Posted on 12/09/2007 9:14:19 AM PST by blam
Hugo Chavez invents new half-hour time zone
By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent
Last Updated: 3:35pm GMT 09/12/2007
Venezuela has created its own, unique time zone on the orders of President Hugo Chavez, setting clocks back half an hour and putting the oil-rich nation out of step with its neighbours.
"I don't care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead," said Mr Chavez.
Hugo Chavez has already changed the national flag and coat of arms
The president said the change would improve health, as the sun will rise before most Venezuelans get up ensuring all go to work or school in daylight.
"These children have to get up at five in the morning... they arrive at school dead tired," said Mr Chavez. "And why? Because of our time."
Government ministers lined up to support the president's theory.
"The human brain is conditioned by the light of the sun," offered Hector Navarro, the Minister of Science and Technology, assuring that the health and productivity of the nation will improve thanks to the change.
Many Venezuelans were not impressed with the change or bamboozled by the technical jargon coming out of the Science and Technology Ministry.
"The only thing this will do is inject yet more chaos into our lives," said John Marulanda, a young executive. "This president believes in change for change's sake." President Chavez has now changed the flag, the national coat of arms, the salute of the armed forces and the constitution.
He sought to change Venezuela's political system on Dec 2, when he proposed a referendum to enshrine socialism in the constitution and grant the president indefinite re-election and even greater powers.
Fifty-one per cent of Venezuelans said no, delivering Mr Chavez his first electoral defeat in nine years.
However the president has vowed to press ahead with his changes and has enough power through his control of the armed forces, the National Assembly, the judicial system, the Central bank and increasingly of the media, to introduce change without recourse to another referendum.
We should ask our favorite leftist from Hollywood what they think of Chavez latest move..?
“I don’t care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead,” said Mr Chavez.
You asked for it, little dictator who smells like smoke: You are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, ad infinitium...
Since he is their hero, they will probaby ask that we change the entire U.S. to match the “Puko Chavez time zone.”
Newfoundland time is three and one half hours behind Greenwich Mean Time(UTC) during summer and two and a half when daylight savings time is selected. So Venezulea will simply be in the same time zone as Newfoundland.
All they have do adjust a Windows based computer is select Newfoundland time and unselect “Automatically adjust clock for daylight savings changes.” Done.
Darwin and Adelaide, Australia are nine and a half hour offset from UTC.
Until the late nineteenth century, every city and town in the U.S. was on a different time zone. Every degree of longitude west of Greenwich results in a four minute lag in in local mean solar time. The railroads used standard time zones before they were adopted for general use.
That being said, the impact of this “reform” will be minimal at best. It’s bad politics, it reinforcers Chavez’ image as a meddler.
Hugo is bat$hit crazy, but turning the clocks forward and then backwards 1 hour every year isn’t too smart either.
Not only that, bar time in Nicaragua has been totally screwed up.
However the president has vowed to press ahead with his changes and has enough power through his control of the armed forces, the National Assembly, the judicial system, the Central bank and increasingly of the media, to introduce change without recourse to another referendum.
LOL! I expected this. The people be damned.
It’s true. This nut does not have a brain.
Next step is to make the time change retroactive. Think of all that time you’ll have on your hands then!
Thank You!
You couldn’t make this stuff up!
It reminds me of the dim bulb who wrote to the LA paper complaining about daylight savings time. He said the extra hour of sunlight was killing his grass. No doubt the gentleman was/is a registered Democrat.
Caracas is between New York and Buenos Ayres. Sure simplifies things.
The U.S. time zones do not run smoothly with longitude but veer wildy for political reasons.
Pretending it is the same solar time over the width of 30plus degrees like the Chinese is not nutty?
The rule by dictatorial fiat is the more disturbing factor.
Hugo Chavez invents the Half Hour time zone....
Why does this surprise anyone. It is like the Dictator who renamed the months of the year in honor of his Mom in Law.
Absolute power corrupts...and makes one as mad as a rat in a coffe can.
During the recent San Diego fires, a TV reporter said that the firefighters would benefit from the ‘extra hour of daylight.’ because of daylight savings time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.