Thursday, September 16, 1999

World's a Y2K mess

By CP Less than one-third of Brazil's commercial airlines are ready for the year 2000, systems at Beijing's main water plant haven't been checked and Vietnam hasn't started work on its medical drug system.

Those are some of the snapshots included in a federal report released yesterday on the millennium bug overseas.

The Foreign Affairs Department prepared "country readiness statements" to let Canadians know where nations stand in their Y2K remediation efforts.

Officials point out that they are merely relaying information, not drawing conclusions or making predictions.

A U.S. State Department report, released a day earlier, warns Americans some disruptions are likely to occur.

For example, people travelling to Russia can expect failures in electrical power, heat, telecommunications, transportation and emergency services.

The Canadian report makes statements such as "Russian Y2K remediation work started late" and "Y2K awareness is generally weak in Russia."

On the topic of power, it says, "The Ministry of Fuel and Energy ... has acknowledged that not all remediation will be finished by January 2000."

"Our country statements contain factual and non-judgmental information on the Y2K readiness," said spokesman Michael O'Shaughnessy. "We don't believe that information available on other countries' preparedness is sufficiently complete to draw specific conclusions about the risk of potential disruptions."

Y2K consultant Michael Fletcher points out it's difficult for any administration to correctly identify where failures will occur.

Fletcher has counselled several countries on how to deal with the bug, recently travelling to Mongolia to help officials prepare for likely breakdowns.

"The general advice is: Don't expect business as usual. Expect disruptions, expect delays."

The country readiness statements are available at the following Web site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/y2k.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), September 16, 1999

Answers

So forget Rio for the holidays?

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), September 16, 1999.