Ken Dobson's Queer Ruminations from Thailand
Search this site
  • Life in Thailand
  • Queer Issues in Thailand
  • Queer Christian Issues
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Stories

2021

12/26/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Boy was I wrong!

A year ago (in my blog on January 3) I made predictions as follows:

1. I join Noam Chomsky in predicting that Donald Trump will win a second term as President of the United States. 

2. In Thailand projects will multiply to normalize the reign of the new King.

3. The Church of Christ in Thailand will face humiliation and governmental scrutiny.
​
4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aggressive nationalism in India will either backfire as ethnic-religious minorities unite to oppose infringement of their civil rights and status, or international opposition will materialize as the specter of massive militant Hinduism again looms over South Asia.

The biggest mistake I made, along with almost every pundit on earth, was to ignore the year’s greatest disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic.  I remember actually thinking I should include it, but my blog was getting long.

Obviously, the second big mistake was to give in to my fear that Trump would pull off a second term as Democrats sputter and splinter, as we usually do.  It was Trump’s incompetent handling of the epidemic that did him in.

My other mistakes were more subtle.

In Thailand projects have multiplied to normalize the reign of the current King.  He has moved back to the country, and a wide-ranging campaign to rally recognition of his standing is underway.  What we missed came completely out of the blue when the young generation defied history and began demanding constitutional reforms that include new fair elections and royal submission to constitutional law.  That protest movement was the Thai political story of the year.

As for the Church of Christ in Thailand, I was mostly wrong.  Government scrutiny has continued, but it has not interrupted the functioning of the CCT.  The officials continue to run things and to function.

In India neither of the things happened that I said would occur.  Ethnic minorities did not rise up and international opposition to Modi’s aggressive nationalism came neither from international Islamic forces nor from China.

It could be that future historians will refer to 2020 as the year of a massive change in the way people do things, including the way they communicate and create communities.  That would be a paradigm shift.

Anyway, I think I know what I was doing wrong with my predictions, and I have fixed it.  I was using the wrong type of prognostication device.  It is not swirling clouds inside a crystal orb I should have been looking for, but bright reflections with the truth spectrum neatly illuminated.  I have an improved crystal ball.  And it has told me all I need to know about 2021.

It has said, “Take it one day at a time.”  
1 Comment
Don
1/1/2021 05:23:48 am

Happy New Year Professor Dumbledoor.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson posts his weekly reflections on this blog. 

    Archives

    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2019 Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson