It’s not that I’m bitter at Great Britain winning anything and loving it. I don’t care either way…

It’s not that I see it as hypocritical that a nation which prides itself on being losers and actively encourages a dumbed down, losing mentality, should be making such a big fuss over something like winning in an elitist competition designed to display the skills of those dedicated to becoming champions. Maybe this is closer to the mark…

To prove this, just last week exam results were revealed and showed a record number of students had obtained a record number of high grades A Level passes. It seems the government and the educational establishment have lowered the standards to encourage better results so that everybody could look good.

One school (excuse the pun) of thought is that it’s better to lower the standards and let normal losers: students who are too lazy, stupid or dunce to attain high grades, feel good than to maintain an elitist system where the standards are high with only a few students able to reach the hallowed higher heights.

This, the government has obviously decided, only demoralises the dunces and create an elitist system. It also marks schools out to be the ‘bad guys’.

It’s a pity they don’t apply the same principles to any member of Team GB winning an elitist gold medal in the Olympic Games…

I jokingly accused a former girlfriend of having a delusional mind the other day because it didn’t matter what the reality of any situation was, she always seem to only believe the thoughts in her head!

A good example of this was when she used to say: “you’re okay with me now but as soon as a prettier girl comes along you will leave me and run off with her!” Or maybe she’d accuse me of admiring other women in her presence, which wasn’t true!

Regardless what I said I could not convince her that these thoughts (or actions) did not exist in my mind at all. Then I remembered a few weeks earlier she had asked me if it was normal to live a life based solely on your imagination.

Artist Imagination

At the time I thought with her being an artist this is not a bad thing as an artist needs imagination like fish needs water. So I said I thought it was okay to do this.

Since then I’ve come to realise that anyone who lives inside their own mind all the time could actually be suffering from something. Autism, a mental disorder characterised by self-absorption and withdrawal, is one that springs to mind.

The autistic would also tend to be introspective and withdrawn at the least or even disturbed at the worst. I didn’t notice anything autistic about my ex, yet she is a truly different kind of human being. But what do I know?

Upper Hand

What I do know is when the mind has the upper hand in not only determining your thoughts but dictating your actions too, often without you checking with reality, again something could be amiss somewhere.

Maybe I’m being harsh on this because, to some extent, we all live a bit inside our own minds. But when this is our preferred means of viewing life, then alarm bells should be ringing.

Either that or maybe my imagination is just running away with me!

This was the remarkable message Jamaica’s speed trio Shelly-Ann Fraser, Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart sent as they dominated the 100m women’s Olympic Games finals in Beijing, yesterday.

Fraser romped home to victory in a time of 10.78 seconds with Simpson and Stewart sharing the silver medal after a dead heat on 10.98 seconds.

If athletics is the embodiment of the Olympic motto: “Citius, Altius, Fortius”, meaning faster, higher, stronger, then Jamaica is the mightiest country in the world, in the event.

And Jamaica’s Usain Bolt - who has run the three fastest 200m times in the world this year - 19.67 (Athens), 19.76 (London) and 19.83 (Ostrava) - still has a chance to tighten his grip on athletics when he runs the 200m finals tomorrow. This follows his record breaking win in the 100m on Saturday, of course.

Having recorded the fifth-fastest 200m time ever with 19.67 in Athens, last month, hope is high he can repeat the feat in Beijing at an even faster clip.

Anything is possible with a Jamaican. And, for once, the whole world is talking about us positively!

It wasn’t about being humble and mousey; it was all about showboating, showing off and entertaining the crowd!

He was so awesome and quicker than the entire field that he had time to start celebrating the win a good 10m before the end of the race!

Lesser athletes would probably be pushing all the way, some even craning their necks forward to leverage their position, but with Bolt he made it look like a stroll in the park.

Powell Downside

The downside is that Asafa Powell didn’t finish second as I had expected/hoped - he came in a disappointing fifth with that other Jamaican Michael Frater finishing one place behind him. But, it doesn’t matter.

The night belonged to Bolt and we look forward to more of his brand of style! Maybe next time showing less flash and really trying to pare down his record breaking time to 9.66 seconds or lower.

As if to continue the winning theme, Jamaica’s 100m women sprinters Kerron Stewart, Shelly-Ann Fraser and Sherone Simpson qualified as the three fastest heading into the finals later today.

Regardless who you are, it is a great time to recognise Jamaica’s pre-eminence of athletics!

Now, before you swallow the wrong end of the stick I’m not talking about the kind of extremism where I will go out and bomb innocent people just to make a point. Oh, no! I’m talking about the realisation that in any situation I prefer to take one view or the other.

Emotionally, I function at optimum level when I see things so clearly that I can draw a line between the opposing points, views or areas under consideration and then select one.

Life, however, is never usually this black and white. Those pesky greys exist to add colour but instead only introduce confusion and elements of doubts!

Nevertheless, the way my brain function is to eliminate what is superfluous, excessive or not needed. It’s not an easy thing to achieve but when you can it simplifies the decision process on practically all matters!

In my school days I used to be proud of watching and monitoring the result of previous Olympic sprinters like Donald Quarrie. The sense of pride was accentuated when or if ever Jamaica won a gold medal in the event because then they would be shown in the medals table!

It meant a lot just seeing the word “Jamaica” listed in the table, even if we were a long way down that list. Our Olympic table position was a source of great pride! It was something I talked about with friends at school so it was also a cultural unifier.

To have three of the world’s fastest runners representing your country should give us a distinct advantage to winning a medal, but it’s not good to take anything for granted. All I know it would make my weekend if any of the trio win a gold medal!

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UPDATE (taken at 8:24 p.m.)

All three runners: Asafa Powell, Usain Bolt and Michael Frater all got through their second round heats later tonight. So far they are on track to deliver a Gold for Jamaica!

This issue is firmly in the public eye currently following the £706,000 ($1,412,000) compensation payout announced today that will go to Colin Stagg, a man wrongly accused of one of Britain’s most notorious murders.

Stagg, who was acquitted of fatally stabbing 23-year-old ex-model Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992, has had to endure stigma for 15 years. He has never received an apology from the police.

Everything he ever held dear including his name and reputation has been damaged beyond repair. His neighbours used to spit at him in the street, yet he remained determined not to let their taunting get to him. Worse of all the media deployed a sustained campaign that painted a very negative picture of him. To them he was a guilty man walking.

Stagg Nightmare

Nobody except Stagg can tell you what a nightmare all this must have been.

It is tragic that a woman lost her life in this affair. But to compensate a man wrongly accused, imprisoned and publicly ostracised for so many years, only £706,000, is a travesty of justice.

The police, aided and abetted by the media, are far too eager in trying to get a conviction by any means necessary. I won’t even mention Barry George who was freed last week for killing media personality Jill Dando.

I hope George gets a similar or better amount than Stagg; if only to help the police improve their investigation and detection of crimes instead of pinning a conviction on the first person they see.

But, the price of everything is high and going up all the time, sometimes put up by companies who make and continue to make record profits each year.

Currently we’re being made aware that staple foods (milk, pasta and meat for instance) now cost more than £27 ($54) a week more than a year ago. Basmati rice is up 110% and a number of other products have also seen an increase.

The price rises have been blamed on demand for basic agricultural goods. Now those costs have been passed down the food chain to meat and dairy products as farmers have to pay more to feed livestock.

It’s not only food: water bills are being forecast to rise too! A new Ofwat report predicts water bills are likely to rise 3% above inflation within the next few years.

All the time local (council) tax is increasing; utility companies like gas and electric are putting up their prices without acceptable justification.

No one has sought to enquire whether the increased crime rates among the young have anything to do with the harsher, pricier climate we’re now living in. I suspect there is a connection somewhere.

I’ll keep a watch on things to see if crime increases in relation to the rise in the cost of living!

Watch this (very expensive!) space!

At the simplest level most people believe you get ‘wise’ or accumulate wisdom just for growing old and watching life. Yet, I know wisdom comes from knowing God, yourself, your environment and the people around you. The more depth and knowledge you have of all these things through practical experiences or academic study, is the wiser you are.

The religious will tell you that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, but that theory is only good if you believe in God enough to want to show him/her the respect of fear. It would also mean that no atheist is wise, which is probably not the case at all.

But if those who feels it, knows it is a true adage then the experienced have a better chance of being wise than most. For in undergoing their experiences, however harrowing, they can then subsequently relate them to others in a way that is clearer and easier to understand.

If they are also blessed with the gift of effective communication, maybe they could also do this teaching in such an illuminating manner that lights of learning and understanding are switched on in a student or learner’s brain long after the lesson has been delivered.

Now, that’s the kind of wisdom it is a blessing to have!

First was comedian Bernie Mac, real name Bernard Jeffrey McCullough, who passed away on Saturday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois after losing his battle with pneumonia, at the relatively young age of 50.

Next went Isaac Hayes, composer of the film score of the pivotal hit movie Shaft and latterly lending his voice to the Chef in South Park, who was found dead slumped around an exercise treadmill machine. He was 65.

It’s a real tragedy for stars like Hayes and Bernie to have gone out so relatively young. Their absence will only make the world of entertainment a dimmer place.

They will be missed…