Arviat (Feb 12/03) - Emil Arnalak has been practising a very unique hobby for the last 15 years. He likes to read newspapers and with the information he gets, he tries to forecast the future.

"I enjoy predicting. Sometimes they come true and sometimes they make people aware of the world around them," explained Arnalak.

He shares his predictions with his fellow Nunavummiut by posting them on bulletin boards or submitting them to local media. Arnalak said he thinks a lot of people read them, and that makes him hopes they are accurate.

Arnalak has lived in Arviat all of his life except for some short stays in Chesterfield Inlet and Iqaluit. He works in his community as an adult educator. He said his hobby of forecasting the future started out as a form of amusement.

Here are some of his latest predictions for 2003:

• Two Northerners will become millionaires by playing a weekly draw.
• Nunavut and Quebec governments will tug for northern Quebec Inuit.
• There will be a new wave of MLAs at the Nunavut legislative assembly.

Arnalak said he does this for two reasons. The first is his passion for writing. He said he loves poetry and has written a lot. He also writes down the things he thinks may happen in the future to see if they will come true or not.

"I like positive things as anyone else. Maybe people will read my predictions and turn them into positive things. Maybe they'll make sure the bad ones don't happen," said Arnalak.

Only time will tell how true Arnalak's predictions are but as long as they're not hurting anyone and he's having fun there's no damage done. Even if they all come true, Arnalak said he wouldn't take on predicting life as a full-time job. He said that would just take the fun out of it.