PrintAugust 21, 2007
Chavez moves the clock forward
Hugo Chavez is moving the clock in Venezuela forward by 30 minutes, in the name of reshaping Venezuelans' metabolism. The New York Times reports:
Moved by claims that it will help the metabolism and productivity of his fellow citizens, President Hugo Chávez said clocks would be moved forward by half an hour at the start of 2008. He announced the change on his Sunday television program.
The mini-version of Daylight Savings Time apparently will be year-round. Evidently el presidente is persuaded that this will have Venezuelans getting up earlier on the solar clock, which he believes will affect their metabolisms.
The rhetoric of Chavez is as interesting as the move itself. As a practical matter, it will put Venezuela on a different clock than its neighbors in South and North America, and will be more awkward to convert than a full-hour time switch. Some parts of eastern Atlantic Canada are also out of synch by a half hour, rather than a full hour shift, in an effort to match the clock to the sun, of course. But nobody in Canada is talking about creating a New Man with new metabolic patterns.
In Revolutionary France, the effort to create a New Man led to new measures (the metric system) and new names for the months. If and when Chavez starts calling July Thermidor, it will another sign of his direction for Venezuela. Meanwhile, the awkwardness of a half hour time conversion will be just another pain in the neck for his people.
Hat tip: Ed Lasky
