[tz] Merged 1970+ time zones should always return -1 pre-1970

[Michael H Deckers]

    On 2021-09-28 19:13, Paul Eggert wrote:

> There are many examples of those merges too. For example, 
> Europe/Zurich currently covers Liechtenstein even though before 2013 
> there was a separate Zone for Europe/Vaduz.
>
> And anyway, saying "we've always done it that way" would not be an 
> adequate response to valid fairness concerns. 


    I rather see it the other way around: any merging is potentially unfair.

    When you merged Africa/Bamako with Africa/Abidjan (in 2014f), you also
    eradicated for the people of Mali their date of independence from France
    (1960-06-20), when they switched to UTC + 00 h. It certainly looks as if
    the colonial times were made invisible; and while this may be
    unintentional, it is an impression that must be avoided by all means,
    in my opinion, even at the cost of some more Bytes.

    Michael Deckers.