Koskinen talks differently out of the states

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

"growing recognition internationally of the sweep and seriousness of the Year 2000 problem"

"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'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."

"It's clear that in the absence of information, people will assume the worst. It's also clear in any country if millions of people change their normal economic activities all at once, we'll have significant problems, even if all of the systems work just fine. No country can afford a lack of confidence that leads to runs on their financial institutions, hoarding of basic supplies, and increasedfear."

"many of them are saying they're simply going to wait, see what breaks, and then they will fix it once it's broken. We are trying to tell them that that's a very high risk roll of the dice, because when they go to get the fix, whether it's an upgrade in their software or a replacement for the software or the hardware, it will be obvious what the fix is, everyone will know how to do it, but the risk is, they will be at the end of a very long line of other people who waited to see what broke and then decided to fix it. And the fix will work just fine when it arrives, but it may not arrive until March, April or May of the year 2000, and these companies and governments and those who decided to wait and see may find that they're going to be severely challenged in continuing their operations"

"And the third thing we've asked FEMA to do is make clear to the state and local emergency managers, as I noted in my presentation, 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. "

"that's a very important point, because it's not as if we have a choice of either sharing information and managing it or having no information, because if we don't effectively collect the information and provide a clear picture and an accurate picture, we're all going to live with whatever CNN is showing at the time that they decide is an interesting part of the story that unfolds, or other newspapers, or magazines, and media."

http://www.usia.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=99050401.glt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml

-- ng (can'tprovideemail@none.com), May 04, 1999

Answers

yep~ sounds like three days of prep should be more than enough. Moooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

-- kevin (innxxs@yahoo.com), May 04, 1999.

Link

-- regular (
zzz@z.z), May 04, 1999.

click here for link

I guess Koskinenbones determined that this audience was slightly more intelligent than the American public that pays his salary. What's the opposite of an educator? An ignoranter?

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), May 04, 1999.


Who did you say koskinen's domestic public relations firm is?

-- who did you say koskinen's domestic pr firm is? (notkoskin'sprguy@nope.notme), May 04, 1999.

Puddintame,

The privation of good is EVIL.

-- Prometheus (fire@for.man), May 04, 1999.



Fortunately, the markets will handle all. Not to worry. Poole says Y2K is fixed. Have a jug of water on hand, though, Poole says, that will be helpful.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 04, 1999.

QUESTION: New Zealand and Australia will be the first to enter the year 2000. What will we learn from their experiences?

Attention all newbies. The kind of idiot who asked the above question is considered a "y2k expert" outside the US. That's enough to wake you up in a cold sweat.

Now look at the even more ignorant follow up question below. It's so pathetically naive that even Koskinenbones minsinterprets it. He thinks its a subtle comment about the need to propagandize the rollover news coverage. So this dialogue is a twofer. It shows the rank amateurism of global y2k knowledge and it gives us a rare glimpse into the dark corners of the manipulative plans being considered by Koskinenbones bosses at Spin Central Station. Read . . .

QUESTION: Won't we know some of what is happening because of global television coverage?

MR. KOSKINEN: Well, that's a very important point, because it's not as if we have a choice of either sharing information and managing it or having no information, because if we don't effectively collect the information and provide a clear picture and an accurate picture, we're all going to live with whatever CNN is showing at the time that they decide is an interesting part of the story that unfolds, or other newspapers, or magazines, and media. So that, at a minimum, and I think you're exactly right about management, [the childlike questioner did not comment on "management", he asked about watching Y2K unfold on CNN as if that ability would allow us to get a jump on all the necessary fix on failure: Puddintame] we all need to know as the clock turns what's going on in New Zealand, what that may or may not mean, and what New Zealand is doing in response, because it's going to be known on television. And as somebody noted to me recently, well, this is all well and good, but if New Zealand has a problem that may be unique to New Zealand, and it has some aspect of its infrastructure that fails, the risk is that the rest of the world is going to assume, here it comes, we're all going to be with power, telecommunications, or whatever difficulty New Zealand or Australia have.

But I think the other side of that coin is, if we can deal with that, I think if our citizens understand that we are monitoring this, that we are going to interpret this in terms of what the appropriate response is, we'll have an effective event management process. But, I think it is clear that the problem of public overreaction starts now in terms of people deciding that they're going to take their money out of the bank, or they're going to start to take money out of the markets, or they're going to start to stockpile or hoard supplies, but it will be an issue that will be extreme, not just in the week or two before we move to January 1, but as just noted as we move through the transition period, if we don't have an effective way of collecting the information, we'll just have people in the first few days after January 1 at risk of overreaction, panic and unnecessary concern.

So, I think it is a very important point, and it's not something that any one of us can solve by ourselves. I think we need to work together to figure out how can we collect information, how can we make sure that we have the most accurate information available. And if there are rumors out, which there will be, on the Internet or on television or in newspapers, we need to know what are the actual realities and what are the facts.

Our experience is, if people have the actual facts, they respond well and respond accordingly. Where you get into difficulty is where they have rumors or exaggerations or other things that are being reported to them, and if there isn't an authoritative response to those rumors, they react to the rumors only. So, I think we have an interesting challenge. Once we get through fixing all the systems we need to be figuring out how we're going to jointly cooperate as we move into the next year in a physical sense."

End paste

It looks as though Koskinen is simply going off the deep end. He hits the panic button and gets into a whole panoply of propganda concerns which have nothing to do with the kindergarten level question presented to him.

Excellent pull on this post, NG.



-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), May 04, 1999.


"that's a very important point, because it's not as if we have a choice of either sharing information and managing it or having no information, because if we don't effectively collect the information and provide a clear picture and an accurate picture, we're all going to live with whatever CNN is showing at the time that they decide is an interesting part of the story that unfolds, or other newspapers, or magazines, and media."

It makes you wonder whether Koskinen is indeed somewhat unhappy that he was so successful with the happy face strategy after the Senate report. Can you imagine how clueless the mainstream reporting of Y2K will be from 4Q on and especially after the panic hits.

One more reason why this forum remains vital and must survive the graphite bomb attacks of the trolls ......

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 04, 1999.


Puddintame and all regulars: if after reading what you posted, anyone doubts that there are Feds doing their thing on this forum, you're hopeless. Koskinen is flat-out pointing to the Internet. Which single forum on the Internet still wrestles with all the mud. Yup. You're on it.

I'd bet big bucks that Koskinen or his staff check into this forum daily. No, not because we're special (he said, anticipating the trolls) but so he can get the edge on ideas for "managing the event".

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 04, 1999.


And now let's all say hi to NORM!

-- Wiseguy (got@it.gov), May 04, 1999.


BD, This post by NG is one of the more interesting I've seen recently. Koskinen seems to be truly concerned with post-rollover panic and how to manage that panic. It's as though he foresees a situation where everything slams to a halt on the foreign Pacific rim and Americans immediately launch into some kind of anticipatory panic. He's thinking about ways to control that situation.

Interesting.

I would really really not like to be in Koskinen's shoes. I can't imagine anyone taking that particular job. If things get gnarly, then every govt. official in Washington is going to claim that they reported fatal problems to Koskinen. Clinton will claim that Koskinen failed to report the truth to him. Koskinen could go down as the biggest patsy in history, even surpassing the IBM braintrust who bargained DOS rights to Bill Gates.

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), May 04, 1999.


"... graphite bomb attacks of the trolls."

Good one Bigdog. I thought it was interesting myself. [Begin OT] Here we are bombing the heck out of the Yugo infrastructure and electric capacity, and ...

Isn't there a saying that goes, "That which you sow you shall also reap"?

-- Jim the Window Washer (Ratonal@man.com), May 04, 1999.


I just finnished reading the whole report. It sounds like John K. is going to come along as Jack Nickelson (sp?) in a Few Good Men and say "YOU CAN"T HANDLE THE TRUTH" Anyone would be hard pressed to say that he doesn't GET IT big time.

It is interesting that the link below appeared in the same time frame

Koskinen meets w/Pharm. industry - meeting minutes 3/8/99 http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000mxe

Two very important documents.

-- Brian (imager@ampsc.com), May 04, 1999.


Puddintame --- You're right about the patsy stuff, absolutely. AS IF there is any other reason Slick and Algore have kept totally silent. Sorry, though, can't feel bad for the guy. Best thing he could do and can do is tell the truth, whatever it is.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), May 04, 1999.

BigDog: Does Poole say we need a really big jug, or a will a gallon suffice?

-- a (a@a.a), May 04, 1999.


WHAT??...no rebuttal yet from Norm, Davis, Poole, Y2K Pro???.I'm shocked!

Jump in here guys...Koskinen's in need of some parsing.

-- Charles R. (chuck_roast@trans.net), May 04, 1999.


The other snip I found interesting besides the one about media coverage on December 31st, was:

http://www.usia.gov/cgi- bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=99050401.glt&t=/ products/washfile/newsitem.shtml

We are running events in the United States focusing on small businesses, trying to provide them technical information, trying to encourage them to take action in the face of what we find increasingly is a position where many of them are saying they're simply going to wait, see what breaks, and then they will fix it once it's broken. We are trying to tell them that that's a very high risk roll of the dice, because when they go to get the fix, whether it's an upgrade in their software or a replacement for the software or the hardware, it will be obvious what the fix is, everyone will know how to do it, but the risk is, they will be at the end of a very long line of other people who waited to see what broke and then decided to fix it. And the fix will work just fine when it arrives, but it may not arrive until March, April or May of the year 2000, and these companies and governments and those who decided to wait and see may find that they're going to be severely challenged in continuing their operations while they're waiting for that fix to arrive.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), May 05, 1999.


Where are all the Pollys on this thread? They usually have such big mouths! Where is their smart-ass wit?

-- Amused (amused@laughing.com), May 05, 1999.

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