by Jerry

Jerry gives his opinion on a new kind of millenium bug ...

�IT�S THE FINAL SEMESTER of the millennium, you know!�, shouted a friend on the first day of this semester when I bumped into her. �Cool, eh??� But you know what�s even better? Next semester is gonna stretch through two millenniums!!�

      Well, it sounded cool then, but the irony of that remark has been lingering in my head lately, especially when there was news spreading around the engineering students �fraternity� that our four-year degree course might be extended lest we don�t get accreditation from the Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). For those who would be graduating after that �2000-year long� semester, this news couldn�t have come at a worse time because everybody was so looking forward to graduating after all the sweat and toil and sucking up to lecturers for four years. But alas, they are now told that they should hold the champagne just yet, because they just might have to endure an additional five weeks to four months (depending on which faculty they�re from) of sucking up.

      Oh no� I�m drifting away from what I wanted to write about� so let�s just hope everything turns out for the best in this little saga, okay. Add this intention in all your prayers for your friends and yourself, won�t you?

      The New Millenium, a.k.a. The Next Year/Decade/Century, but more popularly known as Y2K (Year 2K), the impending DOOM�S DAY!!!�Or so a lot of people would have you to believe. Come 11.59 p.m., 31st December 1999, everybody jump into the secret tunnel in the ground under your house (ala the movie �Blast From The Past��) and wait for further developments from �above��Why do I call it a secret tunnel? Well, it�s so secret I bet that even you don�t know about it, do you??�

      Or on the other hand, you could be like me and probably millions, or even billions of others around the world partying all night long like there is no tomorrow!!!(pun intended!.) C�mon I say!!� It�s the first time you�ll be able to say you lived through 2 millenniums, and I�m willing to bet my last Rupiah that it�ll be your last. So what�s the point in worrying about all the what if�s and what not�s? Wasn�t it Socrates who said that you should �� party like it was 1999!�? � Well okay, maybe it wasn�t Socrates (it was actually The Artiste Formerly Known as Prince), but you catch my drift, don�t you? What the mind can conceive and believe, it will achieve � Now, I�m sure that was quoted by somebody famous! It simply means that if everybody believe that the world will be all right (and of course do something to get rid of the millennium bug!), everything will be fine and dandy, come the new year. If you believe in impending doom, then I suggest that you start looking up the number of the contractor who built your house, to ask him where�s the entrance to that secret tunnel!

      And it doesn�t help when you realize that all the occasions/festivals/whatever around you use the millennium as their catch phrase. It always makes me wonder, what the big deal is about the recently concluded NDP �99, which was touted as �The Last National Day Parade of The Millennium� in Singapore. What�s gonna happen next year? Are aliens gonna run the show? Or is it their subtle way of saying there�s not going to be NDP 2000? Another slogan that we see around is �SUKAM VII � Yang terakhir abad ini� (the last of this century). So what? Maybe it�s because after serious consideration, they�ve decided to open SUKAM VIII to all the cats in campus whose population probably would have surpassed the students by then?

      Please don�t get me wrong. I�m not making fun of these two respectable and established celebrations. They are the only examples I can think of now, which gives me the impression that next year something drastically different is gonna happen when, in all honesty. I believe won�t. They�ll just conveniently call it :

�� (blah blah blah) - The First of The New Millennium��