From the Original to Living and Cockroach Nostradamus!

Raju Korti
The title "Living Nostradamus" certainly has a nice ring to it. It sounds mysterious, dramatic and just vague enough to keep television producers happy. The latest claimant to this rather grand designation is Brazilian psychic Athos Salomé, who says he sees tomorrow before the rest of us wake up to it.

Before we get to him, a word about the original. Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, was a 16th century French astrologer and physician whose cryptic verses have fascinated people for centuries. The beauty of his predictions lay in their ambiguity. They were so open to interpretation that almost every major event, from wars to royal deaths, has at some point been linked to his writings.

Our modern version follows a somewhat similar formula, although with considerably more media attention. Salomé has claimed credit for foreseeing everything from the coronavirus pandemic and Queen Elizabeth II's death to the Microsoft outage. He now says he predicted the Iran-Israel conflict and Spain's World Cup triumph. Impressive, until one looks a little closer.

Take the Middle East. Predicting rising tensions involving Iran and Israel is rather like forecasting traffic jams during Mumbai's evening rush hour. The region has lived on the edge for decades. One does not need extra sensory perception to conclude that another flare-up is always a possibility.

Then comes his football prophecy. According to him, the World Cup winner would wear colours associated with fire. His shortlist conveniently included Spain, Portugal, France, England, Argentina, Morocco and the Netherlands. That covers a sizeable portion of the footballing elite. It is a little like saying the next Wimbledon champion will probably be someone who plays good tennis.

His Arctic warning has also generated headlines. Russia and NATO, he says, could find themselves on a collision course as melting ice opens up shipping lanes and access to valuable resources. Fair enough, except that military analysts, strategic experts and geopolitical commentators have been discussing exactly this scenario for years. The Arctic has long been viewed as the next arena of strategic competition.

The rest of his forecast reads almost like a carefully prepared international affairs briefing. The Russia-Ukraine war will drag on. China and Taiwan will remain tense without necessarily going to full-scale war. Cyberattacks will increase. Terrorism will continue to trouble parts of Africa. Artificial intelligence will create fresh headaches. Climate change will bring heatwaves, floods and droughts.

One is tempted to ask whether the psychic receives visions or simply subscribes to several good newspapers and a few geopolitical journals.

The public health predictions are equally familiar. Bird flu, dengue, mpox and overburdened hospitals may continue to worry governments. Unfortunately, that has become the modern world's permanent health advisory rather than a mystical revelation.

Even cybercrime gets its allotted chapter. Hackers may target infrastructure and major sporting events. Given that cybercriminals seem to treat every connected computer as a personal invitation, this prediction hardly stretches the imagination.

To be fair, Salomé himself does not claim infallibility. He says his forecasts are interpretations based on symbolic analysis, historical cycles and the mystical tradition of Kabbalah. That is an honest caveat, and perhaps the most refreshing part of the entire exercise.

The real mystery is not why psychics make such predictions. It is why we continue to react with amazement when many of these forecasts merely restate trends that are already unfolding in plain sight.

Perhaps the safest prediction of all is this. As long as the world remains uncertain, there will never be a shortage of prophets. And as long as television studios need dramatic headlines, there will never be a shortage of Living Nostradamuses waiting in the wings.