Will the world end this year?

I realise the year has only just begun, and we are all depressed enough without some clown like me querying the world’s demise.

But my daughter Aisling has been asking me repeatedly over the past few months, “Is the world going to end in 2012?” And to be honest, at this stage, I’m really not sure what to say to her.

When she first posed the question way back in October, I told her emphatically that the world would not end.

Since then, however, I have heard doomsday whisperings from all sorts of people, with the result that I now don’t know what to believe. I’m in a state of utter confusion.

So today, I’m asking politicians and clergy, people who know everything, to reveal all. Are we in trouble or not? If we are in trouble, and the world will indeed end in 2012, I think we, the farmers of Ireland, should be told the truth and not be kept in the dark any longer.

After all, we are the ones keeping the country going and if we knew what was going on, at least we might get the chance to do something about it.

For starters, if we knew categorically that the world would end some time in late July or early August, then there would be no need to block off fields for silage this spring, and to spend a small fortune on expensive fertiliser.

Also, farmers who might be planning to finish cattle off grass in the late summer of 2012, could now start pushing ration into the devils, thus ensuring that they are well gone to the factory before the big bang. (The world might be coming to an end, but there’s no point in losing the head completely).

And finally, farmers like me, who are dedicated members of REPS 4, should most definitely be made aware of impending Armageddon. The last thing I need is to have a farm inspection under way, and my farm ablaze after being struck by a meteorite. I’m certain sure that under the rules of REPS, total vaporisation of a farm is prohibited.

I suppose it is bad enough if the world is going up in smoke in 2012. However, if we are kept in the dark about the thing, that would be a total disaster altogether.