PUTNEY ODEON -- The Olympics are still being missed in our house.  Couldn't they run all the time?  Especially when it's raining.

There were two features in the news last week that I thought contrasted against the 'one world, one dream' vision that the Chinese were promoting.  In one headline it was revealed that Zimbabwe's inflation had reached 11,270,000%.  That was up from 2,200,000% the previous month.  That's amazing.  I will let you do your own calculation on how a $1 loaf of bread might change in that time...

But, let me ask, who can live in that?

Then there was the story of the UK's Olympic sprinter, Christine Ohuruogu, who won gold for the 400 meters.  She's been in the news here a lot because she had missed a series of drug tests many years ago.  And there were questions about her running in Beijing.  But she's a fantastic story.  Born as the second of eight children to 'God-fearing' Nigerians in 1984, she reads religiously.  She studies German in her spare time.  Got four A levels that permitted her to get into University College London where her Linguistics thesis was on the etymology of swear words.

What a life.  She's not even a sprinter by choice.  She played on England's netball team as a teenager.

My geography is good enough to know that Zimbabwe and Nigeria are not even close together.  But my political economics is also good enough to know that a few years ago you would have fancied your chances in Zim well ahead of Nigeria.

There are people and businesses -- including western businesses -- in both of these countries that are benefiting and failing from the local economies that make our 'mortgage crisis' seem like walk in the park.

We can talk all we want about what got them there, but it's hard to believe that we can't do more to reduce the incredible change in fortune that the country of your birth can have on you.

/df