 1986 and again in 2006, he was awarded the Republic of Korea’s Highest Order of Service Merit for service to his country. In April 2008, he was awarded the dignity of the “Grand-Croix de L’Ordre National” (Grand Cross of the National Order) in Burkina Faso, and in the same month received the “Grand Officier de L’Ordre National” (Grand Officer of the National Order) from the Government of Côte d’Ivoire.
Two questions arise from this biographical nugget:
- Assuming that Mr. Ban received this award from President Laurent Gbagbo, shouldn’t he do the honorable thing and return it, now that he’s trying to shove Gbagbo out of office?
- Why only officier? Gbagbo could have made the SG a chevalier of the same order, at the very least. Perhaps Ban’s determination to see the back of Gbagbo is based on this chivalric slight?
