Roller-coaster ride ahead
An astrologer, predicts what South Africa and the world have in store in 2020
SOUTH AFRICA AND AFRICA… IN 2020, there will be achievements for South African sports-persons and artists to gain international fame.
The mechanical engineering industries and the property market will do better than the past two years. The tourism industry will also improve.
It will continue to be a challenging year economically and politically, but foreign investment will increase.
The banking and mining sectors will struggle, and this will affect the job markets.
Crime will remain the same, and there will be an increase in protests by public workers and social protests.
African religious or spiritual leaders will play a bigger role on the continent and globally, and the relationships between neighbouring countries will improve.
Zimbabwe will get international support and funding to boost its economy.
INTERNATIONAL…
Due to global warming, there will be many natural disasters in Western and Asian countries.
Tension will rise as citizens around the world raise questions on the relationship that exists between governments and themselves. The citizens will demand increased levels of security.
The tension between governing elites and citizens will reshape global geopolitics.
A weakened United States would mean less of an emphasis on human rights and maintenance of global order.
Less of a US presence on the global stage will create gaps for authoritarian powers like China and Russia.
It also means a heightened risk of conflict between those competing for regional powers like India and Pakistan or Iran and Saudi Arabia.
In the short term, the US will have a diminished presence abroad due to domestic political divisions.
These political divisions, compounded with the Donald Trump administration’s preference for unilateral action, will threaten to isolate the US diplomatically.
Economic crises and inequality have contributed to widening societal and class divisions.
The number of men who are not working and not seeking work is at its highest since the Great Depression.
However, incomes have risen slowly, and investors see high rates of return on both domestic and foreign investments.
Rising ethnic, demographic, and economic tensions will make
European integration more difficult.
Furthermore, Europeans must repair the structural problems in the European Union (EU) institutions.
For example, the EU agencies set monetary policy for members of the Eurozone. However, member states retain control over their financial and security obligations.
This leaves poorer EU states like Greece with vast amounts of debt and decreasing growth prospects.
There is no unified EU security policy; each member state determines its national security strategy.
In North Korea, Kim Jong-un has consolidated his grip on power through patronage and fear and has doubled down on his nuclear and missile programmes, developing long-range missiles that may soon endanger the US.
Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, and Washington have a shared incentive to handle security risks in North east Asia, but a history of mutual distrust, warfare, and occupation makes co-operation between the different parties difficult.
A resumption of North Korean provocations, such as nuclear and missile tests, may destabilise the balance of power in the region and result in the North’s immediate neighbours potentially taking unilateral action to defend their security interests.
Kim Jong-un is determined to secure international recognition of the North as a nuclear power, for security, prestige, and political legitimacy.
Beijing and Moscow will seek to lock in competitive advantages and also to right what they perceive as historical wrongs before economic and demographic trends can present impediments and the West regains its foundation.
Violent extremism, terrorism, and instability will continue to hang over Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the region’s fragile communal relations.
The threat of terrorism from Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LET), Tehriki-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and al-Qaeda and its affiliates, as well as the Islamic State’s expansion and sympathy for associated ideologies, will remain prominent in the area.
There is a possibility of more partition in Pakistan between April and September 2020.
Competition for jobs, coupled with discrimination against minorities, might contribute to the radicalisation of the region’s youth, especially given the unbalanced gender ratios favouring males in several nations.
Terrorists will continue to justify their violence by their own interpretations of religion, but several underlying drivers are also in play.
In Southern Iraq, there will be emerging conflict for the Basra area through to September 2020.
In India, two Bollywood celebrities and two political leaders will die mid-April to September.
Get ready for some giant leaps in space, with women in charge.
Prepare for a completely new world of trade and travel too.