With Usain Bolt and Melanie Walker making history at the 2008 Beijing Olympics yesterday, Jamaica enjoyed another great moment, having recorded another murder-free day.

According to the Constabulary Communication Network there were no reports of murders in the country yesterday.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Mark Shields said the day was another commendable one in the nation's history, attributing it to the heightened happiness Jamaicans were overcome by following the athletes' stellar performances. He pleaded that the nation should strive to make this the norm and not a novelty but continue the already established unity.

Euphoric mood

Bishop Peter Morgan of Kingston City Church also echoed a similar view. "I'm very happy to have discovered that no murders were reported yesterday. The euphoric mood that the nation is now in, probably has something to do with this," he said. Bishop Morgan, however, bemoaned that the Olympics in Beijing would soon come to an end, taking away the current togetherness and possibly leading the nation back down the *lo**y path.

Nonetheless, he said the success of our athletes, some of whom are from depressed communities, proves that good things and people can come from such communities, which stretch the length and breadth of the country. He also continued that having not recorded any murders yesterday demonstrated that we could express more care and love for one another as a nation, living peaceably ultimately.

Social anthropologist at the University of the West Indies, Dr Herbert Gayle, said he was not surprised that yesterday was murder free. In fact he said he had predicted it. "I'm not surprised at all. I told somebody that it would have been a murder-free day," he said.

He noted that the joy from the Olympic success was the glue that had kept the segmented society united yesterday, allowing for a murder-free day. The anthropologist explained that when human beings are provided with an alternative to violence, they usually take it, and the Olympic success provided just that.

He continued that in order for such days to become weeks, the leaders needed to put more emphasis on seriously providing alternatives to violence for the nation and its youth.