Dear Robert, The first thing I sense is that Katrina will be seen as America's wake-up call. Prior to Katrina's wrath, America had been sleepwalking. As the world's last remaining superpower, she has been lumbering along, her sole purpose apparently to be fighting the invisible enemy of terror.

But the devastation left by Katrina and a perception that the government was ill-prepared to respond will galvanise people. I predict that a grassroots movement will develop in which the average person on the street will become more politicised. People who had, up until Katrina, had little contact with government will now become quite vocal. And they will want to be heard on much more than just Katrina. In many ways, Katrina is going to trigger a rebirth of democracy in America.

Unfortunately, these new voices aren't always going to speak softly. I predict that there will be several outbreaks of violence by those who feel that traditional tick-this-box government simply cannot help them. The too-little-too-late mentality that will arise among the populace at large will, I predict, spark incidents of vigilantism in Los Angeles and a large city in the Midwest - if pushed, I'd say Ohio.

These incidents will be largely isolated and will not jeopardise the country at large. However, I do sense that the localised violence and looting will further tarnish America's international image. International observers will characterise the country as a "tinderbox" and conclude that she's not nearly as stable as she'd like everyone to believe.

While President Bush was slow to respond to the destruction caused by the hurricane, I feel he now gets it. He has now assembled his team of advisors and they will begin portraying him as a much more hands-on and in-charge leader. Over the course of the next few months, we will see him touring Katrina's trail of tears. Town meetings and up-close-and-personals will once again win over the public. And while it might be hard to believe now, his popularity ratings will improve considerably because of his handing of the Katrina disaster.

The media won't be won over so easily. They will smell blood and I predict the media's softly softly approach to (some would say love affair with) Bush's foreign policy will come to an end. The issue will become how America can keep its own house in order when it's so preoccupied with fighting an enemy that is both nowhere and everywhere.

Domestic issues and infrastructure will become the hot topics. And while it will be completely unrelated to Katrina, I predict a major US city will be plunged into darkness due to a power failure within the next nine months. This will only underscore the investigation of who's been minding the store while everyone's been in Iraq.

Within the next twelve months, America will turn to other countries for assistance and relief - beyond the oil and petrol shipments currently being organised. This will be unprecedented and will shake the confidence of the country in its position as the richest country in the world. On the world stage, I predict its superpower status will be taken down a notch or two and the country will lose its perceived ability to tell the rest of the world what to do.

What else do I predict for America in the next twelve months? Bush will make another appointment to the US Supreme Court - a woman this time. One of the President's daughters will be involved in a scandal that will be splashed all over the front pages. And finally, I predict that America will make a unilateral, sea-based strike on another country in the Middle East in February 2006. It will be characterised as some kind of "retaliation" and will be designed to build a groundswell of support for the troops mired in continued mop-up warfare.