I don't think I've ever posted here any of the reader mail that I get concerning stories that I post on Sanger's Review. But, I thought this was a simple, interesting comment, succinct, yet chilling. And, it was my Mom who made this comment, and I trust her perspective on things. (She's a travel agent and world traveler, as well as being one of the small time computer geeks at her agency.)

Regarding the story on WorldNetDaily called "Will Lights Go Out in India?" about the State Department memo on the readiness of electric utilities in that country, Mom said,

"I read pieces like the one on India and think that we may soon have a fourth world, the developing and undeveloped countries plunged into despair by Y2K."

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), July 16, 1999

Answers

Your Mom is a wise lady... with a wise son.

;-D

Feels like the global rubber band is about to stretched even more... see...

"He will bring to life the great king of the Mongols" China & Tiawan

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 0015wa

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), July 16, 1999.

Any updates on New York City's remediation status(es) - I've heard literally nothing since last summer when they said they had many departments who had not yet started their contingency plans. (Report was from the NYC controller, I believe, not from the actual office responsible for remediation or repair.)

But no word (pro or con) on actual remediation or testing.

-- Robert A Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), July 16, 1999.

Robert, THe recet NYC status report was 69 percent remediation. But I heard they hadn't switched to their new computer system yet.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWAyne@aol.com), July 16, 1999.

Now, it seems the Wall Street Journal has picked up on the State Department memo about India. Gives it an air of legitimacy, which WorldNetDaily lacks...

Of course "a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, said the embassy had no comment on the report. She wouldn't say if the report accurately portrayed the memo, or even if the memo existed."

For ReEducational Purposes Only:

http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=DI-CO-19990716- 002098.djml

U.S. Expects Major Indian Power Breakdown From Y2K-Report (Mark Drajem, Dow Jones Newswires)

NEW DELHI -- The U.S. State Department says India should expect severe power problems because of complications in computers expected on Jan. 1, 2000, according to an Internet Web site.

The state electricity boards and ocean shipping firms aren't so-called "Y2K" compliant, according to a memo prepared by the New Delhi embassy and sent to Washington recently. The memo's contents were reported Thursday on the Internet Web site WorldNetDaily.com.

"Most worrisome is...the 70% of the electrical power industry that is under the control of the state electricity boards, large parts of which only now are beginning basic inventories and assessments," the Web site said, quoting from an excerpt from an unclassified memo from the U.S. embassy in New Delhi.

Julie Nickles, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, said the embassy had no comment on the report. She wouldn't say if the report accurately portrayed the memo, or even if the memo existed.

The National Informatics Centre "worries that power failures, even in small states, could shut down large chunks of the chronically power- short national grid," the memo said, according to the Web site.

This isn't the first warning the U.S. Embassy has made.

In an internal newsletter to embassy staff published in May, the embassy advised staff members returning to the U.S. for the summer to stock up on long-burning candles, flashlights and batteries in expectation of the Y2K power breakdown.

About 30% to 40% of the Indian industry has yet to address the Y2K problem at all, the memo said, citing a Confederation of Indian Industry survey.

"The Y2K coordinators that the embassy contacted can all talk the talk. The question is whether they can walk the walk. The few details that most coordinators provide about the specifics of their programs have made it impossible to make an independent assessment of India's likely Y2K readiness," the memo said.

"We wouldn't be surprised to see some pretty annoying glitches here and there throughout the economy," it concluded.

-- pshannon (pshannon@inch.com), July 16, 1999.

India is one country where "lose of power = loss of water = major loss of life in urban areas" is very, VERY true. Realize the levels of unsanitary conditions within India's major cities now, when there is running water and working sanitation systems.

What will things look like when there has been no clean, running water for human consumption for a week or more and the sanitation systems have been out of service for the same amount of time? Can you imagine the rapid and widespread flourishing of diseases (Typhus, Cholera) which thrive in poor sanitation? Especially since the diseases are always present in that country with ocassional major outbreaks from time to time.

More than even Milne and North exhort to Americans "Get out of the cities!", in no place on Earth is it ever more true than India. Rural Indian villagers may never notice Y2K, but urban Indian citizens are going to notice as much as any and every resident of New York or London.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), July 17, 1999.