THE start of the year has been rather strange, hasn't it? Birds have been falling from the sky in thousands and whole river and lake loads of fish have been going belly-up, among other things.Apart from the unexplainable, there have also been things that are quite easily explained. Things like floods and other natural disasters.
Australia has blamed its recent flooding, which some say is of Biblical proportions, on La Nina. And apparently, some of the birds were killed by exploding New Year's eve fireworks.
No doubt, however, that some predicted the end of the world is nigh as these are signs of Armageddon.
Birds dropping dead in mid-flight. Fish dying in the thousands, seemingly at the same time. Floods of "Biblical" proportions. These are being linked to everything from the Bible and other holy books and predictions from probably every prophet, seer or psychic known and unknown, living and dead.
There are also those who subscribe to the theory that the Mayans only calculated their calendar to some time in 2012 because they "knew" the world would end then.
(A little off topic, but when the movie 2012 came out, David Lettermen featured on his show a "statement" issued by the Mayans saying that while they maintained the world would end in 2012, they denied that it would be because of natural disasters. The talk show host claimed the Mayans said the world would end because former Alaska governor Sarah Palin would run for president of the United States.)
There are those, very likely the vast majority, who don't believe all this talk about the end of the world. But what if - and this is a huge "if" - it's true? What can we do to avoid the Last Judgment?
Perhaps these are some ways we can help turn away the "inevitable". Call it a New Year's resolution list of sorts.
- Criminals should stop their wrongful actions and repent, turn themselves in to the authorities, or do whatever it needs to be forgiven;
- The two Koreas should kiss and make up;
- Israel and the Palestinians should follow suit, with the latter being granted an independent state;
- Osama bin Laden and others like him should stop being so militant and donate whatever millions they have accrued to the less fortunate;
- While we're at it, the US should pull their troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and other places and allow the peoples of these countries to settle their own disputes;
- These people settling their own disputes should do so amicably and without violence;
- Despots and dictators worldwide should step down and give power back to the people; and,
- Politicians should work together for the good of the people.
In other words, as beauty contestants are so often cruelly generalised as saying: "We want world peace".
The greenies among us will also want closer attention to be paid to the environment while the moralists would want an end to pornography, stepping out of marriages and the kind of nude photography featured in this paper last week.
Just for the fun of it, let's add the following to the list:
- Rappers should stop swearing in their songs and shooting each other;
- People who can't sing should stop cutting albums and Justin Bieber should start dating one girl at a time, or not at all;
- Selena Gomez should stop dating Bieber before she gets killed;
- Lindsay Lohan should sober up;
- The vuvuzela should be banned from all sporting events, especially those televised overseas;
- Wayne Rooney should be allowed to be unchaperoned only on the football pitch;
- Squash should be made an Olympic sport before Datuk Nicol David retires; and,
- The national football players not be allowed to let their recent success go to their heads.
So, perhaps the birds, fish and floods are signs of the times. Question is, what are the signs pointing to?
-- New Straits Times
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