2022 What to Watch Out For? (Yes, There is Good News) - Part 01

As we assess what’s happening in 2022, we need some understanding of today and good news for tomorrow. Let’s face it: the years 2020 and 2021 were unprecedented, intense, and for many people, miserable. Lives and nations were turned upside down. The ‘old normal’ of 2019 seems like a distant memory. Yet before we examine the good news - in our final instalment, let’s see what we need to watch for in 2022 so that we might fulfil the Biblical injunction to ‘watch and pray’ (Matthew 26:41; Ephesians 6:18).

ELECTIONS IN 2022

The following countries have scheduled elections:

The United States: The eagerly anticipated mid-terms (meaning the president is not running for office but the Congress is seeking election or re-election) is scheduled for 8 November. The Republicans, known as the GOP (the red party), are predicted to win big in Congress. The House of Representatives will probably turn ‘red’ and the Senate, which is held by the Democrats (the blue party) by the slimmest majority, may flip as well.
Australia: A federal election is scheduled around May 2022. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to run for re-election. His Coalition government has been in power since 2013 but he is the third coalition prime minister after Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.
France: French President Emmanuel Macron seeks a second term but he will have an uphill battle; watch to see if France picks a centre right or even populist President in his place.
Hungary: Viktor Orban is the nationalist populist ‘right wing’ Prime Minister and is running for re-election. Leader of the Fidesz Party, Orban has been in power since 2010. He is a leader of the ‘new Europe’ (former communist bloc countries of Europe during the Cold War) that rejects the increasingly leftist, progressivist pathway of the European Union. Urban and other nationalist populists put the emphasis on nation, family, religion, custom, and traditions. In an attempt to bolster fertility, the Hungarian government offers total exemption from income taxes for life if a family has four or more children.
Brazil: Jair Bolsonaro 65, dubbed ‘Trump of the Tropics,’ is running for re-election against former leftist president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, known as ‘Lula,’ age 76. He was recently released from prison for corruption, having had his conviction quashed. If Lula wins, it will be a most remarkable political comeback.
Other countries having elections include South Korea, The Philippines, and some key African countries.

THE UNITED KINGDOM

First, the 6th of February 2022 marks the seventieth anniversary of the accession of Elizabeth II. The United Kingdom and Commonwealth will celebrate her platinum jubilee throughout the year. As of that date, she will be the fourth longest serving monarch in history (e.g. Louis XIV reigned for seventy-two years).

In the general election of December 2019, the Conservative (Tory) Party, led by Boris Johnson, won a stunning eighty seat majority. After two hard years of Covid, lockdown and protests, that victory is a distant memory. Lockdown-defying Christmas parties, the historic loss a once super-safe Tory seat and the resignation of his Brexit minster Lord David Frost, are causing the Tories to look for a new leader, albeit covertly. Possible candidates are the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and Foreign Minister Liz Truss. Despite scandals and plummeting approval ratings, Boris is an intelligent, clever, ‘Houdini-like’ figure and it would be foolish to count him out at this juncture.

THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

This needs a lot of care and prayer. Government spending during the pandemic has gone through the roof and inflation is a real worry. There is the rise of crypto currencies which charts an unknown course - riches or ruin. Then there is the ballooning national debt. Australia’s in 2015 was 635 billion. The United States is much worse - in the trillions.

Just to give you an idea of what a trillion dollars looks like  - it’s a million dollars a million times. Or, think of the year 722 BC (2 Kings 17), when the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and deported the Israelites throughout the empire. Imagine paying $1,000 a day, every single day without fail, from that year and for the next 2,744 years until now: you would barely pass one trillion dollars. America’s national debt is hovering around 30 trillion!

THE CULTURE WAR

This term describes the decades long cultural conflict in America and the western world between cultural Marxists and their secular progressive and globalist allies versus libertarians, conservatives, and traditional values patriots (faith, family and freedom). It has recently boiled over into sensational ‘cancel culture,’ ‘wokery,’ and even riots in some place.

Wokery is increasingly showing traits of a religion.

Will there be a strong populist pushback against the inroads of the Cultural Marxism in 2022? Watch and pray.

Next time, we will look at China, the American presidency, Covid-19, global hotspots, and a special section on the Middle East. The ‘good news’ is also on the list.

TO BE CONTINUED