So Bill while in Bogata says y2k is no big deal, eh? I think this is AP's response to his "it's only a bug" guys...yeah, some countries may suffer more than others...ROTFLMAO
Latin America Lags Behind in Y2K Readiness
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Basically everybody's in the same boat. They're only focusing on critical
systems and contingency plans.Rafael HernandezWorld Bank
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Uncertain that their radars' Year 2000 computer problems
will be solved, air traffic controllers in this Andean nation are taking
refresher courses in guiding planes the old-fashioned way -- with radioed
position reports and paper charts.
Federal bookkeepers, meanwhile, may have to switch to paper ledgers until
their computers are fixed.
With a handful of exceptions led by Mexico and Chile, Latin American
governments were late in grasping the severity of the "millennium bug." They now
realize they lack the time, money and programmers to forestall potentially
crippling public sector failures when 2000 arrives.
In the United States, where tens of billions of dollars have been spent on
ridding computers and other electronic equipment of the date-sensitive glitch,
failures are expected to cause disruptions akin to a bad snowstorm.
"For us it could be like a volcanic eruption," said Hernando Carvalho, a
Colombian civil engineer and lawmaker who began surveying government readiness
in December and found it woefully lacking.
Among Latin politicians, Carvalho is a lonely voice trying to raise
consciousness where little exists.
World Bank experts and independent analysts say Latin and Caribbean
governments can now do little more than focus on preventing disasters brought on
by the Y2K problem, a legacy of the days when software writers saved space by
expressing years with two digits. That means an unfixed computer won't be able
to tell 2000 from 1900 and might shut down in confusion.
Like most governments in the developing world, they're feverishly working on
plans for skirting unreliable computer systems to ensure the delivery of
essential services like water, electricity and public payrolls.
"Basically everybody's in the same boat. They're only focusing on critical
systems and contingency plans," said Rafael Hernandez, an information specialist
with the World Bank.
Nearly all Latin American governments rely heavily on informatics. And at
precisely the moment last year that they should have been investing heavily in
Y2K fixes, the Asian financial crisis hit their economies hard.
Now there is an almost universal shortness of cash.
Media coverage of the Y2K bug has been scarce in the region, and many
presidents, including Colombia's Andres Pastrana and Argentina's Carlos Menem,
haven't even mentioned it publicly.
"I don't want to be an alarmist, but we do want to prepare the people for
reasonable precautions. There could be a run on banks, real bad, and declared
bank holidays," said Jim Cassell, research director for the information
technology analysts GartnerGroup who has worked extensively in the region.
Gartner analysts predict half of all Latin American companies and state
agencies will see at least one critical failure -- from power outages to air
transport interruptions -- in Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic,
Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Even worse off are Costa
Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador and Uruguay, they say.
Social unrest and paralyzed commerce are tangible fears.
In this part of the world, "the public doesn't protest with phone calls and
letters -- it riots and destabilizes the government. There's lots of potential
for that," said Ian Hugo, deputy director of Britain's industry-backed
Taskforce2000.
Argentina received a $30 million World Bank loan earlier this year to deal
with Y2K problems, and the Inter-American Development Bank expects to open a $2
billion line of credit by May for confronting the bug.
Yet many of the countries scrambling to draft loan requests still "haven't
identified the trouble areas [and] don't know how much money they need," said
Jamie Dos Santos, vice president for Latin America at Bellcore, a leading
international Y2K contractor.
On the whole, Latin American Y2K officials are divulging few details of
their countries' progress. They know international investor confidence is at
stake. Brazil, for one, is still trying to meet the conditions for a $41.5
billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.
"Lack of confidence in a country's infrastructure could cause multinational
companies to close their operations," a U.S. Senate report warned in early
March.
Among the nations where officials have been more open is Colombia, where the
government's Year 2000 Office, created in September 1997, only kicked into gear
in December.
Managers of the state-run health care system are struggling to determine how
to keep Y2K failures from scrambling the records of its more than 8 million
patients. And public hospitals are just beginning to inventory medical devices
for bug-related defects.
Colombian civil-aviation officials say their radar systems will fail without
repairs worth more than $11 million, money the federal government says it cannot
provide. Without radar, controllers will rely on voice communications and keep
planes spaced more widely apart, delaying flights.
Carvalho said foreign carriers will refuse to fly to Colombia unless the
radars and other aviation systems are fixed by July 1, the cutoff date after
which U.S. officials expect to begin releasing warnings about countries with
worrisome Y2K status.
American Airlines, the dominant U.S. carrier in the region, called
Carvalho's claim speculative. "We'll make those decisions when the time comes
and obviously safety is our major concern," said Martha Pantin, a spokeswoman
for the airline.
In Venezuela, civil unrest could well be on the menu.
"We're going to have a food-supply shortage," predicts Alejandro Bermudez,
the government's information systems manager.
He estimates 40 percent of Venezuela's food-processing plants will be
paralyzed when unfixed computer chips in automated factories shut down
production lines.
Another anticipated failure: 2,500 elevators in Caracas, the capital, will
automatically halt. "We know it's going to happen," Bermudez insists.
Only about 10 percent of Venezuela's electricity distribution system has so
far undergone computer fixes, and the government says the country desperately
needs $1.5 billion for Y2K fixes, adding that even with that money, repairs will
take two to four years.
Multinational corporations and major banks have invested heavily in fixes
throughout the region and all but a few are expected to be ready before the new
year. But many are worried about their suppliers -- and about power generation
and water supplies.
Scott Robberson, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in
Guatemala, is buying a gas-powered refrigerator and stocking up on extra food,
water and propane. He said his electric company hasn't even started Y2K work,
only two of Guatemala's 30 banks are ready, and few buildings in Guatemala City
are fixing elevators and time-sensitive computerized building security locks.
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