[tz] South Sudan to change time zone?

Tim Parenti tim at timtimeonline.com
Fri Jan 22 18:25:18 UTC 2021


On Fri, 22 Jan 2021 at 10:17, Chris Hill <Chris.Hill at mafint.org> wrote:

> The official announcement (accessible without a Facebook account at
> https://www.facebook.com/www.motps.goss.org/videos/3770463003014509/
> concurs with this:
>
> 08:23 'So, from the 1st of February, we are going back to our actual
> Greenwich Mean Time. We are going back to our local zone, of 2 hours'
> difference between Greenwich Mean Time, which is the zero hour, and our
> local time which will be 2 hours, which will be Greenwich Mean Time plus 2
> hours'
>
> 09:43 'On the 31st, and the morning starts, that morning will not start at
> 12, but when it is 12 midnight of the 31st of January, it will be 11
> o'clock. And you continue like that... Our 12 midnight of the 31st January
> will repeat itself; it will be 11, and then you go again for 12 midnight.
> That is when it becomes according to our time now.'


Thanks, Chris.  I saw yesterday that that video had been posted but hadn't
yet gotten a chance to pull the bits that caught my attention into an
email.  Your transcriptions here, particularly "On the 31st, and the
morning [it] starts", match my understanding as well, and appear to mean
the recent patch from Paul (dated Tue Jan 19 13:17:42 2021 -0800) is in
line with the intent, that the transition will be from 2021-01-31 24:00 +03
to 23:00 +02.

However, it seems in recent days that at least some are calling for a less
rushed approach:
https://eyeradio.org/south-sudan-told-not-rush-change-of-time-zone/

A South Sudan’s horologist is calling on the government to create more
> awareness first before changing the country’s time zone.
>
> “In many countries, that is how things ought to be done,” Alex Lubajo
> said, adding that “to be informed within a month that ‘next month we are
> going to change the time zone,’ people are asking why?”
>
> Mr. Lubajo is an expert in horology – the art or science of measuring time.
>> “Looking at the Geography perspective, I don’t have opposition to the idea
> but…people have to be educated first so that…they really understand,” he
> advised.



Here are a few other quotes from the 2021-01-19 press conference on getting
radio, TV, and newspapers to communicate the change on short notice:

[15:52] "This is very important, and this is the message I want you to
carry to our people so that they understand it.  We have today — today is
the 19th — and we are left with only 11 days so that we change this time.
And before we change it, we need to make it very clear to our people.  We
need to make them understand it."

[17:31] "This is very important, because changing of the timing is not that
easy.  It is just like changing the direction of the traffic on the road.
So, if we explain this very well, we'll definitely have a very clear
transit from our three hours back to our two hours."

And on dark mornings being a motivating factor for the change:

[11:28] "This is so important, because our workers — even the cleaners —
when they leave…from…their houses — come into the offices to come and clean
the offices, they come at a time when it is very dark."

[20:42] "But for us, as government employees, as public servants, we are
under duty to report in time.  And this issue of timing, of a difference of
three hours, had been actually an inconvenience and an excuse for the
employees to delay and report late.  And most of them have actually been
reporting late.  And this is very clear, if you might have been passing
through the offices in the morning, you will see — you will find that at
about 9, you will see the sweepers are still sweeping the offices.  And
this is what delays them.  So we decided to adjust so that they come in
time…"

--
Tim Parenti
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