It's been a week since Michael Jackson died and if you didn't know by now you must have been living under a rock or in a cave in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Personally, it has all been a bit surreal. I grew up with Michael Jackson. When I was in primary school the Jackson Five cartoons used to be on JBC. That is where I first heard the song ABC. "A B C, it's easy as one, two, three" you know the song.

first solo album

Then, when I was in high school, he released his first solo album Off The Wall, and a few years later when I was at Knox Community College, he released Thriller and the rest, as they say, is history; which by the way was the name of another of his albums.

So last week when I saw the BBC breaking news story that Jackson had been rushed to the hospital and he was believed to have experienced cardiac arrest, I was almost dead certain this was one of Michael's bizarre moments. However, when I went to TMZ.com and saw where they were reporting that Michael had died, I was overcome by a wave of disbelief. Michael Jackson cannot die! He is, after all, Michael Jackson. He is not supposed to die.

And even with the constant barrage of news stories that have inundated the airwaves since his passing, in the back of my mind somewhere there is this faint voice still screaming "Michael is not dead! He can't be."

health, financial affairs

What I do know is that even though he has gone and all the lurid details are beginning to surface with regard to his health, his financial affairs and his family, Michael has never been more alive.

Everywhere I go I am hearing Michael Jackson songs - on the radio, in the stores, at the pharmacy, even while the West Indies played India at Sabina Park. He's become another part of me. Michael Jackson has suddenly become omni-present and you know what? I am beginning to get sick of him.

Every day there is something new. Michael was only 112 pounds, he was balding, he had needle marks all over his body. He is more than half a billion US dollars in debt (that's a lot of money to owe, by the way. Some countries don't earn that much.) His kids aren't his and so on and so forth. It seems every news item on CNN, BBC, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, Zee TV, ITv, ABC and CBS is about the King of Pop. "A bomb exploded today in Baghdad killing 50 people. The bomb exploded at a hotel where Michael Jackson once stayed." I wonder what will happen when there is nothing new to report about Michael. I hope we get a chance to find out soon.

I have a pretty solid collection of Michael Jackson albums and I know that they won't be played for years to come because I won't need to. Michael Jackson's music is the only thing you hear on radio these days. I haven't listened to Irie FM but if Michael ever did a reggae song it probably would have been played.

Man, if you never knew Michael Jackson before you would certainly come to know him in a hurry and come to dislike him just as quickly because nobody likes having people in their faces and ears all the time like a nagging wife or mother-in-law. It's just too much.

And its not about to end soon because there are a million more stories to be told leading up to his funeral. His last will and testament will become an issue with the members of his family sorting out who gets what. Debbie Rowe will be trying to get back the kids. Jermaine will eventually find the secret to less greasy-looking hair, and so on and so forth, and every news cycle for the next year will lead off with a Michael Jackson story. "President Barack Obama today named Michael Jackson political envoy to North Korea. Kim Jung-il is reputed to be a fan of the late singer."

Then, people will start claiming that they saw him and he is alive and it never ends. It's seems as if Michael will not any time soon be out of our lives, no matter how much we want him to beat it.

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