Baba Vanga predicts the future

Vangeliya Pandeva Gushterova, more commonly known as Baba Vanga, was a Bulgarian psychic. Although she died back in 1996, she was kind enough to leave behind some predictions that may or may not actually be about potential future events. Honestly, the Wikipedia Page for Baba Vanga leaves me suspicious about how much of what is attributed to her she actually said, and how much is just being made up by others (and it's also one of the worst Wikipedia pages I've ever seen grammatically - presumably it's mainly been written by people for whom English is not a fluent language).

Baba Vanga made some predictions that didn't come to pass, such as predicting World War III (a nuclear war from 2010 to 2014). There's only three years left before her prediction of the resurrection of the USSR by 2025 will have failed. She also made some predictions that show an obvious lack of understanding of basic science, predictions that we can look at and know that they are wrong in their premise. For example, she predicted that a cure for cancer would be found, and that it would be an iron based chemical. This shows a lack of understanding that cancer is not a single disease, and that it is very unlikely there will ever be a single cure. She also suggested that immortality would be possible using the hormones of a horse, dog and turtle. She explained this by saying “the horse is strong, the dog is hardy, and the turtle lives a long time”.

So, what does Baba Vanga have for us this year. Thankfully the Herald has documented her predictions in an article, where they tell us that she predicts:

1. An increase in catastrophes. Apparently Asian countries and Australia will be hit by floods. Given the Tongan volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami, and some freak weather in Australia this weekend, I'd say Baba Vanga's off to a good start!
2. A lethal virus in Siberia. Well, I guess like the rest of the world, Siberia will still be suffering from the effects of COVID for a while. But the actual prediction is that a virus frozen in Siberia will be defrosted and start to spread. Whatever this virus is, it'll have to deal with the fact that most of us are already taking sensible precautions in public, like wearing masks and sanitising our hands.
3. Shortage of drinking water. I'd be surprised if this prediction of many major cities running out of drinking water came true, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.
4. Alien encounter on Earth. This one isn't going to happen! I'd put money on it.
5. Locusts in India. This seems to be a fair guess, given that India over the last few decades has suffered from major locust plagues every two to three years - incidents where many more than the usual number of locusts descend on the crops in Indian provinces.
6. Loss of sense of reality. After the last couple of years of global politics and a serious pandemic, this seems like a likely one - although the article says that this will actually be caused by technology, and not lockdown fatigue.

Of course, all of these predictions have been through several filter layers, including in their translation and the reporting of what the predictions mean. And those filters will likely have morphed whatever Baba Vanga's actual words were to more closely match how the world is today. So it's no surprise that we can look at these predictions and consider them to sound plausible, but we'd really have to find the source materials to find out what was actually said - and sadly this is not an easy task.

The closest I can get to the source is that the Herald just copied the list of predictions from an MSN article which merely states them, with no supporting evidence that they're real. The MSN article appears to be a paid advertising piece written by astrologer Susan Taylor to promote the services of psychic company AstroFame, and includes links to their website and psychic hotline. So, really, this is not journalism - just a New Zealand newspaper copying some made up text from an American advertorial and calling it news.

I suppose at least this makes a change from having to hear what Nostradamus thought was in store for us in the coming year. And if you were wondering, then wonder no more - thanks to the History Channel:

The Invasion of France: “Blue-head shall white-head harm in such degree as France's good to both shall e'er amount.”

Starvation: “No abbots, monks, no novices to learn; Honey shall cost far more than candle-wax. So high the price of wheat, that man is stirred, his fellow man to eat in his despair”

Global Warming: “Like the sun the head shall sear the shining sea: The Black Sea's living fish shall all but boil. When Rhodes and Genoa half-starved shall be, the local folk to cut them up shall toil.”

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: “The Moon in the full of night over the high mountain, the new sage with a lone brain sees it: By his disciples invited to be immortal, eyes to the south. Hands in bosoms, bodies in the fire.”

Honestly, the History Channel has a lot to answer for these days - with their shows about Lost Giants, the Knights Templar, Ancient Aliens and the Biblical End of the World. How they managed to think that they have been able to accurately discern the meaning of these oblique quatrains from Nostradamus, or that any of this gibberish is worth reporting on, is beyond me.