Subject:	No, No, No. You WERE Right. Henry 'ALLGRIM' **IS** An Idiot
Date:	1999/09/29
Author:	Paul Milne <fedinfo@halifax.com>
	Posting History

Japan Pays for Blasi Y2K Plans by Debbi Gardiner   3:00 a.m.  29.Sep.99.PDT   With four months to go to Y2K, some Japanese government officials are in a near panic after months -- years -- of apathy.   The core infrastructures seem ready to confront the millennium bug, but they're beginning to realize this may not be quite enough.           Japan Pays for Blasi Y2K Plans by Debbi Gardiner   3:00 a.m.  29.Sep.99.PDT   With four months to go to Y2K, some Japanese government officials are in a near panic after months -- years -- of apathy.   The core infrastructures seem ready to confront the millennium bug, but they're beginning to realize this may not be quite enough.   Last week, the Economist pointed out that despite being the world's second-largest industrial economy, Japan lags in Y2K preparedness behind, among others, Thailand and Chile.   As a result, a number of Western tech workers are predicting chaos. Others are tsk-tsking that the compliance tests should all have been conducted months earlier.     "So what's with all the dilly-dallying? Lloyd reckons that Japan's central government hasn't given much priority to the Y2K compliance tests because ... they don't have to."   "In Japan, the society is so much more ordered [than in the United States] that the government doesn't care enough to spend 60 billion dollars to make sure everything is compliant.... The Japanese government doesn't actually care whether people are without food and water for a few days. "   "Workers simply cannot tell their bosses when something's screwed up. Confrontation of any kind is almost unheard of still to this day," he wrote."   ==========================   There will always be idiots like Henry ALLGRIM out there. There will always be idiots , who, in the face of the evidence and the facts, no, in spite of the evidence and the facts, no,  that does not quite sum it up. There will always be idiots who will intentioanl delude themselves  even while they are being whacked with a rolled up newspaper.   Henry is one of the prime examples of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. No evil at all. Just remediation everywhere you look; even though he is not looking very hard. It might upset him to understand the truth.   Japan is woefully and inadequately prepared. To even use the word 'prepared' in the same sentce as the word 'Japan' elicits chuckles from a realist.   Japan is toast. Its culture is pre-disposed to fail remediation in the first place. It is a shame that having lived in Japan, Henry has no appreciation at all for some of their cultural nuances. You CAN NOT go to a superior or a customer or a vendor and tell them "There is a problem".  There is no such thing as a 'problem' in Japan. (Thank you PNG) This predisposes The 'remediation' to failure even before it begins.       http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/21996.html?wnpg=2 -- Paul Milne "If you live within 5 miles of a 7-11, you're toast"

-- a (a@a.a), September 30, 1999

Answers

Paul,

You want nuance. Impossible doesn't exist as a concept. No is also problematic.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), September 30, 1999.

"There is no such thing as a 'problem' in Japan."

So true. As a UNIX kernel developer I traveled to Tokyo to assist several customers with software that drives large, WORM optical disk libraries. I was there approx. 2 weeks and learned in the first week that no one _ever_ admitted there were problems (I also read this in one of the books I read on Japanese culture before going. Getting business cards with my name in Kanji on the back was a BIG hit. Most Americans don't take the time to respect their culture.)

Anyway, during several tests with 10 or so Engineers looking over my shoulder, I saw blatant errors coming from our software (/dev/console) and knew that I would not be able to fix them on the spot. The Engineers became very excited and asked me repeatedly about the messages but I simply nodded and said with conviction "Hai, Hai" ("Yes", spelling?). No one ever took me to the mat like a US Engineer would have. Not even a single "When will _IT_ be fixed? Nothing. Fascinating.

IMO Japan will overlook LOTS of problems.

br14

-- br14 (br14@bout.done), September 30, 1999.

Just another reason to prepare. It's facts like this that make me think 2000 will be at least a depression. Yet, the government and media tell us there will be no economic downturn.

-- Larry (cobol.programmer@usa.net), September 30, 1999.

If Japan is as ill-prepared as this report and others like it claim, it's obvious to anyone with even one eye open and half a brain to see that the global financial system will take a major, if not fatal, hit in 2000. If so, it doesn't matter how well-prepared our banks are.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), September 30, 1999.

At least you won't have to worry about looting in Japan.

If it's really bad, and people are not prepared, they will simply die quietly in their homes without bothering other people.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), September 30, 1999.

Not to be callous about their state of remediation, but I am curious about them jumping the U.S. T-Bill ship when the SHTF for them.

We already know their current (and future) purchasing is way down...

Hmmm.

-- OR (orwelliator@biosys.net), September 30, 1999.

Looks like Japan has a nuclear disaster on their hands!

-- sad situation (sadsituation@sadsituationnn.xcom), September 30, 1999.