Lebanon wakes up in two rival time zones - and then reverses the decision

[muriel_volestrangler]

Last edited Mon Mar 27, 2023, 12:21 PM - Edit history (1)

and it's about religion ...

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced that daylight saving would begin at the end of Ramadan next month, allowing Muslims to break their daily fast earlier.

But Christian authorities said they would change the clocks on the last Sunday in March, as happens most years.
...
On Thursday Mr Mikati, a Sunni Muslim, announced his decision to delay the start of daylight saving until midnight on 20 April.
...
Middle East Airlines, the national carrier, decided on a compromise. It said its clocks and other devices would stay in winter time but its flight times would be adjusted to avoid disrupting international schedules.

There was also confusion for users of mobile phones and other electronic devices that automatically switch to daylight saving time, as many operators were not notified of the delay in time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-65079574

That is certainly very short notice.

---
A day later:

Lebanon's government has reversed a decision to delay the shift to daylight savings time by a month, which had sparked both anger and confusion.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced that clocks would now go forward on Wednesday night.
...
Mr Mikati, who is a Sunni Muslim, insisted on Monday that his initial decision to delay the time change until 20 April to "relieve" those fasting during Ramadan had not been for "sectarian reasons", adding: "A decision like this should not have triggered such sectarian responses."

He blamed the deep political and religious divisions that have resulted in parliament being unable to agree on a new president since October and a caretaker cabinet with limited powers being left to run the country.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-65090888

"It was someone else's fault that I personally took an unprecedented last-minute decision based on religion, and that's not for sectarian reasons. Isn't that all obvious????"

[Tetrachloride]

1. In my area, sunset determines the end of fast. Not the time of day.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Yes, the point is that daylight saving time moves the timetable of work, school etc.

The acting PM apparently thinks people would prefer to be going to work, and coming back, later, compared to their fast-breaking.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Same everywhere. Moving clocks changes the relative time, not time itself

... it does not change actual time (sundown, sunrise).

Moving the clocks means they have to wait an extra hour after work ends.

Not moving the clocks means they don't have to wait that hour.

[PJMcK]

3. This is stupid

It’s parochial and foolish.

The world’s clocks need to be in coordination. Otherwise, chaos ensues.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. The clocks are not in coordination and never have been

... if you define coordination your way.

If you stay on standard time (Arizona) while states around you shift, then time hasn't shifted and clocks are still coordinated in the sense that we can know what actual time is even so. Sometimes you add one hour and sometimes you don't. You have to add or subtract time anyway adjusting from east coast to west and points in between.

Here in Canada, Newfoundland is a half hour ahead of the rest of the country.

There are time zones that are offset by 15 minutes in some places. Chaos has not ensued, even though it seems silly to me.

There never was universal coordination of time, in your sense, before time zones and after, and there never can be or will be.

[Ahna KneeMoose]

6. No Comment Until The Time Limit Is Up

Last edited Sun Mar 26, 2023, 02:00 PM - Edit history (1)

[BumRushDaShow]

7. There is what used to be called "GMT" and now called "UTC"

(Greenwich Mean Time / Universal Time Coordinated) where "the world" (signatories) adopted a single "time" and add or subtract some "x" amount of minutes or hours to that time to suit their populaces.

Computer and telecommunications systems (including whatever you use to post on DU) are all set for UTC and then would be assigned an "offset" based on where you live.

In the U.S., NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) tracks the "exact" times (among handling many other duties) - https://www.time.gov/

Cool history of NIST's atomic clocks - https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-services/brief-history-atomic-clocks-nist

Some experimental types of atomic clocks that NIST has designed/tested -

https://www.nist.gov/noac/success-story-chip-scale-atomic-clock
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2006/07/mercury-atomic-clock-keeps-time-record-accuracy

Summary/history of UTC here (PDF).