It’s the end-of-year silly season
It's a funny old world (photo credit: Flickr/aussiegall)
I seem to be ending the year in a silly, frivolous frame of mind. It was triggered, I think, by the story of an Australian family whose home in Sydney is “weeping” oil.
The family believes the phenomenon is connected with the death of their 17-year-old son, Mike Tannous, in a car crash three years ago. A few days later, the walls in his bedroom began weeping a yellow liquid, which one British newspaper claims, without justification, is “a unique kind of oil”, and have continued to do so ever since.
The liquid appears not to have been analysed but crowds are now attracted to the modest three-bedroom bungalow, believing the oil has the power to heal. A few cures have been claimed.
Now, I know that teenage boys are notorious for being untidy, but Mike’s behaviour from beyond the grave does seem a bit excessive.
No such problem, yet, for the family of Ajay, a 16-year-old Indian boy who died this month – also in a road accident – in Armarpur, in Kasganj district. The question on their minds is when they will see him again.
During his short life, Ajay revealed to them that he had been born into the same family five times between 1984 and 1993. His grandmother, Rambeti, says the boy recalled being born as her son and that he had died, aged six, after being fed a poisoned sweet by a woman who had no children.
“This was absolutely true, and when he narrated this incident to us, we were shocked,” Rambeti told the Lucknow correspondent of Chronicle on the Web. His next births, he claimed, were as a housefly, a bee and then a snake, before returning to human form – as the son of Rambeti’s daughter.
That life was very short: he died aged two after choking on a sweet. Finally, in 1993, he was born as Ajay to Rambeti’s daughter-in-law.
“In 1991, a snake had wandered into our courtyard and my mother-in-law had beaten it to death,” Rambeti explained. “Ajay said that he was the snake that had been killed by us.”
After reading that story, I was left wondering what life will be like in the household without Ajay around. I imagine the home being overrun with flies, bees, snakes, mice, rats and whatever else lives in or around the village.
“Don’t kill it,” they’ll be saying, “it might be Ajay.”
I was hoping the next story to reach me would be less difficult to swallow. Instead, it turned out to be an alleged psychic’s predictions for 2010.
Canada’s National Post has decided to give space to the forecasts for next year made by “Nikki, known as psychic to the stars” (aren’t they all?) under the attention-grabbing headline, “Psychic predicts assassination of Obama in 2010”.
After saying “I’m really getting that strong,” Toronto-based Nikki quickly hedges her bets: “There could be an attempt at first, and there could be an assassination. There could be two (attempts) – that’s what I’m sort of getting,” she told reporter Karen Hawthorne.
Come on, Nikki. If using “could be” three times in two sentences is what you describe as a “strong” feeling, I dread to think what your less-then-certain predictions sound like. But it gets better. She goes on:
“This [Obama’s assassination] is one that I don’t want to happen … but I am getting danger around him. From the time that he was elected, I got that.”
Amazing. Who would have thought the President of the United States was in any sort of danger? I’m sure his large team of bodyguards will be equally surprised.
What her predictions may lack in quality they certainly make up for in volume: Nikki offers 300 forecasts for 2010. Don’t worry, I’m not going to list them all, but I have taken a quick peek and it’s not looking good … for Nikki. Top of her list is: “Trouble on the moon’s surface and atmosphere.”
Will someone please tell her that the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere.
We can also expect “a worldwide power blackout”.
That, sweetheart, would require all the world’s power networks to be linked, which they most definitely are not! Try again.
“Tsunami in Malibu, California.”
Just in Malibu? That would be a miracle-and-a-half. Please tell us what maritime marvel can produce a devastating wave that can hit just one location. Let’s try one more:
“The Queen has to watch for a kidnapping.”
I can picture Her Majesty peering out of the window of her private apartment in Buckingham Palace, and Prince Philip asking her what she is doing.
“Just watching for a kidnapping, Philip,” she responds.
Nikki – bless her heart – does admit it is unlikely that all of the predictions will come true, especially over the next year.
“Psychics have problems with time frames,” she explains. “It’s kind of a mystery as to why some things come up right away and why some things don’t.”
But not as big a mystery as why someone whose past predictions have been consistently wide of the mark is still given the time of day by the National Post.
In fact, a quick check of her predictions for 2009 show that many of them, including the assassination of Obama, having failed to occur, have now been placed on her 2010 list. Missing, this time around, for some strange reason, is “the capture of the Loch Ness Monster”!
Well, here’s a prediction of mine: Nikki will still be making these ridiculous predictions this time next year, and the National Post will doubtless be writing about them, even if every one of her forecasts for 2010 fails to materialise.
Right! Having got all that silliness out of my system, let me be serious for a moment and wish you a very Happy New Year … and may only good predictions come true in 2010.
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I suppose it’s no worse the than Horoscopes in most newspapers.
The end result of bizarre predictions and exaggerated claims may have a social function which the media somehow intuit — especially at critical moments when people need to pay attenion to reality. Today the world suffers some serious problems so that the New Year should be a time of checking balances. But fewer people seem to like reflection and resolution for the New Year. What draws someone’s attention away more from intoxicating substances, fantasy, and sensuality? Is it a call to order made by a precise rationalist? Or “Hey, the house is on fire!”? Busy and anxious people ignore the ordinary instead of appreciating it.
“Psychic stories” have an entertainment value which most people share that borders on serious introspection and the pursuit of worthy values. This kind of exaggerated expression is sometimes a safety value to keep the masses from total alienation and escapisms. Some people would rather discuss the possibility of reincarnation and hauntings than issues that create anxiety: Does your spouse cheat on you? Why haven’t you made progress at work? Is Israel right in its occuptation of Palestine? That’s not to say reincarnation and hauntings aren’t in their proper place valuable subjects. But our harsh realities can be anxiety provoking so subconscious denial of reality is common.
People do spend money for the services of psychics so there must be some pychological and social purpose to them . Or do people now just need to waste money? Or be duped? I’m happy that there are still many individuals who can confront problems and differences of opinion and find democratic solutions. Happy New Year! — Stephen Contrado, B.A., Th.M.
Every one, charletans included, are entitled to voice their predictions, and this is the time of the year to do it. Whether you take notice is an entirely different matter. Like Stephen says, it’s amusing if nothing else.