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-- The world: 2008 and beyond.

The world: 2008 and beyond.

I'm fairly concerned. We can safely say that the United states is no longer the lone superpower (15 years isn't bad). China is gobbling up energy to surpass the United States (I doubt it's intentional). The European Union is stronger than ever, even though it's a confederacy. Russia is one of the leading energy giants, and is now back up on it's feet, ready to challenge the west (They have already).

I believe these are the biggest players, at the moment. We can talk about South America, but I doubt Chavez can rally everyone together to challenge (Not militarily) the United States.

If we look at September 12th 2001, and then look at Today... What the hell happened? The United States (Not just Bush, it's your fault too) has failed to adjust to the new world.

I'm not saying that WW3 is going to occur, But I foresee interesting times ahead.

Let this be an open discussion, as you can see, I haven't made any argument, so feel free to say what you would like.

I predict world peace.

quote:

Originally posted by Capitalizt I predict world peace.

There has to be a country who will be willing to promote it. In my opinion, sacrifice has to be made in order for world peace to be possible. Who's willing to give anything up? An oil field? A monopoly? A country or territory? Not many countries would be keen on giving up their old habits for "World Peace"

Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by LuvTiesto If we look at September 12th 2001, and then look at Today... What the hell happened? The United States (Not just Bush, it's your fault too) has failed to adjust to the new world.

Well, we got played. Don't forget that there are crazies among us all... sometimes they find a way to worm their way in. It's happened before with worse results, let's consider this subtle burning-out a quiet and dignifying blessing for everyone else in the world to take example and perhaps do things in a better way than we have.

And please don't remember us for the fall; we have tried to do a lot of good too, in whatever ways we knew how.

I predict a riot

quote:

Originally posted by George Smiley I predict a riot

At the starting of the week
At summit talks you'll hear them speak
It's only Monday
Negotiations breaking down
See those leaders start to frown
It's sword and gun day

http://tranceaddict.com/forums/show...8&forumid=66&s=

you did it to yourself

Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by LuvTiesto feel free to say what you would like.

Famous last words!

quote:

Originally posted by LuvTiesto http://tranceaddict.com/forums/show...8&forumid=66&s= you did it to yourself

I don't get the reference. Are you associating the US with Trancer? Or making an off-topic snark about PDD?

Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by LuvTiesto We can talk about South America, but I doubt Chavez can rally everyone together to challenge (Not militarily) the United States.

Considering the fact that Argentina, Brazil and Chile are the biggest players in South America, I doubt Venezuela could ever have such impact.

Re: Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira Considering the fact that Argentina, Brazil and Chile are the biggest players in South America, I doubt Venezuela could ever have such impact.

Suppose there's the possibility of an EU style alliance between various South American countries (in fact, I think that would be a good idea considering some of the economic hardships experienced by states and individuals alike in that region). Venezuela is quite friendly with Argentina aren't they? And there are other left-leaning countries down there

Anyway, my predicitions for 2008:

American Elections: Democrats to win with Obama; lose with Hillary

Iraq: No progress

Israel/Palestine: Following a Democratic victory in the US elections, America gives Israel carte blanche to build new settlements, to carve up and steal any land in the West Bank and leave the Palestinians the scraps with to have as their "home" - more extreme factions of the PLO dump Fatah and engage third Intifada along with the Islamists (or, to cut a long story short, "no progress")

EU: Member states ratify the new Treaty, nobody cares other than a tiny minority of extreme right and extreme left Eurosceptics

Africa: More wars, nobody cares

Super Powers: America carries on bumming oppressive regimes to secure economic interests; Russia pretends to be powerful by picking arguments with some tiny East European state and gets really pissed off when they realise they are actually powerless and penniless when Ukraine joins NATO and Russia can do nothing to stop them; China pretends to be poor and powerless when in fact the opposite is true, they just don't wanna draw unnecessary attention to their horrific human rights abuses and the Taiwan situation; EU tries to help out in African wars but end up being about as useful as a UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda as the UK would rather fight America's wars leaving the mighty Belgians and Dutch to somehow keep the peace

The Rapture: Will begin on 23rd November when 140,000 people suddenly disappear. This will be followed by 7 years of hell on Earth as the anti-Christ becomes elected the first president of the EU (Council). Bookies favourites is Tony Blair for this post, and given his current role as "Middle East Envoy" he will be perfect to fullfill the prophecy of forcing a peace settlement on Israel. Luckily 7 years later Jesus returns to Earth to save us from Blair's oppressive world rule...

Re: Re: Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by George Smiley Suppose there's the possibility of an EU style alliance between various South American countries (in fact, I think that would be a good idea considering some of the economic hardships experienced by states and individuals alike in that region). Venezuela is quite friendly with Argentina aren't they? And there are other left-leaning countries down there

Mercosul/Mercosur was supposed to be like the EU, as I recall it, but it didn't go all too well. The main problem, I believe, is the fact that Brazil and Argentina, for example, are in no way similar to Bolivia (and Venezuela, for that matter), so it's been really hard to integrate these countries.

Re: Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira Considering the fact that Argentina, Brazil and Chile are the biggest players in South America, I doubt Venezuela could ever have such impact.

Chavez is pushing for an EU type alliance within South America, IIRC. I doubt this will happen, but he has a lot of influence with certain... less than orthodox organisations within south America (See Columbia, hostages, etc.) And Venezuela is the 3rd largest exporter of oil to the United States, so believe it, it is a huge player.

Re: Re: Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by LuvTiesto Chavez is pushing for an EU type alliance within South America, IIRC. I doubt this will happen, but he has a lot of influence with certain... less than orthodox organisations within south America (See Columbia, hostages, etc.) And Venezuela is the 3rd largest exporter of oil to the United States, so believe it, it is a huge player.

A South American version of the EU is not going to happen any time soon. The EU has no problems like South American, there aren't nearly as many high profit markets in the EU. Things like gun running, cocain cartels, oil reserves, ore reserves, copper deposits, and huge rain forests are significant differences that need to be worked out before the SA group can become comparable to the EU.

There is also the issue with massive squalor in South America. In the EU there are no "slums" per se. The "banlieu" in France are getto's but they are clearly not shantty towns. The problems in eraticating slums are massive and they need to be settled to bring the South American cities to a more organized trade arangement.

....

Predictions for 2008,

Housing is going to take another hit in late summer (late July, and August). The US dollar is going to plummet on international markets and the manufacturing in the US is not going to re-apear as the powers that be would like to happen.

Despite this the Republicans are going to do all they can to ward off the slide until after the election. This means they are going to pump the economy into a national sugar high using the Fed and tax cuts / rebates or what ever else they can to minimise any damage.

The end result is going to be inflation the likes of which we haven't seen for decades. It will likely start to really set in about a year from now as employees realize that wages are not moving at the same speed as prices.

For the end consumer, joe public who has a job at the post office, he's going to notice that almost all of his money is used up on necesities such as food, gas, car payments, housing, and clothing. Joe isn't going to be able to spend on luxuries and even worse then that, he's going to have to concede that some things he thought were nessesities are actually luxuries (TV, Stereo, Speakers, Micro-waves, cable TV, MP3 players, eating at Boston Pizza).

In one year time, people who live in the US are going to be right pissed off.

Oh, and China isn't going to care. Sorry.

Re: Re: Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by LuvTiesto Chavez is pushing for an EU type alliance within South America, IIRC. I doubt this will happen, but he has a lot of influence with certain... less than orthodox organisations within south America (See Columbia, hostages, etc.) And Venezuela is the 3rd largest exporter of oil to the United States, so believe it, it is a huge player.

These attempts have been part of South American history for quite a few decades now. The reason why Chavez gets so much publicity is just because he's a radical and because, as far as I know, he now wants our agreements to suit his ideology (which is not going to happen unless there's a big change in South American politics). Venezuela is neither among the wealthest nor among the most prosperous countries down here... it's just got oil and, yeah, oil

Re: Re: Re: Re: The world: 2008 and beyond.

quote:

Originally posted by Lira These attempts have been part of South American history for quite a few decades now. The reason why Chavez gets so much publicity is just because he's a radical and because, as far as I know, he now wants our agreements to suit his ideology (which is not going to happen unless there's a big change in South American politics). Venezuela is neither among the wealthest nor among the most prosperous countries down here... it's just got oil and, yeah, oil

I agree with Lira on this. Chavez has 'some' influence in Bolivia, Ecuador and some of the Central American countries, but apart from that most people just use him for the benefits you can derive, such as deferred payments on oil. An alliance of EU style in South America is not very likely. A more likely scenario would be regional alliances such as Mercosur, Caricom, or the Central American countries bunching up. Even that scenario might be hard to pull off.

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