The Crystal Ball 2025
By Imad F Abdullah
And so it is, the first quarter of this century will be behind us in
just a few days and we’re stepping into the next 25 years full of
anticipation that it’s a new dawn that will always be in pursuit
of the latest “breaking news”, and with much hope that our
own history becomes a continuum of the past.
As time moves us ahead along the scale of longevity, we
continue to widen our observations of what’s happening
around us knowing that change will come with upcoming
generations. Maybe Gen Z can find answers since they have
much wider sources of information on many platforms. They
have been driven away from the controlled major networks
where unrelenting advertising is killing viewership as drug
companies have taken over and repeatedly promote
bewilderingly named drugs for the elderly followed by the
make-believe caption “ask your doctor”. Gen Z has no interest
and simply abandoned television as a meaningful source of
news.
Our own history is formed based on our own perceptions of
what occurred, what was reported and which spin dominated
the narrative. The history of the previous past that was handed
to us was packaged for us by those who ruled their times and
sanitized their past. For the critical observer it is a continuous
quest to decipher the past to reach some inner peace, knowing
that debates on certain matters are constricted by
unquestioning belief versus science and the laws of physics.
For scholars and history buffs, it is a maze of opinions and
recollections that keeps them in search of earlier references
and scrolls, resulting in never ending debates on religion,
prophets, wars and conflicts. All along, Democracy continues to
promote its ideals and superiority while its bosses are
controlling the world from higher up and within their own
power sphere. Often Democracies collide at their edges, and
the outcome can devastate nations and societies when the
dreams of dominance overshadow peaceful coexistence.
Which brings us to the concept of “Power”, the ultimate
survival technique that has been exercised through the ages.
Few get to play this Game of Thrones, the rest practically stuck
and helplessly watching from afar, trying to achieve some
relevance in a vast void of non—relevance. In 1968 one of our
Political Science reading books was “Presidential Power”, a book
about President Lyndon B. Johnson, the ultimate power broker
of his time until the Vietnam War protests ended his political
career. Despite all its horrors, War remains a powerful motive to
create legacies for the winners and etch them regally in history
books.
While visiting various museums in stellar cities one cannot but
notice the volume of artifacts that belong to other countries, a
reminder that the powerful strips the treasures of the
vanquished. Looking at today’s world from this perspective and
considering the huge national debt of numerous countries
including stalwarts of progress and the good life, reaching
peace may not be a desired outcome but instead the ultimate
surrender to them and the bounty that comes with victory and
imposing long term war reparations as was done to Germany
after WW2, all the while brushing aside the dire consequences
of a stalemate or their own defeat.
Within your short attention span while reading this letter, there
is no time or space to dig deep into world conflicts, and as such
some thoughts are herewith within the big picture. In such a
context, Ukraine remains a puzzle for how the calculations of
the powerful can backfire and how the hopeful underdog can
get pulverized while waiting for the promises to materialize. The
last chapter is yet to come, and several commentators are
saying Russia will not accept a cease-fire until they take over
Odessa and cut-off the Ukraine access to the Black Sea,
permanently handicapping Ukraine and preventing a future
resurgence.
In March of 2022 I posted on Facebook a Crystal prediction that
Russia is aiming to cut off the Ukraine from the Black Sea with a
take-over of Odessa. The caption read as follows:
“Russian forces are advancing all along the Sea of Azov between
Crimea and the Donbass region, coupled with a build-up along
the Black Sea near Odessa. If the forces get interconnected,
they can cut off the sea access totally for Ukraine. Considering
the extreme vulnerability of any invading force inside cities, it
may be that the 40-mile convoy may be intended to move
southwards all along the roads to the west of the Dnieper River
which runs from Kiev all the way to the Black Sea, to possibly
connect with the Russian forces near Odessa and to encircle
that city from the west.”
The Crystal was on target and maybe the fall of Odessa to
Russia and sealing the black Sea to block Ukraine will be the
catalyst to stop this war.
World Geopolitics take us next to Syria where it’s been a year
since the old regime was toppled, and there is much
speculation about the new leader and his government, and
where Syria is headed. In perspective, upheavals on such a
scale of revolution are carried out by die-hard revolutionaries
and not by the upper classes or charitable entities. As President
Trump said, the Middle East is a rough neighborhood, and one
should not expect a “Choir Boy” to be a ruler.
Major players around there are entrenched old civilizations that
produced the written word and major religions shining the
many ways to reach the one Lord that all claim they have the
way. No solutions in sight so far for this stalemate among
religions, and if a conflict erupts it will produce severe hardship.
History is a reminder as it remains in permanent mourning for
all the victims of zealots on all continents. Syria may follow
other Arab Gulf States that cemented US friendships based on
an understanding that a nation’s mineral wealth is an accident
of geology to be shared for mutually beneficial relationships
and long-term partnerships and protection. Time will tell.
The Gaza tragedy is an impossible challenge, and History is
working hard to figure out how to resolve it. Bending history
under wraps is no longer as easy as past centuries since the
realities are on every cell phone screen, and as the opinions of
the pundits clash based on their perspectives and backgrounds,
and any hidden motives beyond their convictions.
On the environment front, the Global Warming rhetoric is
taking a break considering the record freezing weather and
snow and flooding raging everywhere so early in the season.
There is always next year to rekindle such debates whenever a
heat wave comes along.
A global phenomenon of a different type is taking shape: the
Global Positioning System known as GPS is being challenged by
China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), which is
growing fast throughout many Asian countries. When
Monopoly aims for dominance as GPS and Starlink did,
alternatives are bound to surface. Western based cell phones
may go silent while traveling there if China choses to exercise
such control.
In 2025 our travels took us to France, Ireland and Egypt. We
spent a memorable time in Paris where a timeless friendship
with a dear childhood friend and his family enchanted us for
days. Along the way where stops in Burgundy rubbing shoulders
with wine aficionados, Lyon and thereafter Chamonix where
mountains turned into giant gods with spikes aimed at the sky
known as aiguilles hovering over the valley below and reachable
only by lift, the trip a sobering moment of reflection while the
cabin floats precariously at the mercy of the steel cables.
Ireland gave us a new experience as a country that survived at
the old-world edge in the face of invasions and incredible odds
for independent survival, a true champ of fortitude and
perseverance.
In Alexandria and Cairo, where the old world is still alive today
as it was millenniums ago and where the names of the streets
and plazas evoke historic figures from a glorious past, a country
full of Museums for multiple dynasties, and of course the
Pyramids. One pharaoh evoked reflection and the whimsical
thoughts herewith:
“Before my trip to Cairo, I wrote the famous Pharaon King
Ramses to arrange a visit but received no reply. When I saw
him, the king was silent and sad because he had been searching
for eternal life for 3,500 years. Time was not his friend but now
his gigantic statue is in the new Great Museum of Egypt, so
large it was wheeled inside before the structure was built
around it, and he sees the whole world at his feet”
Maybe a God of eternal life will come and shepherd him to his
destination, and we all will witness this moment and get to wish
Ramses a safe journey to the afterworld and give him a final
goodbye.
Meanwhile, Happy Holidays and best wishes for next
year, and all the coming years,
Imad F Abdullah
December 2025
