http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/low/english/world/africa/newsid_586000/586629.stm

By the way, here's an excellent World News site that will take you to virtually any country. www.worldnews.com/ About half way down the page there will be a place to click on a specific continent to find the news. By the way, as I was just writing this, I found an article about the Y2K bug hitting South Korea; Evidently 900 houses and apartments are without hot water. You'll see the article on the front page or www.worldnews.com/ Meg

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2000

Answers

Darn good question Meg, but as you can see from the lack of posts here Y2K was solved. Everyone's ok and there WERE NO REAL Y2K PROBLEMS anywhere. This despite the fact that many billions of dollars were spent fixing this problem.

Desptite the fact that many didn't even spend millions fixing this problem.

Everyone's gone back to sleep now. The world is saved.

Don't bet on it.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2000

Another possibility (and a very good one) is that Gambia has NOT self destructed. I saw a report BEFORE the rollover from Gambia on the Y2KCC site that stated that they had not had the funds to adress y2k properly and solicited funds from those Gambians living abroad. But again, that was even the rollover. The latest update from the Y2KCC site indicates that all sectors are "green". See: http://www.iy2kcc.org/country/GAMBIA.html

"Additional Remarks: 3RD JANUARY 2000 IS A MILLENIUM HOLIDAY. THIS IS NOT DUE TO ANY Y2K RISKS . NO Y2K PROBLEMS IN INFRASTURCTURE IN EITHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE SECTORS. this is an update. All sectors in the Gambia are OK. The situation as reported BY SOME MEDIA HOUSES IS UNFORTUNATE. ALL CRITICAL SECTORS INCLUDING POWER, TELECOMMUNICATION, AVIATION , BANKING AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES HAVE NO Y2K RELATED PROBLEMS. "

I would expect problems in Gambia, as I would expect everywhere, and perhaps even more (who knows, lets watch and see) but it appears that they have not self destructed at this point.

Regards,

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2000

Found this interesting, Gambia not too pleased with the report:

Sunday January 2, 12:12 pm Eastern Time Gambia perplexed at reports of Y2K problems ABIDJAN, Jan 2 (Reuters) - An official at Gambia's Y2K task force said on Sunday his country was working much as normal and he was perplexed and angry at reports of problems with computers in government offices and elsewhere. ``We are getting normal electricity, the telecoms is fine, as you can see, the e-mail is functioning, the banks are OK,'' Papa N'jie told Reuters in Abidjan on a particularly clear phone line from Gambia's capital, Banjul. The West African country was singled out on the website of the International Y2K Cooperation Centre as having Y2K problems, especially in government offices. A BBC website, citing this source, also mentioned power outages and forecast widespread disruption to air and sea transport, the financial sector and government services. N'jie also e-mailed Reuters a statement that called these reports ``erroneous in the extreme.'' ``The central bank, the energy, telecommunications, financial, transportation and government sectors have not reported any Y2K- related problems as indicated in the reports,'' the statement added. Other residents of Banjul said life was going on as normal, with water running and television programmes showing. Government offices reopen on Tuesday after the New Year holiday. N'jie said it looked like someone had misinterpreted information on the Cooperation Centre website. ``We have a national command centre, nobody has reported anything there,'' he said. ``We have been working on this for two or three years and right at the end it is being spoilt. We are very, very angry indeed.''

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2000

To followup, now I can see how this story got out...the UK article appears to have just took the info off the IYCC website including the power outages that were mentioned that were stated not to be related to Y2K, along with the plea for financial aid (I saw all of this, and again, this info was on IYCC website BEFORE the rollover), and made a story out of it, without checking into it with Gambia's Y2K contacts....another fine job of shrill reporting ....out of the UK this time. So basically Gambia's "severe" Y2K rollover problems were based on info provided before the rollover, lol. Amusing.

Regards,

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2000

Well!

After watching and waiting for something to happen over the last 36 hours, I am torn between two basic opinions:

A) It certainly is amazing what mankind can do when faced with a challenge! (Even Gambia! Third world places like this were supposed to be toast by now!)

B) There has certainly been a lot of hot air floated regarding something that turned out to be much ado about nothing! Wasn't Italy supposed to be back in the Stone Age by today?

I'm not sure what will be more interesting as we enter this brave new world of Y2K: How long before the warnings of impending disaster disappear or how long before all the Y2K glitches disappear.

Michael Crichton writes of parallel universes in his latest book, TIMELINE. Perhaps in some parallel universe Y2K is a problem and life has ended as we know it. Wherever that universe might be, it sure ain't now, and it sure ain't here.

Those who played Paul Revere did a great job! Time to ride back to Boston, find the nearest pub, and celebrate.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2000