The year is now 2012, and if the predictions of the ancient Mayans and others are correct, none of the eight billion people who will be alive at the start of December this year will be around to celebrate Christmas Day or ring in the New Year 2013.
The reason is that come December 21 it will be all over for all of us. The end of the world. Everybody gone to kingdom come. So are you ready, especially those of you who know or believe that your bed is already made up in heaven?
Or do you, like what Peter Tosh sang about, want to go to heaven but not to die?
We have seen 2012 about the predicted end; but unlike in the movie, nobody anywhere is building any modern-day arks on which a selected number of us will survive the devastation to start the process of life on earth all over again from scratch.
This expectation of the end mostly has to do with the ancient Mayan calendar, which is supposed to be one of the best known indicators that the world will indeed end on December 21, 2012.
The reason is that on that date, the Mayan long-count calendar resets itself to 0.0.00, thereby suggesting to believers an end to all life.
If you are not convinced by the Mayans then there are the I-Ching prophecies: some ancient Chinese predictions that supposedly show the events of the past and future.
Research is said to indicate that those predictions have been accurate for events that have already taken place and, unfortunately, one of the events they foretell also relates to the end of the world, coincidentally on December 21, 2012.
Apart from that, there are some people in the scientific community who are expecting the Earth to go through a polar shift sometime during the end of 2012. If this happens the North Pole and South Pole will interchange rapidly and result, among other things, in major movements of the tectonic plates and widespread natural disasters globally.
As if that’s not enough to convince the gloomers and doomers, there is also a computer programme known as Web Bot, which searches for specific keywords and patterns on the Internet. Apparently in doing so, Web Bot predicted the 9/11 attacks in the United States as well as the 2004 tsunami that took thousands of lives.
And guess what? Web Bot too is predicting a major global disaster for December 21, 2012.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe anything that the Mayans, the Chinese, the scientists, Web Bot or anybody or anything else predicts.
I believe that as long as I don’t go the other side before that date as a result of natural or other causes, I will be right here with my leg of mouth-watering baked pork to celebrate Christmas 2012 and with a glass of something to welcome the New Year 2013.
However, there is one prediction I am willing to believe, no matter who or what makes it. It’s that there will be a general election in Barbados before December 21, 2012 with disastrous results.
• Al Gilkes heads a public relations firm. Email [email protected]
