It's never a good idea for a columnist to make predictions for a new year, so let's predict.The Arab Spring will show itself to be a media fantasy, with all of the toxins that were once contained now allowed to flow into the bloodstream of the Arab body politic.
Islamist groups will dominate politically, but also demand the military and cultural establishment move in their direction.
Egypt will become acutely uncomfortable, if not impossible, for its Christian minority, and for secular progressives. Syria, while smaller and with fewer people, will be even more unpleasant for minorities, with the mass exodus of Christians in particular who were protected from Islamic fundamentalists by a secular albeit oppressive dictator.
The Republicans will finally come to their senses, and with an ever-declining U.S. economy suddenly realize this year and not 2016 is the time to beat the grotesquely overrated Barack Obama.
He, in turn, will lose much of the bovine support he enjoyed from powerful Democrats, always the first to abandon ship when they get that sinking feeling.
In Canada, the NDP's slide in Quebec will be replicated in the rest of the country where the third-rate MPs will be seen for what they are.
The leadership contest will open up old wounds and the memory of the hyped but popular Jack Layton will be a distant memory.
The Liberals will continue to panic and, while picking up some of the former NDP support, will come nowhere near the level they want or need. No capable leader will emerge.
Stephen Harper's hidden agenda will continue to be so hidden even he has not seen it. Nowhere is it more obvious that our journalists are either incompetent or malicious than in their claim that someone like John Baird or Peter Kent is determined to, for example, reverse same-sex marriage or restrict abortion. To spread this lie is a colossal disservice to the Canadian people.
Iran will not change its regime, but Pakistan might. Western powers will realize that Tehran is more bombast than bombs, but nuclear Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a fully fledged rogue terrorist state. Action will be inevitable.
Turkey's brief place in the sun will be rained upon. There are more journalists in prison in Turkey than any other country on Earth, the economy is credit-driven and unstable and its foreign policy is likely to isolate it from friends as well as enemies.
The European project will finally do the decent thing and die. While a skeleton of the European Community will continue, Britain will become further distant, and France and Germany will be forced to follow suit. Without these powers, the remaining stable economies will abandon Ireland, Greece, Portugal and even Spain, and the eastern and central European states waiting to enter will have second thoughts.
Islamic extremist terror will continue, especially targeting other Muslims and within the Islamic heartland. And, of course, many in the West will continue to deny and obfuscate, until it hits them directly.
Still, a Happy New Year to everyone.
God save us from interesting times, or better still - God save us!
Islamist groups will dominate politically, but also demand the military and cultural establishment move in their direction.
Egypt will become acutely uncomfortable, if not impossible, for its Christian minority, and for secular progressives. Syria, while smaller and with fewer people, will be even more unpleasant for minorities, with the mass exodus of Christians in particular who were protected from Islamic fundamentalists by a secular albeit oppressive dictator.
The Republicans will finally come to their senses, and with an ever-declining U.S. economy suddenly realize this year and not 2016 is the time to beat the grotesquely overrated Barack Obama.
He, in turn, will lose much of the bovine support he enjoyed from powerful Democrats, always the first to abandon ship when they get that sinking feeling.
In Canada, the NDP's slide in Quebec will be replicated in the rest of the country where the third-rate MPs will be seen for what they are.
The leadership contest will open up old wounds and the memory of the hyped but popular Jack Layton will be a distant memory.
The Liberals will continue to panic and, while picking up some of the former NDP support, will come nowhere near the level they want or need. No capable leader will emerge.
Stephen Harper's hidden agenda will continue to be so hidden even he has not seen it. Nowhere is it more obvious that our journalists are either incompetent or malicious than in their claim that someone like John Baird or Peter Kent is determined to, for example, reverse same-sex marriage or restrict abortion. To spread this lie is a colossal disservice to the Canadian people.
Iran will not change its regime, but Pakistan might. Western powers will realize that Tehran is more bombast than bombs, but nuclear Pakistan is on the verge of becoming a fully fledged rogue terrorist state. Action will be inevitable.
Turkey's brief place in the sun will be rained upon. There are more journalists in prison in Turkey than any other country on Earth, the economy is credit-driven and unstable and its foreign policy is likely to isolate it from friends as well as enemies.
The European project will finally do the decent thing and die. While a skeleton of the European Community will continue, Britain will become further distant, and France and Germany will be forced to follow suit. Without these powers, the remaining stable economies will abandon Ireland, Greece, Portugal and even Spain, and the eastern and central European states waiting to enter will have second thoughts.
Islamic extremist terror will continue, especially targeting other Muslims and within the Islamic heartland. And, of course, many in the West will continue to deny and obfuscate, until it hits them directly.
Still, a Happy New Year to everyone.
God save us from interesting times, or better still - God save us!
