I had all my grown 6 children prparing for y2k at the beginning of the year, but now because they say every thing they hear on tv or they read in the paper say's every thing is going to be fixed , they all quit preparing and are using there supplys. Why do you all think no one is saying any thing? They are telling me they hope something happens just so I didn't do all my preparing in vain. Any one else having this problem?

-- Johnny (js4861@aol.com), May 15, 1999

Answers

kick them in the butt!

-- bob (janebob99@aol.com), May 15, 1999.

Johnny, We have a tradition in our family that if anything really serious happens or there is a grave to the family,the head of the family issues a "must be obeyed" command to the rest.Luckily it has only had to be used about once every 15 years.

As a family we do not live in each others's pockets & often forget birthdays etc.However,if a "must be obeyed" command goes out we are all one united entity.It is quite amazing.

I have two adult kids who both think that Mom has gone over the top about Y2K;so does my only brother aged 45.The older members(70+) are all GI's. So I have set up different levels of contingency plans for the kids, involving to a certain extent the older grandparents,& am laying in as much as I can.

As a parent & now the oldest of my generation I have only had to issue one "must be obeyed command" so far & that has been about ensuring that the kids are not spending the Millenium in London where they live.Both have agreed to come home to rural Somerset for Christmas & New Year. In September I'll add to it..vis preps.

This approach might work for you but it has got to be very heavy duty.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), May 15, 1999.

Print this out and hand it around.

Good luck

Brian

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - Rome,
       Italy (FAO)

           & nbsp;  http://www.fao.org/

       News Highlights: The Millenium Bug threatens food supply
       systems - developing countries are also vulnerable, FAO warns
       ...
http:// www.fao.org/news/1999/990302-e.htm

       The so-called "Millenium Bug" - or Year 2000 (Y2K) problem -
       which could throw computers into chaos at the turn of the
       century, threatens serious repercussions for food supplies in
       developing countries. FAO has warned that, "at least in the near
       term, the Millenium Bug could prove to be one of the most
       dangerous pests threatening farmers, along with the locusts and
       brown planthoppers they have battled with throughout the
       centuries".

       Governments and industries in developed countries have been
       working for years to anticipate potentially disastrous problems
       with computer systems and all that they control as we enter the
       third millenium. The total cost of achieving Y2K compliance has
       been estimated by the Gartner Group at US$600 billion. But
       developing countries typically lack the resources and the
       capability to take the same precautions. In particular, very little
       attention has been paid to the dependence of agriculture and food
       supply systems on computers.

       FAO has warned that the whole of the food chain -
       from seed supplies through to distribution networks
       and market information systems - is vulnerable to the
       Y2K problem: "Even small farmers who till their
       fields with ox-drawn ploughs probably rely on
       supplies produced in high-tech factories and
       transported thousands of kilometres over
       computer-controlled transportation networks." On the
       production side, this means that basic inputs like
       seeds and fertilizers could be threatened - as well as
       supplies of irrigation water and electricity.

       Transportation is the weakest link in the food chain

       Computer malfunctions are also likely to cause severe problems
       once crops are harvested in the processing, marketing and
       distribution systems that are crucial to food security at national
       and household levels. Most experts pinpoint transportation as the
       weakest link in the food chain.

       In many countries, the computerized telephone switching systems
       are also thought to be highly likely to fail. Farmers, traders and
       ministries rely on telecommunications systems to deliver a steady
       flow of information on weather, prices and shipping. "If you
       don't know who needs grain," asked Geri Guidetti, who
       moderates an Internet forum on Y2K and agriculture, "if you
       don't know what global prices are ... what's going to happen to
       the normal grain commerce?"

       The possible impact of Year 2000 problems on agricultural
       production, trade and transport poses a particular threat to:

        countries that depend heavily on exports of agricultural
       commodities as a major source of income;

        countries that rely on food imports and food aid to feed their
       people.

       Contingency plans to cope with computer failure are one solution

       FAO has advised that, in many cases, the most realistic approach
       may be to concentrate limited time and resources on developing
       and implementing contingency plans to cope with failures that
       countries do not have the means to prevent. Such plans would
       include diversifying sources of supplies and services in order to
       reduce the impact of failure by any one supplier, as well as taking
       steps to ensure that failures are promptly identified and alternative
       delivery systems are ready to be called on if computer systems
       fail.

       In some cases, farmers and governments may decide to review
       the level of their food security stocks and inventories of essential
       agricultural inputs. But FAO warns that this should be
       done with care not to exacerbate the "Fear 2000
       problem", whereby panic buying and hoarding could
       have worse effects than the feared computer
       malfunctions.

       Also ...

       For futher details ...

       Download the FAO brochure on Food, agriculture and the
       millenium bug in pdf

           & nbsp;  http:// www.fao.org/news/1999/img/Y2K-e.pdf

       Other useful United Nations links ...

       UN United Nations web-site

           & nbsp;  http://www.un.org/

       United Nations News

           & nbsp;  http://www.un.org/News/

       United Nations Whats New

           & nbsp;  http://www.un.org/NewLinks/

       UN & Year 2000 (Y2K) Transition Challenge

           & nbsp;  http://www.un.org/members/ yr2000/

       UN web-site Search

           & nbsp;  http://www.un.org/search/

       U.N. System of Organizations

           & nbsp;  http://www.unsystem.org/

       Official WEB Site Locator for the UNITED NATIONS System of
       Organizations

       The list is in alphabetical order by agency name.

           & nbsp;  http://www.unsystem.org/ index8.html

-- Brian (imager@home.com), May 15, 1999.

"They are telling me they hope something happens just so I didn't do all my preparing in vain"

Many GIs on this forum feel exactly the same. Why is that?

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), May 15, 1999.

Now is the time to "fine tune" your preparations as we have entered the "doldrums"....a time when not much is happening...a time when we feel a little "burned out"....a stagnation in our personal y2k program. We find ourselves questioning our position on y2k......i.e. what the hell have I been doing?

We continue our search for good info and hard facts...we continualy reaccess the "odds" on what is going to happen and when....we question ourselves regarding to much or to little preparation. Each and every one of us have a line which we feel we should not go over. We are looking for the golden mean (the safe prudent way between extremes).

BTW Johnny...my kids have made no preparations, so good ol' dad has taken the responsibility.

Sometimes when I read this forum I feel I am in the bar-room scene in the first Star Wars.

230 days...5 hrs...53 min....32 sec.

-- rb (phxbanks@webtv.net), May 15, 1999.

"They are telling me they hope something happens just so I didn't do all my preparing in vain" Many GIs on this forum feel exactly the same. Why is that?

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), May 15, 1999.

Because there are people we love and care for who are being told everythings OK when we know better. Everything is NOT ok. Something will happen. We just don't know for how long or where. I personally will be ecstatic if nothing happens.

As far as I'm concerned, non-perishable food items are never a waste. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool who has no sense of history. It is only in the last 50 years that people have not automatically stockpiled food for the winter. Having a full cupboard is not paranoia or hysteria it is sensible human behavior.

We are a nation drunk on freon. We are so intoxicated with refridgeration and impulse buying that we have forgotten the basics of housekeeping.

To keep a house means just that - to KEEP it. To store provisions and KEEP them safe and clean. Keeping a stocked pantry is not some bizarre cult phenomenon. It is NORMAL!!!!!!! Its not like anyone is suggesting that everyone should start wrapping their bodies in aluminum foil. We're talking about simple normal autumnal housekeeping.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), May 15, 1999.

Y2K pro

I would imagine the press tells them it is ok.

I here differant concerns from some, and they are Y2K pros.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), May 15, 1999.

Y2K Pro,

It's really not too difficult to understand. Just turn it around like this: They're hoping that nothing happens so that their lack of preparation will not turn out to be a horrible mistake. See, now you can understand it, can't you, when the shoe is on the other foot?

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), May 15, 1999.

In my area the last two Saturdays there have been several "new - just bought 3 months ago" generators for sale on an "Ads by Air" show. The price , I know, is the purchase price - not people trying to make money. Apparently a lot of people already ASSUME Y2K is "over". BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

Its all propaganda or media spin.

Stay the course and feel sorry for those so easily misled.

Even if Y2K were to be the "bump" instead of TEOTWAWKI, you wouldn't know it yet. So stay prepared.

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), May 15, 1999.

TRANSCRIPT: John Koskinen - APEC Summit in New Zealand (May '99) "...we have asked every federal agency to produce a contingency plan in case there's a failure in any of its basic systems, because even with the best of work, and the most thorough testing, no one can guarantee that every system is going to work. In fact, it might be easier to guarantee that some systems we know, even with the best of efforts, will not work." ...

"In the United States, for example, we expect that our basic infrastructure will hold, that our electric power grids will function, that our telecommunications systems will work effectively, and that our banking systems will not have major difficulties."

"But at the same time, we expect ...that there are risks of failures at the local level, where smaller companies working in the critical infrastructure areas or some of our local governments, will either take no action, or not successful action and, therefore, are at risk of failure as we move into the Year 2000."

"we've told our local governments and our state governments that they need to be prepared to handle emergencies on their own, since the federal government can't be everywhere dealing with every problem in light of the large number of problems that we are likely to have"

"we should also obviously expect that we will have a large number, possibly, of what would be manageable failures taken one at a time, which will overwhelm the normal emergency response processes when they happen all at once."

" And the third thing we've asked FEMA to do is make clear to the state and local emergency managers ...that those local governments should not assume that the federal government and FEMA will be able to come to their assistance no matter what their problem is, because we may have so many problems in localities across the country that we can't be everywhere at once. "

"I think we need to begin to focus not only on individual contingency plans, but what are our across border contingency plans, how will we deal with the failure of information technology in customs, in telecommunications, in electric power grids."

"One of the advantages we have with the Year 2000 problem as opposed to most natural disasters is that we know what the problem is, we know when it's going to occur, so we can plan accordingly and be prepared, and being prepared means not only working on fixing our system, not only on having adequate contingency plans, but having appropriate emergency response plans so that we know how to work together through that transition time to deal with whatever problems we all confront."

"We are then concerned, though, because of the wide potential nature of the problems we'll deal with, that we need to have a more formal coordination mechanism in the federal government than we usually set up, which is why we're creating what I call our Year 2000 Emergency Response Process, which is bringing in everyone in the government who has an emergency response capacity or responsibility, and making sure that they together now start to plan for the challenges they are going to face, what kind of resources are likely to be in most demand. We have to start making choices about where to provide resources, what will our basis for those decisions be, and how can we make sure that we have the same information in the hands of all of our emergency responders as we go forward."

"... Then we would move into crisis management, and the Council and FEMA and the other emergency responders, as we move through the last quarter of this year, will begin to prepare themselves to be available and ready to monitor whatever the difficulties are internationally and domestically, and respond accordingly." ...

"Our present plan, in a preliminary way, is that we will provide every four hours, starting at noon on Friday, December 31st, public updates of all the information we have of what the status of the year 2000 transition is ... that information will be in the public domain because, again, we think it's important for the public to know everything we know." http://www.usia.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/... USIS Washington File [United States Information Services]

I sure hope they replinish those supplies.

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), May 15, 1999.

If anyone is silly enough to hope something happens simply to justify stocking up and preparing, then they deserve to have something happen to them. If that sounds harsh, so be it. What ever happened to having the strength of your convictions? Does the latest good news, or lull in activity influence everyone that much?

We've stocked up, but not nearly as much as many on this forum, and more than most people. I honestly hope I never have to use my supplies for an emergency. Nor do I intend to dump them at the first food kitchen. Granted if all goes well, I'll donate some of the canned food, and replace it with my own home canned food. But I will never be unprepared again.

I've told my grown son they should prepare, and why. They've done a little prep, but aren't too serious about it. No, I am not going to do it for them. The key word here is "grown." They make their own decisions, support themselves, and they live halfway across the country. They'll be fine.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), May 16, 1999.

""They are telling me they hope something happens just so I didn't do all my preparing in vain"

Many GIs on this forum feel exactly the same. Why is that?

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), May 15, 1999."

Nows your chance peedog. Put up or shut up. Name names of people on this forum who feel this way.

Boy, what a spiteful, deranged individual you are...

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), May 16, 1999.

As long as canned goods are still available, they should be eaten after 6 months, then replenished. Get a "date stamper" and ink pad from a stationer, and some small Avery stickon labels and date everything you get. Each month eat some, replace some.

So, if the "kids" are too stupid to figure out how to "rotate" stock, they don't belong in the gene pool, anyway.

-- A (A@AisA.com), May 16, 1999.

Okay...I give.

What is a GI?

Also, to the last poster, what is this about canned goods lasting only 6 months? Please check your facts on this one.

Anita

-- Anita Spooner (spoonera@msn.com), May 17, 1999.

Answers:
"GI" is "Gets It" (aware of Y2K and is concerned and making some preps)
"DGI" is "Doesn't Get It" (typical clueless sheeple)
"DWGI" is "Doesn't Want (to) Get It" (A "GI" in denial)

My sources for canned stuff life are varied. Some say it doesn't last as long as it did many years ago, because of modern "new and improved" processing methods. But, recently canned stuff will still keep and be edible for many years -- the question is the NUTRIONAL value remaining. That's why the recommendation to keep refreshing your stock as long as you can obtain new stock. Either eat or give the old stuff away. The ideal would be to have nothing over 6 months old, but that means you would have only 6 months supply when the the supply line stops. As in all this, many unkowns.

-- A (A@AisA.com), May 17, 1999.