As we say goodbye to 2011, an economically tumultuous year dominated by the Eurozone debt crisis, some questions uppermost are: Will the Mayan prediction come true and will December 21/23, 2012 mark the end of the world?
If that were to happen, we will have seen the last Christmas last week. We have seen several doomsday predictions in the past that have evaporated amid a lot of fuss but without any big damage.
Cosmos Regeneration: Incidentally, in today’s edition of The Straits Times, Mexico’s Ambassador in Singapore, writes that the ancient Mayans of his country did not predict the word would end in 2012. They, he claims, just predicted the end of the 13th cycle, “b’ak’tun” of the Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new cycle in which the cosmos would regenerate.
For the superstition-inclined masses, this may spell good news as the world will rid itself of the unlucky “13” and beckon the arrival of a period of good fortunes. Some room for optimism there!
Visit Mexico: Because some seriousness is assigned to the Mayan prophecy, a “visit Mexico” campaign has already been launched and may pick up momentum in the year we are just ushering in. I spent much of 1999 in Mexico (Monterrey) and that is one of the best periods of my life as I made good friends there.
I have found Mexicans to be a genuinely warm and unpretentious people who lead a life of contentment, enjoying music, dance and drink. I would love to visit the place again, this time with my family. Not sure if it will happen in 2012, the year of the London Olympics.
The London Plague: Talking of London takes me back to 1666 (the year with the ominous “triple six”) when the bubonic plague struck the city, leaving more than a 100,000 people dead. The Great Fire of London the same year brought more trouble for its residents who feared the end of the world was near.
Reading Too Much?: History is replete with grim predictions of people reading too much into nature’s fury and man-made disasters. And, of course, the prophecies of Nostradamus have also received much attention. His predictions are nonetheless believed to cover thousands of years.
The following are some links I found online when I did a search for doomsday predictions. You will see some interesting information there.
http://www.rense.com/general53/endt.htm
http://morechristlike.com/failed-end-of-the-world-predictions/
http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~jamesf/Nfaqs.html
http://www.abhota.info/end3.htm
Not Balderdash: It is not sane to dismiss all prophecies as plain balderdash. Made centuries ago, they seem to indicate a scientific basis and are warning signals for the world to pay attention to.
Let us try not to harm nature, be mindful of such factors as global warming, and stay clear of killing each other based on religious or racial considerations (it happened in the U.K. last week when an Indian PG student was shot dead in something that is believed to be nothing but “hate crime”, reminiscent of some incidents in Australia the last few years.).
Unfortunately, almost always the youth are behind such hate crimes, and that has dangerous portents for the world. If that is allowed to persist, irrespective of whether the world meets its end or not, peace and harmony (or whatever that is left of it) will cease.
Humanity has a responsibility to let that not happen.
-G Joslin Vethakumar
