<nettime> (fwd) Third World "Vulnerability" to Y2K

[WMadsen777@aol.com]

     [orig to <declan@well.com>, via politech]

Ano Dos Mil -- NADA!

Wayne Madsen

Reporting from San Jose, Costa Rica


Guess what happened here in Costa Rica -- commonly billed as a Third World
nation -- as the clock turned over to 2000? Nothing! Everything continued
to function normally. The National Y2K Coordination Center here in San Jose
operated much like all the others around the world. Nothing too intricate
-- a big television screen carrying live feeds from CNN and Spanish
language networks, communications with a number of sectoral Y2K Councils
around the country, and a bank of computers hooked via the Internet to a
Regional United Nations Reporting Center in Mexico City and Bruce
McConnell's much-ballyhooed "International" Y2K Coordination Center in
Washington. As 2000 came to the Western Pacific, I noted that no problems
were being reported. Reports came in to the Costa Rican center proclaiming
no glitches in New Zealand, then Sydney, followed by Queensland and Adelaide.

The Costa Rican officials in charge of Y2K preparedness were breathing a
bit easier at this news. However, propaganda from the United States (mostly
the State Department and CIA) claimed that developing nations like Costa
Rica were always at risk. Nothing could be further from the truth. And the
truth -- as we know from the Clinton administration -- is in very short
supply.

Costa Rican Y2K officials were largely on to the scheme of the United
States to have developing countries bring in American "experts" to gauge
readiness and "fix" problems. When the U.S.-run World Bank indicated that
Costa Rica's access to Y2K preparedness funding would be tied directly to
the use of foreign "experts," Costa Rica said nothing doing. It insisted
that Costa Rican experts be funded with the World Bank money. The World
Bank was forced to agree.

So Costa Rica came through the Y2K transition virtually unscathed. So did
neighboring countries that are dependent on Costa Rica for energy supplies
-- Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

It is refreshing that a developing country like Costa Rica did not fall
for one of the largest hoaxes every perpetrated by a single nation (the
United States) on the rest of the world. It is also noteworthy that Costa
Rica refused to be coerced into accepting a bunch of stuffed suit experts
from the United States to help it "solve" its "problem." Perhaps those
nations that were foolish enough to be suckered into the U.S./World Bank
shakedown scheme can ask for a refund from the Whirling Dervishes in
Washington who are now saying that things are not quite over yet. Believe
me, they are at least over here in Central America. The Y2K nuts should get
on with their lives.

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