Folks,

I received the following email message yesterday afternoon; any info that you could supply would be appreciated (his email address is peter96@ksc.th.com). ********************** "Dear Edward, We are Korean Missionary working here at KhonKaen which is located about 500 km northeast of Bangkok in Thailand. Regarding Y2K problem which seems to be so sophiscated issue to handle, and somehow we need to prepare, we would really appreciate you if you give us any advice about the followings. 1. What'll happen in the developing country like Thailand in which we're living, specially in a rural province like KhonKaen ? 2. What and how to prepare as missionary who is receiving money from Korea monthly basis ? 3. How can we help the local people to whom we are ministring ? 4. Is Y2K the problem that will take place only after 01.Jan,2000 ? or can happen anytime before that date ? 5. How much possible Is the nuclear war ? 6. It seems to us that people here in Thailand do not pay any attention to Y2K problem. After reading some articles of Y2K through the internet and talking over this with some Thais, most of them are saying "maipenrai" in Thai which means in English "No problem." Is it truly maipenrai ? If you were in our situation, how could you help these people ? Thanks for any help you can give Peter Kim's family ********************** I responded by asking him if he had access to the Web, as it seemed to me the best source of information would be various web sites. He responded thusly this morning: ********************** Dear Ed, Thanks for your immediate reply and concern. I fully understand how difficult for you to answer to each question in detail under this circumstances. Even though I am well aware of your hectic schedule, I am forced to request you to consolidate your information in an email message because I've already visited many web sites of Y2K issues which made me only more confused maybe due to language barrier. If you have time to do that, please do so. Even now in my desk are there more than 30 www sites of y2k issues. Thanks for your hospitality and kindness. Love in Christ. Peter Kim ********************** So I guess he has access to the "standard" Y2K sites. If anyone has info about the situation in Thailand, or the issues being faced in rural third-world countries, or guidelines for missionaries, etc., that might turn out to be most helpful. In any case, anything you can provide him would be appreciated.

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), October 16, 1999

Answers

Sorry about the formatting; here's a more legible version:

I received the following email message yesterday afternoon; any info that you could supply would be appreciated (his email address is peter96@ksc.th.com).

**********************

"Dear Edward,

We are Korean Missionary working here at KhonKaen which is located about 500 km northeast of Bangkok in Thailand. Regarding Y2K problem which seems to be so sophiscated issue to handle, and somehow we need to prepare, we would really appreciate you if you give us any advice about the followings.

1. What'll happen in the developing country like Thailand in which we're living, specially in a rural province like KhonKaen ?
2. What and how to prepare as missionary who is receiving money from Korea monthly basis ?
3. How can we help the local people to whom we are ministring ?
4. Is Y2K the problem that will take place only after 01.Jan,2000 ? or can happen anytime before that date ?
5. How much possible Is the nuclear war ?
6. It seems to us that people here in Thailand do not pay any attention to Y2K problem. After reading some articles of Y2K through the internet and talking over this with some Thais, most of them are saying "maipenrai" in Thai which means in English "No problem." Is it truly maipenrai ? If you were in our situation, how could you help these people ?

Thanks for any help you can give Peter Kim's family

**********************

I responded by asking him if he had access to the Web, as it seemed to me the best source of information would be various web sites. He responded thusly this morning:

**********************

Dear Ed, Thanks for your immediate reply and concern. I fully understand how difficult for you to answer to each question in detail under this circumstances. Even though I am well aware of your hectic schedule, I am forced to request you to consolidate your information in an email message because I've already visited many web sites of Y2K issues which made me only more confused maybe due to language barrier. If you have time to do that, please do so. Even now in my desk are there more than 30 www sites of y2k issues. Thanks for your hospitality and kindness. Love in Christ. Peter Kim

**********************

So I guess he has access to the "standard" Y2K sites. If anyone has info about the situation in Thailand, or the issues being faced in rural third-world countries, or guidelines for missionaries, etc., that might turn out to be most helpful. In any case, anything you can provide him would be appreciated.

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), October 16, 1999.

Thailand is a beautiful,Buddhist country,I'll bet thos missionarys have a hard time getting people to convert to their zombie worshipping death cult.

-- zoobie (zoobiezoob@yahoo.com), October 16, 1999.

Stan, send him your list.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 16, 1999.

Website of Y2K Info from Chinese Christian living in Malaysia. Hope this address comes out right...

http://207.82.250.251/cgi-bin/linkrd? _lang=&lah=94a1e54b384530c4bb23abf530b92cda&lat=940084863&hm___action= http%3a%2f%2fwww%2egeocities%2ecom%2fchingpin%2f

-- eubie (eubie@inChrist.com), October 16, 1999.

Website of Y2K Info from Chinese Christian living in Malaysia. Hope this address comes out right...

http://www.geocities.com/chingpin/

-- eubie (eubie@inChrist.com), October 16, 1999.

I attended a Y2K / business continuity conference in Bangkok in April that included presentations from the Thai electrical generating authority, the state petroleum authority, and a number of private sector organisations such as Royal Dutch Shell, British Airways, Unilever, etc.

The electrical & petroleum authorities both stated that they had been testing and remediating for some time {unfortunately, my conference notes are at the office so I cannot quote specific timeframes).

The multinationals were dealing with Y2K as part of what seemed to be serious, well-organized international programs.

My overall impression was that the local authorities were making progress, but that the financial crisis that started in 1997 was not making life easy for them. The recent slide of the Thai baht against the US dollar will not have helped either.

One of my biggest concerns would be money, as many of the Thai banks are in poor shape. If Peter can visit Bangkok, I'd recommend establishing an account with Citibank, as they are likely to be much better prepared for Y2K than the local banks. I would also suggest getting a few months extra cash wired to Thailand in advance.

In the 10+ years that I have lived in Asia, I have made more than 20 trips to Thailand for both business and pleasure. One of the things that will help the Thais get through Y2K is their nearly superhuman patience, which comes from long experience in dealing with a range of infrastructure-related problems. Charity is also a big part of the Thai culture (including public support for Buddist monks and Wats) which should be a plus.

Hope that this helps

-- Avalon (cdillon@hk.super.net), October 16, 1999.

If he is so confused now, I hope he doesn't stumble onto this forum!! Can you imagine a non western person trying to figure this conglomerate of personalities, slang, sense of humor, etc,. out? God forbid. Taz

-- Taz (Taz@aol.com), October 16, 1999.

http://www.insidechina.com/y2k/

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), October 16, 1999.

According to a June listing of Global National Y2K Coordinators, the coordinator for Thailand is Dr. Kanchit Malaivongs. The coordinator for the Republic of Korea is Chongsang Yu. (Presumably the coordinator for Korea could be most helpful since he might be able to provide preparedness information in Korean.)

The International Y2K Cooperation Center (IY2KCC) should be able to supply e-mail addresses for these two coordinators. Two points of contact there are Lisa Pellegrin at and Art Warman at . The missionary can also check out the IY2KCC's website at http://www.iy2kcc.org. Y2K websites for each of the countries might also be found at the IY2KCC's website.

I will send similar information to the missionary who made the request and to the two persons mentioned at IY2KCC.

I hope this helps.

-- Paula Gordon (pgordon@erols.com), October 16, 1999.

Peter, you probably have the official Thai site, but just in case:

http://www.y2k.nectec.or.th/

Here you will find the British government's links to 87 country sites:

http://195.92.149.132/links/

Here is the BBC's South Asia page:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/sasia/

Most of the time, the official sites are straightforward. They are also very optimistic about Y2K, of course. I visit various foreign sites occasionally and often stumble across odd bits of information. I have put your address in my directory and will send you anything I think might be useful

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), October 16, 1999.

Hi Peter! I have fond memories of Thailand and often wish that I could manage another trip there. I lived in Bangkok from 1966 through 1968 - on Soi Ruam Chai (soi 15 in sukumvit area)...just down from the international school. One positive thing you will have going for you is the Thai mentality...I do recall that one of the most frustrating things when living there was attempting to use the telephone system....it was easier(and faster ) just to send a servant with a note by samlar. Breakdowns of basic services were an everyday event - there would be no civil unrest because of it then...what about now? No one could drink the water...we all had to boil the water and filter through large crock filters with ceramic candles. Our walled compound had broken glass set in cement on the top of the walls, and we had our expected contingent of "yeller dogs"( that ate rice!) for a burglar system...a gibbon for entertainment, plus a jungle squirel(both pets of the servants). The pomegranites(sp) and mango trees were lush..and the bird of paradise plants as well as the two story rubber trees and orchids. Our gardner used to go out every morning and scoop up mosquito larve from the small moats around trees - to feed the tropical fish in the fishtanks. Those were the days when you could go anywhere(almost) in the city by water taxi...Much different these days I'm sure. Are you close to Chang Mai? They depend heavily on tourism at least in the past. I'm afraid that all the beautiful spots in Asia will be devistated by the loss of tourist trade. Thailand probably produces most of its food - at least the basic items. The cities will probably be hard hit with banking,etc problems. The poor will probably suffer, and the middle class will vanish.. the rich will most likely have moved their capital out of the country by now. Good luck to you Peter...sawadi ka!

-- jeanne (jeanne@hurry.now), October 16, 1999.