In 2007 ‘The World Around Us’ announced that:

1. A banking crisis in the US, caused by too much unsecured poor lending, would lead to recession in 2008.

2. That the UK economy would be the hardest hit in Europe when it took hold.

3. That China would continue to cause concern as a cruel and menacing bully in Asia and that Tibet would become the focal point.

4. That while President Nicky Sarkozy might charm his way around the world, safely away from French domestic misery, his ratings would plummet at home as he was failing 100 per cent to deal with the lawless French trades unions as he had promised in his summer 2007 election campaign.

5. That it would be harder to get rid of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe than many thought in the 2008 election despite his 24-year rule of oppression, violence and economic suicide that has resulted in land theft, thousands of murders, over 100,000 per cent inflation per annum and 80 per cent unemployment.

6. That despite the fine words of George Bush, the US’ ailing President, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the other G7 leaders, nothing at all would be achieved in stopping famine anywhere and illegal immigration everywhere; Third World debt would be reformed nowhere, and even the environment wouldn’t be saved at least somewhere.

7. That Hillary Clinton would continue to find it difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.

8. That Vladimir Putin would not only continue in power – despite the fact that the Russian Constitution doesn’t allow for it – but that his enemies would continue to disappear at regular intervals.

9. That the world would continue to turn a blind eye to Burma thus making a shocking mockery of those monks’ lives that were lost in the protests of 2007 and allowing the monstrous Burmese government to continue with its atrocious human rights abuse.

10. That the Diana inquest would produce exactly the same verdict that my book on the subject did over a year earlier and without the cost to the British taxpayer of over £10 million.

The list goes on. ‘The World Around Us’ might have made predictions and furthered opinions on such matters in 2007 but they have since become facts in 2008. Aren’t you glad you read The Malta Independent on Sunday? It gives you an edge that other Maltese papers just don’t. Buy them to get the best deal on a Gozo property and buy us to build a proper picture of the world around us from basket case Britain to idiotic Italy to brutal Burma or even callous China.