WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEARS.

• Author: LEWIS, DAVID

It's the end of the Millennium and, as you know, columnist union bylaws require that I expound on Millennial things for a couple of hundred words here. It's in the contract.

First, I want to say that you can't fool me -- I know it isn't really the end of the Millennium -- that's next year. Also, experts remain vague about exactly when Christ's birthday was. Nor is ours the only New Year's celebration -- don't forget the Russian Orthodox calendar, the lunar calendar, Chinese New Year or Rosh Hashanah.

But you don't have to be a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows. (Union bylaws allow baby-boomer columnists to quote Bob Dylan at will.) We all agree this is the big year. All the big hotels agree, the carters and caterers, confectionaries and confetti makers. Streamers at the ready, we step into the next thousand years at the end of the month.

Now my big prediction. I know I'm a month early with this thing -- but what's going to be most important this century is ethics. (Are ethics?)

In February, ColoradoBiz will announce the ninth Ethics in Business Awards, followed by a big awards luncheon.

Is plugging this an ethical conflict for me here? Possibly.

A year-plus ago, I returned to Colorado from three years in the Former Soviet Union, so I was feeling pretty smug about U.S. standards until I had a conversation with Jeff Rundles, former Colorado Business Magazine editor, a business ethics award founding father, and ColoradoBiz columnist (see page 81). Three years in Kyrgyzstan and my attitude was, What Corruption? Jeff's attitude was, Wake Up.

I got the American picture back into focus at last year's ethics awards luncheon, where it seemed the idea was to set an impossibly high ethical standard, routinely surpass it, and somehow still wallop the tar out of the competition. Impressive.

But we can do better. Last month, the corruption watchdog Transparency International's 1999 Corruption Perceptions Index showed that of the 99 countries tracked, only Denmark received a perfect 10 rating. (That's two straight years Denmark has been perfect. This means we're going to have to send Tonya Harding and a guy named Guido over there.)

Worst were two African nations, Cameroon and Nigeria. Not far behind ranked nine newish republics of the Former Soviet Union -- not even including No. 82, Russia. It was oddly gratifying to see my former home...