Dear Editor,
The World T20 Cricket fever is in the air. 2024 is certainly a leap year full of surprises and uncertainties in the geopolitical and socioeconomic arenas where, constant changes are occurring and all the heavyweights are being competitively challenged either for retention or survival purposes. There are many firsts creating precedents, or, upsetting the bookies with different predicaments and, sending shivers in the stock exchange markets globally. If we were to examine Nostradamus predictions for 2024, will the reviews prove that he was on target?
The French astrologer, Michel de Nostredame, who lived from 1503 to 1566, closely align some major world events with his predictions such as: the great fire of London; the French Revolution; the rise of Napoleon and of Adolf Hitler; both world wars and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The deaths of Princess Dianne and Queen Elisabeth 11 were foretold by him.
Followers of the grand seer associate the 7.5 magnitude earthquake which hit Ishikawa and its Noto peninsula in Japan this year and killed at least 55 people, with his predictions. A war with China, the dethroning of King Charles and saying goodbye to Pope Francis, are on his radar. US President Biden is certainly trumping up a trade war with China this year, King Charles is undergoing cancer treatment and the Pope underwent surgery, living on one full lung. In his text, Nostradamus predicted that the “King of the Isles” would be “driven out by force.” Soon after, [a disastrous war] “a new King shall be anointed / Who, for a long time, will appease the earth.” Is this to be interpreted as King Charles 111 to be replaced by perhaps Prince Harry? “Through the death of a very old Pontiff, A Roman of good age will be elected, Of him it will be said that he weakens his see, But long will he sit and in biting activity,” wrote the astrologer. A new head for the Catholics?
The beginning of a third world war is possible according to the Frenchman. With the Israel/ Hamas and the Russia/Ukraine wars showing no signs of ending shortly, the Latvian President, Edgars Rinkevics warned that the Russian President Putin will not stop at Ukraine and has already set his sights on three targets for rebuilding the Russian empire. This past week, Putin did warn that the West is wrong to assume that Russia would never use nuclear weapons! Nostradamus predicted that “Red adversary will become pale with fear, putting the great Ocean in dread.” China and Taiwan are at loggerhead. Speaking at the Shangri-la Dialogue conference in Singapore earlier this month, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun declared, “whoever dares to split Taiwan from China will be crushed to pieces and suffer his own destruction.” Will China go to war with Taiwan? The US is a close ally to Taiwan. Guyana is also caught up in a war zone with the threat of Venezuela annexing Essequibo.
Nostradamus foresaw a large environmental disaster and great climatic changes for 2024. In his writing he stated, “The dry earth will grow more parched, and there will be great floods when it is seen.” NASA confirmed in March this year that there was an explosion of magnetic material and plasma which created a big solar storm which reached “severe” G4 conditions. A coronal mass ejection, or CME from the sun, reached earth on March 22, sending particles to the North and South Poles interacting with oxygen and nitrogen to create the Northern Lights!
Brazil suffered severe flooding in its Southernmost state, Rio Grande do Sul, between 24th April and 4th May this year, displacing more than 80,000 people and leaving 169 fatalities and over 150,000 injured. With 90% of the state affected, over a million people were left without drinking water and 418,200 households without electricity.
In May, hundreds of deaths were reported as severe heat waves rising above 40C affected from Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, in the West, to Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines in the East, including Cambodia, India and Bangladesh. The heat impacted agricultural crops which were damaged and affected millions of students who stayed away from schools. A few days ago, a ‘heat dome’ scorched California and Texas, with temperatures escalating to 117F, posing severe breathing problems especially for the seniors, babies and the sick.
As the parallels continued, reading and interpreting Nostradamus is not an easy lesson for analysts. Last Tuesday, India’s richest billionaire, Mukesh Ambani, saw his net worth slipped by $2.6 billion as Bombay’s Stock Exchange rattled due to the Election results. Gautam Adani, India’s second richest person, saw his fortune slumped from almost a $100 billion to $79.2 Billion. India’s Prime Minister Modi and the BJP suffered a setback for the first time as they are forced to collate with the Alliance (INDIA), to form the new Government. Modi is the first PM to serve for a third straight term. South Africa’s ANC has suffered its first defeat since coming to power in 1994. It has lost its majority and will have to look to collate with another party to form the new Government also. Mexico has its first woman President, Claudia Sheinbaum. Donald Trump has become the US first former President to be convicted of felony charges. Will he chalk up another first as the first convicted President to be reelected as President of the US? Will Maduro become President again for Venezuela and will he pursue his annexation plans? Who will be the new PNC’s Leader? Are all of these events on this year’s crystal ball?
IF Science offers an opinion on the predictions on Nostradamus:
“Absolutely nothing. The great thing about predicting the future is the vaguer you are, the more right you can be about a larger number of topics. Nostradamus was especially good at creating predictions so loose that eventually, someone would be able to ascribe it to a not-too-dissimilar real-world event. They are what’s known as “postdictions”, in that you could not possibly guess what he was predicting before the event happened, but after the event you can find a passage that makes it look like he’d known all along – and even then, they are not that accurate.”
Are the famine, disease, doom, rainbows, sunshine and peace of the 16th Century “doomsday prophet” more debatably than disputable, or, more assumptive than accurate? What’s your take on Nostradamus predictions? Events, like the gentleman’s game, cricket, is full of glorious uncertainties!
Yours Respectfully,
Jai Lall.