Information Related to "World News & Trends Jan 2009"
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What's ahead in the new calendar year of 2009 ? The Good News is not in the business of short-term political and economic forecasting, but we can bring you a region-by-region overview of major trends to watch around the world-undergirded by biblical teaching (see Luke 21:34-36). As Daniel Franklin, editor of The Economist's publication The World in 2009, states in his lead editorial, "Anyone hoping for a period of calm after the turbulence of the past year will be disappointed . . . 2009 promises to be a period of bracing adjustment for a changed world." Let's now pan across the globe, taking note of conditions in the light of biblical prophecies. Since the largest portion of The Good News mailing list is in North America, we begin here.
It's hard to ignore the significance of widespread claims that "America may be turning the page on an era," as The Wall Street Journal put it (Nov. 5, 2008). The challenges the new president faces are daunting. Foreigners have placed much of the blame for the current global downturn squarely on America's shoulders.
Peer Steinbrueck, German finance minister, stated in a speech to the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, that "the U.S. will lose its status as a superpower of the world" and "the world will never be the same again" (The Guardian, Nov. 21, 2008, emphasis added throughout).
The Russian leadership shares this viewpoint. Russian president Dmitry Medvedev stated that "the financial crisis in the United States should be taken as a sign that America's global economic leadership is drawing to a close" (International Herald Tribune, Oct. 2, 2008).
A Guardian article states: "The United States' leading intelligence organisation has warned that the world is entering an unstable and unpredictable period in which . . . [the United States] will no longer be able to 'call the shots' alone, as its power . . . begins to wane" ("2025: The End of US Dominance," Nov. 21, 2008).
As The Good News has warned for years, the United States, barring national repentance, is heading for severe decline and fall. Are we seeing its early stages?
Anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues to behave as expected, but he is no longer the biggest news in Latin America. Brazil is.
According to a recent article in Foreign Affairs: "After decades of stop-and-start growth and political disorder, Brazil today seems poised to finally fulfill its long-unrealized potential as a global player" (November-December 2008). Daniel Franklin in The World in 2009 predicted that "the shift in power to places such as Brazil, Russia, India and China will quicken. These countries will expect a bigger say in how the world is run."
The chief long-term danger to Brazil may be from Chavez's Venezuela. A headline in the Nov. 12, 2008, International Herald Tribune reported that "Caracas sets itself up as hub for world's leftists." Last October the capital city of Venezuela, Caracas, hosted a conference of leftists from many countries. Hopefully Brazil will be able to resist any attempted injection of left-wing poison from Caracas.
Generally speaking, Australia in recent times has been a bright spot among the English-speaking nations descended from the biblical patriarch Joseph (see our free booklet ). As the undisputed superpower in the South Pacific, Australia has had to take a policeman's role in taming unrest in the sometimes strife-ridden nations of that region.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has also sounded a regional warning of the spread of nuclear weapons technology and his fear of it falling into the hands of terrorists. He also warned: "We are looking at a time in the Asia-Pacific region and world history where, for the first time in several hundred years, we are going to have powers other than Anglo-Saxon powers who will be dominant players in the world" (Agence France-Presse, Sept. 10, 2008).
Perhaps the most worrying news out of the People's Republic of China is its rapid military expansion. A headline in The Daily Telegraph reads: " Beijing 's Military Will Soon Match Its Rivals, Say Experts" (Sept. 29, 2008). Defense correspondent Thomas Harding further wrote that "China is rapidly developing a highly modern military that will be the equal of Western armies" (ibid.).
Christopher Foss, editor of Jane's Armour and Artillery, related that "China is developing a modern, highly manoeuvrable force able to operate anywhere as well as, if not better than, Western armies." By 2015 the expectation is that China will possess six Jin-class submarines with the capacity "of firing the JL2 ballistic nuclear missile that could threaten both the western and eastern American seaboards" (ibid.).
A column in The Wall Street Journal rightly described Pakistan as a "nuclear-armed Islamic giant run by an unproven new government, beset by internal political rifts, conducting a fitful struggle with Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents along its border with Afghanistan, and threatened by Islamic radicals angry over American military strikes along that same Afghan border" (Nov. 14, 2008).
Further, "violence along Pakistan's border has driven tens of thousands of people to seek refuge in eastern Afghanistan, the United Nations reported. Military data showed suicide attacks throughout the country killed nearly 1,200 people in the past 15 months" (USA Today, Sept. 30, 2008).
A November-December 2008 Foreign Affairs article commented on the overall situation in the two nations: "Afghanistan and Pakistan are in crisis. More U.S. troops, more money, and attacks into Pakistan 's lawless tribal areas will do little to counter the growing threat or avert chaos."
Russian leaders Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have been using the country's oil wealth to rebuild and modernize its military. The armed incursion into neighboring Georgia and threats to deploy missiles to counter the proposed U.S. missile shield are a reflection of Moscow throwing its weight around.
The Daily Mail reported that "the Russian Navy is poised to sail into the Mediterranean to conduct operations in NATO's backyard for the first time since the end of the Cold War" (Oct. 4, 2008). Russia is presently conducting a fresh diplomatic offensive in selected nations. For example, The Sunday Times of London reported that "Russia is considering increasing its assistance to Iran's nuclear programme . . . The Kremlin is discussing sending teams of Russian nuclear experts to Tehran and inviting Iranian nuclear experts to Moscow for training" (Sept. 7, 2008).
A Wall Street Journal news report related that the "Belarus president seeks to deploy Russian missiles . . . that could reach deep into Europe" (Nov. 14, 2008). Medvedev has also signed energy deals with Hugo Chavez designed to help develop Venezuelan oilfields. Muammar Gadhafi has offered Russia a naval base in Libya. A diplomatic push in Moldova has begun. Montenegro has a new nickname, "Moscow-on-the-sea." All these trends show that Russia seems intent on re-exerting its former cold war power.
Economic and political disaster continues largely unabated in Zimbabwe. South Africa is showing disturbing signs of increasing political unrest and other internal troubles. But at the moment the big news on the continent of Africa is in the Congo.
Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda stated: "I want Europe to know Congo is at the birth of a revolution. It must not muzzle it" (Financial Times, Nov. 15, 2008). But what about the appalling cost in human life and suffering? The stark reality of a festering trouble spot on an already conflict-burdened continent persists unrelentingly.
A September 2008 article in Standpoint, a new conservative news commentary magazine published in Britain, sheds light on the situation in Iran under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Iran has tested Western resolve in other blunter ways. It has breached its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and made a mockery of inspections. It supplied weapons to Shia militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan . . . It routinely announces that Israel should be 'wiped off the map.'"
Michael Ledeen, Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a National Review Online contributing editor, says: "If the Iranians do have a weapon, it is impossible to imagine that, at a moment of crisis, they will not use it. The point is we have an implacable enemy which has no intention of negotiating a settlement with us. They want us dead or dominated . . . There is no painless way out, and the longer we wait the greater the pain is going to be" (Imprimis, October 2008).
The Sunday Times stated that "in the baking heat of the Negev desert [in southern Israel], the Israeli air force's top guns are training for a secret mission . . . In a further indication that this squadron is preparing for conflict, 80 US technicians based at the nearby Nevatim air base in the Negev have installed the world's most advanced X-brand radar system with a range of 1,250 miles, that it will hugely enhance Israel's tactical capacity in the air." One of the pilots said, "We feel the future of Israel isn't safe and we want to do what we can to defend it" (Nov. 23, 2008).
A Sunday Times report revealed that "Barack Obama is to pursue an ambitious peace plan in the Middle East involving the recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for its withdrawal to pre-1967 borders" (Nov. 16, 2008).
If this report is true, Israel's future may very well be bleak. Land for peace has had a terrible track record in Israel. The country gained key strategic military advantages from the 1967 war, but would lose them if this peace plan were to be implemented-rendering the nation much more vulnerable to Arab attacks.
To understand the historic backdrop of Israel's place in the Middle East and how events there will affect the world, request or download our free booklet .
In recent years France normally played the role of obstructing American policy goals and intentions. This habitual French posture eased considerably after the election of President Nicolas Sarkozy. Now it's Germany. One senior American official labeled Berlin as "the new Paris."
The Economist reported: "On Russia, Iran and Afghanistan-trouble spots that matter to both countries-Germany's position is annoying Washington. At the NATO summit in Bucharest [Romania] last April, [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel stood most visibly against American pressure to grant a Membership Action Plan-a road-map to join the alliance-to Ukraine and Georgia. This was a marked change from previous summits at which France habitually obstructed American proposals.
"After Russian troops pushed into Georgia in August, America wanted to ostracise the Kremlin while Germany appeared eager to return to business as usual. Germany had been the leading Western sceptic in toughening economic sanctions on Iran to discourage its alarming uranium-enrichment programme" (Nov. 1, 2008). German exports to Iran are greater than those of any other Western country. Russia is one of Germany's main trading partners. Berlin imports about a third of its gas and oil from Moscow.
The question was asked in an International Herald Tribune daily column: "Could you get elected German Chancellor Sept. 27 next year if your opponents say your goals are 'emancipating' Germany and Europe from the United States, and setting a policy course for a Europe 'equidistant' between Russia and the Americans? Could be" (Sept. 16, 2008). These shifts on the international stage are in line with the direction in which Central Europe is prophesied to go at the time of the end. To understand more, request or download our free booklet .
Protecting children from family abuse has become a big story in Britain-especially due to the infamous death of "Baby P," a 17-month-old boy who died after suffering more than 50 injuries, for which his mother, her boyfriend and another man lodging with them were convicted, the mother having pleaded guilty to the charge of causing or allowing his death. With an average of four dying from abuse weekly. abuse of babies and small children is fast becoming an embarrassing problem.
Government agencies monitoring these abusive parents or boyfriends have rightly been blamed for serious misjudgments. But society must also bear blame.
Noted columnist Melanie Phillips has written of these cases: "They are the outcome of a process that has been going on for the past three decades and more, in which the fundamental values of civilised society have been systematically trashed and up-ended. They are the result of the doctrine that all lifestyles must be considered equal and that no one has the right to pass judgment on anyone else. Thus, women had a God-given right to bear babies out of wedlock . . . Disapproval of adultery or elective lone parenthood were dismissed as 'Old Testament fundamentalism'" (Daily Mail, Nov. 17, 2008).
Government policy has tended to penalize marriage and reward biblically illicit lifestyles. Phillips concluded that "the people who really have blood on their hands are the progressive intelligentsia who have simply written orderly, married, normative family life out of the script, enforced the doctrines of multi-culturalism and nonjudgmentalism with the zealotry of the fanatic, and caused Britain to descend into an age of barbarism" (ibid.)
Many signs show that the world is increasingly entering an era of revolutionary change. The international chessboard is rapidly shifting, with nations vying for power and influence. However, we should always remember that the Creator God is "Lord of heaven and earth" and is ultimately guiding events to work out what He has foretold in Bible prophecy.
There are inevitable penalties for the way the world is living, and God's spiritual law is self-enforcing. If you wish to discover what is really wrong with society in general, request or download our free booklet .
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Keywords: Brazil Australia China Pakistan Afghanistan Russia Congo Iran Germany U.S. power Britain Israel
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