The Year Of The Horse
The Year of the Horse runs from January 31st 2014 to February 18th 2015. To be more precise this is the year of the Wood Horse. A Horse year always brings swift changes, civil unrest and armed conflict, and this year the focus zones of political transformation will be Europe and America.
In Europe new political parties will begin to come to prominence as the economic situation stays depressed or even worsens. This is happening now with the rise of right wing in Greece. Communism has had it chance and has failed miserably. The new radicals will be green or neo-fascist. Population changes and immigration problems will swing nations back to the right, as well as creating more unrest on the streets and invoking internal terrorism. Even the so called stable countries such as France and Germany could be affected by radical forces within their populations. Southern Europe including Spain will become the focus of new vigorous rightist movements. In Britain this will be softened and represented by further rises for UKIP. The Conservatives and even Labour will pay lip service to the prevalent vibrations by jumping on the immigration restriction bandwagon. In real terms the number of migrants flooding into Britain will rise, as will the social problems connected with them and the bad press associated with them.
The Labour Party will continue to be lost ideologically, floundering in a mix of popularism and rear guard actions against Conservative thought and legislation. The Conservatives will find certain sections of the press against them while other corners of the media will become more vocal in their support. Britain will continue to struggle financially, but George Osborne’s ‘green shoots’ of recovery will in some sectors sprout encouragingly. The year sets the ground frame for recovery, but it will continue to be hard for many individuals and families. The housing market will grow but will be hindered by unhelpful banks. Expect more scandals within and criticism of the banking sector.
The summer will bring a tendency to riot and loot, and protest movements will see their demonstrations disrupted by troublemakers or the police becoming even more heavy handed. The fight against fracking technology will be more or less won by its opposing forces.
The battle against terrorism will be a constant theme. The British security services will foil many terrorist plots, but there could be casualties. With a prevailing anti-immigration consensus in place the security services will be empowered to begin to tackle the causes of Islamic extremism on the streets and places of worship where it is bred and promulgated.
The Middle East will experience more regime changes and widespread unrest. Egypt will be a focus for this and the tragedy of Syria will continue unsolved with more loss of life and increasing incidences of famine and disease. Both Jordan and Israel will have internal and diplomatic problems. On the positive side Iran will extend diplomacy to the west and genuinely try to take a more constructive and respected place on the world stage. In that country science and technological advancement will begin to alter the life of the populace for the better.
There will be industrial reform in China and the government will take more steps to safeguard the country’s environment. Their economy will not reach its former levels of growth but it will become obvious that China is becoming more and more one of the great superpowers, and influences from Chinese culture will be felt both in America and Britain.
President Obama’s administration will prove its worth, both as regards the slow recovery of the economy and in its quick reaction to several immense natural disasters. Internationally Obama will prove that he has vision and is prepared to be radical. History will remember him as a man who broke down barriers between culturally diverse nations and achieved much for diplomatic relations. His problems will come as they did in 2013 from the conservative old school politicians intent on restricting social reform and the inception of a new era internationally. Obama’s reforms of American medical care will be warmly acclaimed, although there will be teething troubles. His next step will be to create changes in America’s workplaces and stimulate better conditions for the work force.
Technologically there will be progress, both in the exploration of the cosmos and in the technological field. The work of more radically minded scientists will come to the fore. Those who go against the common theoretical consensus will find platforms to express their ideas and win a new general acceptance. Several discoveries in the field of archaeology will make us question our accepted views, both of ancient civilizations and of evolution. Nothing will prove to be as simple as it once seemed. Undersea archaeology will prove a ripe field for the unexpected, as will the discovery of lost ancient cities, some with no connection to our current understanding of history.
The field of genetics can expect breakthroughs, both in theory and practice. Work to recreate extinct life forms will magnetize attention, but more importantly the development of genetic solutions to disease problems will rise the fore again.
The winter of 2014 will bring problems to areas of Britain due to high winds and flooding. Areas of the summer will be hot and dry and there will be electrical storms. The agricultural industry will face production problems due to the weather. Outside of Britain, many nations such as Africa and America will find crop failures more prevalent.
In the media, internet visual media providers such as Netflix and Lovefilm will begin to out power and take over from the standard television stations. Fortunately, this will prove to be more of a revival as these new on-line visual media providers will originate both innovative serials and films of high quality. As a result the output of standard television stations will grow ever more irrelevant and mediocre, and their viewing figures will fall. More and more homes will access the technology to watch the internet stations on their large screens in their front rooms.