US President Barack Obama’s fortunes will sink further and nuclear threats will grow, but the world economy will bounce back in the turbulent Year of the Tiger, Chinese soothsayers predict.
“Obama will start going downhill this year. He will not be able to achieve much,” said Peter So, one of Hong Kong’s celebrity feng shui masters peering into the future as the Lunar New Year rolls around today.
Chinese fortune-tellers study the changing balance of the five elements they believe form the core of the universe — metal, wood, water, fire, and soil — and in the Chinese zodiac the tiger is seen as the mother of fire. In feng shui, a person’s element can be calculated by using the exact time and date of his birth. Obama, born in the summer of 1961, needed the support of water and did not go well with fire, So said.
“Unfortunately, there is too much fire and no water for Obama this year,” he said.
He predicted that China-US relations would deteriorate further in the second half of the year, with Obama’s good fortune running out.
Other leaders could also be in for a hard time, according to their place in the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese Zodiac.
Monkey is the least favorable animal sign this year, as it is in a direct clash with the tiger, the soothsayers said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was born on the Day of the Monkey in the Year of the Monkey, is expected to experience a particularly rough year, said Raymond Lo, a Hong Kong feng shui expert.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), who has been dogged by growing public discontent, was born in the Year of the Monkey.
The tiger’s link to fire could also be a warning of renewed nuclear threats, Lo said.
Adding to the possibility of troubled times is the assertion that metal is the dominant element this year.
“Unfortunately, this means the year 2010 will not be peaceful,” Lo said.
Lo said that metal this year belongs to the yang strand and is a symbol of loyalty to friends and justice.
“However, these seemingly positive qualities can be destructive to international relations as state leaders may take sides and make military alliances,” he said.
But the disputes were unlikely to result in violence, he said.
Feng shui master Alion Yeo predicted that stock markets in Hong Kong and China would be up at the beginning of the year.
“But it will experience significant fluctuations around August before the market rebounds for a sustainable recovery towards the end of the year,” he said.
The experts believe the Year of the Tiger will also be favorable to industries connected to metal, such as banking, machinery, high technology and cars.
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