Here's my latest translation from the Danish press (to put the amounts of money into perspective, Denmark has 5 million inhabitants):

The Government is at risk of huge expenses, if society breaks down on New Year's Eve, thinks Kim Behnke (a member of the Danish parliament). He is proposing an amendment to the Budget, to put aside a billion kroner (about 150 million dollars) as a contingency fund.

Who should pay, for example, if a building firm builds a house on land belonging to someone else, or digs through a gas pipe, just because the Land Registry's electronic map has not been updated correctly? According to Kim Behnke from the "Freedom 2000" parliamentary group, the Government's institutions face a lot of extra claims for compensation, because of faults in computer programs due to the Y2K change.

Last year the other politicians laughed at Behnke, when he proposed that an amount of money should be allocated in the Budget to cope with unexpected Y2K expenses. Now he's trying again to get an Amendment, even though he has no political backing.

"It's just stupid not to set money aside. But that's what happened last year. Now some people have started to take the problem seriously, and I've noticed that interest has increased among my colleagues at Christiansborg (the Danish Parliament) ".

He thinks the Government is risking demands for compensation from individuals and businesses, if there are mistakes in the Government's information sources (like the example above), and the Government may itself have large unexpected expenses if official computer systems don't work as intended.

Last year the Finance Minister Mogens Lykketoft argued that the expenses should be allowed for in the budgets of the individual institutions, but it's impossible to work out how much has been allocated in each case, explained Behnke.

British Consultants IM has estimated the possible cost of Y2K to Denmark as 14-15 billion kroner (over 2 billion dollars) and this is the basis for Behnke's estimate for the contingency fund of 1 billion.

The Amendment will be considered by parliament before Christmas.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 07, 1999

Answers

Gxr hjemmet er 2000-klarHenrik B. Hansen, brandchef i Falcks Redningskorps siger, bla:

Henrik B. Hansen reder til, at man garderer sig ved at have en lommelygte med friske batterier klar. Desuden kan stearinlys bede give lys og varme. - Men husk, at man ogse i en nxdsituation skal vfre forsigtig med levende lys. Blandt andet bxr man aldrig forlade et lokale, hvor der brfnder levende lys, siger Henrik B. Hansen. Hvis man har et campingblus, er det ogse en god idi at finde det frem fxr nytersaften. Ogse her gflder det, at sikkerheden skal vfre i orden. Campingblusset skal f.eks. ste pe et stabilt underlag. Falck-brandchefen foresler derudover, at man fylder et par spande med vand, inden redhusuret sler. - Hvis vandforsyningen svigter, er det rart, at man i det mindste har vand til tandbxrstning eller en kop kaffe, mens afbrydelsen ster pe, siger Henrik B. Hansen. Interesting - the first Danish authority (they operate the nationwide emergency services, ambulances, fire etc.) to advise citizens to make some personal preparations, albeit minimal.

-- alkdjflk (slkdjfk@slkjdlkjf.com), December 07, 1999.

Sorry the formatting and the link went awol. If you read Danish, her e's the link

-- alkdjflk (slkdjf@slkdjf.com), December 07, 1999.

- snip for our non-Danish readers -

Falck-brandchefen foresler derudover, at man fylder et par spande med vand, inden redhusuret sler. - Hvis vandforsyningen svigter, er det rart, at man i det mindste har vand til tandbxrstning eller en kop kaffe, mens afbrydelsen ster pe ...

Translation:

(The Danish emergency services chief) suggests moreover that you should fill a couple of buckets with water, before the town hall clock strikes (ie at midnight New Year's Eve). If the water supply fails, it will be nice at least to have water for brushing your teeth, or for a cup of coffee, while the breakdown lasts ...

-end snip -

Phew, I feel much better now. I can greet TEOTWAWKI with CLEAN TEETH.

By the way, I thought I was the only person in Denmark following this forum. "Hej. Har du det godt?" Perhaps other Danish lurkers would like to emerge.

-- Risteard Mac Thomais (uachtaran@ireland.com), December 08, 1999.

I'm very well, thank you Risteard. Thanks for the translation (i was too lazy, and it was aimed more at any danish speaking people that might come onto the thread). No, you are not alone, and neither am I anymore. Been tracking the subject locally and globally for nearly two years. The regular y2k nut/village idiot i min omgang kreds. I'm on the fatalist end of the y2k spectrum, and try to avoid worrying too much about totally way out worst case scenarios. Having followed it for several hours a day for so long, I find it incredibly interesting to observe how the Danish consensus on y2k will shake rattle and roll its way through the next few weeks and thereafter.

It's such a pity though that the only Danish MP (Kim Benke) who seems to have stood up and made a nuisance of himself over the y2k issue is considered to be on the right wing (nationalistic) fringe.

One other more interesting piece of news this last week from Denmark was the 40 percent or something drop in the Damgaard Data share price. This company, for anybody who doesn't know, is a well-known and successful Danish IT company offering ERP systems to the small to the medium sized business range. They went public a couple of months back. I don't have the figures to hand but by all accounts the initial launch was very successful. The company chairman explained the recent sudden drop in stock/share value as being due to a lack of firm numbers in the order books, caused by the unwillingness of organisations to sign contracts undertaking major projects until y2k has passed. Strangely enough, only a couple of months back Damgaard came out with some widely reported awareness statements about y2k (check via the search function on computerworld.dk). I wonder if they are getting punished, if that's the right word, for being so open about y2k risks.

-- afldkjf (adfdf@adfadf.com), December 08, 1999.

Risteard, afldkjf

Nice to have some European neighbors operating here.

Two things:

ERP market is down now for a couple of quarters. IMHO most customers are not willing to take any risk due to Y2K. Why should they spend so many bucks / cronas / deutschmarks while not absolutly knowing about the y2k readiness of the new ERP system. Their was is: wait'n see.

Next topic, do you really think that this huge amount of money will help the markets stay up?

Or will this money be needed to feed people?

Greatings to you in the same time zone.

-- Rainbow (Rainbow@123easy.net), December 08, 1999.