World Breathes Sigh (or Yawn!) Of Relief After Y2K Scare

The earliest reports of the millennium bug striking came from the likes of Hong Kong and Zanzibar. It was reported that three government departments in Hong Kong said some personal computers had suffered minor problems as they re-opened for business after the year-end holiday break. In Zanzibar, it was claimed that television transmission failure came from the Y2K bug.

In Hong Kong, the three government departments affected by the bug were the civil services training center, the auxiliary medical services and the agriculture and fisheries department, a government spokeswoman said. Problems stemmed from personal computers in all three departments, which suffered date display problems. However, officials stressed that operations had not been affected by the minor errors. K.C. Kwong, the Hong Kong government's secretary for information technology and broadcasting said, "There have been minor incidents of malfunctioning in some of the non-mission critical systems. We have received some reports from the departments of some malfunctioning of their network software. The correct date cannot be displayed."

Breathalyzer machines used by Hong Kong police had also suffered from the bug, government officials said. The machines malfunctioned when police officers attempted to enter the date of birth of those being tested. The deputy secretary for information technology, Jessie Tin, said, "According to the reports I have received, if they enter the date of birth of the individuals being tested, the machines cannot function as normal. But as for the breathalyzer test itself, so long as the date of birth is not entered into the machine, it can function smoothly."

With Zanzibar, government officials had earlier said that no Y2K glitches were reported as of late Saturday, but warned that anything could still happen within the coming days. With that, Tanzania's semi-autonomous Indian Ocean Island has reported television transmission failure, which it traced to the millennium computer bug, state-owned Radio Tanzania has reported. Radio Tanzania said in a Sunday night broadcast, "There are problems in transmission. The state-owned Television Zanzibar is giving bad signals."

Officials in Zanzibar have warned not to get too comfortable with the majority of positive results so far, stating that they were not completely out of harm's way just yet. Abdisalam Khatib, Tanzania's deputy finance minister said, "So far all is well in both the Tanzanian mainland and Zanzibar, but, the smooth rollover does not mean that the Y2K problem is over and we should continue to anticipate a few, if any, incidents in critical areas."

Aside from minor problems such as these, the world welcomed in the New Year without any difficulty. Countries throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, North and South America reported no difficulties for the most part, bringing an end to the suspense of whether or not the millennium bug would have any great impact on society.

In the Middle East, an interesting celebration took place in various Muslim countries. Although the Muslim calendar doesn't begin until three months after Ramadan, Palestinians were seen at Mangers Square. Network television giant ABC showed footage of Palestinians in a mosque shouting, "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar!" as January 1st commenced. Along with that, Egypt held a concert in front of the pyramids to bring in the New Year.

In other news, stocks and trading (online and otherwise) have skyrocketed in growth since a ray of light appeared and people felt safe from the millennium bug. Asian share prices surged in brisk trade Monday as bourses opened without a sign of Y2K bugs, bringing out an encouraging start to the financial system's first full business day of the new millennium. A series of successful mock-trading sessions over the weekend raised expectations of a smooth transition to 2000 and a New Year rally fuelled by a flood of funds held back in December by nervous investors. The pent-up demand and continuing bullishness in technology stocks drove trade early Monday on the four markets that opened.

Meanwhile, Singapore's key financial markets soared on the first day of New Year trading Monday, with no Y2K-related computer glitches after exhaustive mock fine-tuning sessions. A spokesman for the Monetary Authority of Singapore said, "Everything is okay. It looks like a smooth opening for Singapore's financial markets." Proof of this is Singapore's benchmark stock barometer, the Straits Times Index. It shot up 2.4 percent, or 55.66 points, to 2,535.24 after about an hour of trading on relief that the Year 2000 (Y2K) bug fear had subsided, dealers and analysts said.

On a lighter note, according to computer records, Denmark's first millennium baby is already 100 years old. Denmark passed the bug hurdle comfortably after spending 30 billion kroner ($4.03 billion) on readying computers to keep them glitch-free. However, things didn't go all together well at Holbaek hospital. In a minor case of the dreaded bug striking, a computer registered a baby girl's birth as January 1, 1900. A hospital spokeswoman at Holbaek explained, "The hospital takes credit for Denmark's first millennium baby. But it wasn't aware of the computer problems. Our equipment wasn't ready for the 2000 bug."

In another story, German news agency DPA reported that a number of banking customers had checked their accounts only to find astonishing figures. An online customer of the local Cologne savings bank could scarcely believe his eyes when he logged in on Saturday to examine his bank account: it showed a balance of 3,930,129,930, but the currency was not specified. Similarly, a 43-year-old customer with the same bank found that nearly 13 million marks ($6.65 million) had been erroneously credited to his account.

As people settle into their jobs this week, it is important that everyone check their computer equipment, machines and/or any other item that might have been affected by the millennium bug. Some problems may arise in the first few days after the New Year. Aside from that, people can put away their rations of food and supplies of water. Now that the scare of Y2K has blown over, we can all breath a little easier.

Haroon Cambel Islam Online, Washington DC