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Important though IT's Century Challenge is, there are very many people around the world whose needs are much more basic.
Jubilee 2000 is a worldwide campaign, active in both rich and poor countries. It wants the world's richest nations to remove the financial millstone of unrepayable debt from around the necks of the world's poorest. Many countries spend far more on repaying debts to the world's bankers than they do on feeding or educating their own people.
Many of us in IT are benefitting financially from Year 2000 programmes, simply by being in the right place with the right knowledge at the right time. For many of us this is a windfall benefit; we are getting extra money for just going on doing our jobs. Of course, many people are working extremely hard and carrying extra responsibility. But increased salaries, retention schemes and high consultancy/contract fees are a fact of Y2K life.
Those of us who are benefitting from one Year 2000 campaign are uniquely placed to help the other one.
Hurricane Mitch, and its devastation in Central America, have given this urgency. Although debt relief is not directly relevant to the immediate emergency, these countries will take years - perhaps decades - to recover from the disaster and debt relief is certainly relevant to that process.
Please take at least one of the following actions:
Pledge at least one percent of your personal Year 2000 "windfall" to an appropriate charity.
If you would like your J2K Pledge to be made public, to encourage other people, send a mail message to J2K@parkside.cix.co.uk. Please tell me simply your name, and the country where you live.
I will create a web page for this information, maintained best efforts like the rest of the Pocket Guide.
Original material Copyright © Tony Law/Parkside Information Management 1997, 1998