Citizens Of Samoa To Travel One Day Ahead In Time

Scientists may be finding ways to make time travel possible, some may even be saying that it is impossible, but the case of Samoa time travels seems to become a reality. This is not done by any scientist, it's the work of their Government.

#-Link-Snipped-#Samoa a small two island nation is set to experience a rare phenomenon. It will travel one day ahead in time. No, I am not talking about any magic or sci-fi movie. Samoa is geographically situated 3°35’ S and 172°20’ W. It is located just 32 Km from the International Date Line. Recently, the Government (Parliament) of Samoa has announced that this year the day of Dec 29, 2011 will not be counted. When this will be implemented, Samoa will move 3 hours ahead of Sydney and New Zealand which is 21 hours lagging to the later two.

The shift would have a deep impact on the trade and economy of that nation. The main business going on in the island nation is travel and tourism. Most of the travelers are from Australia and New Zealand. Remaining behind 21 hours sometimes creates confusion. While it may be Monday in Australia, it is still Sunday in Samoa.

Considering this fact, prime minister this Pacific Island nation Mr.Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi wants to patch up with neighboring countries with regards to clock. In April this year, Samoans called Cartographers at Collins Bartholomew. It is only a matter of publicizing the concept now. The current date and time was adopted according to US convenience in 1892A.D. The changes will make Samoa closer to countries like Japan, Australia and New Zealand. It is a people’s decision. It is for their convenience. It is a general feeling nowadays.

This is not a first calendar change. A few years back Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela,  shifted his countries 30 minutes back. Countries generally tend to change the time for their convenience, which in my opinion is a good decision.  Whole country should remain under a single time zone. The International Date Line is actually a zigzag line which is supposed to be 180 degrees opposite to Greenwich meridian time which is considered to be 0o longitude.

Check out the video with this article. It will explain you the concept of International Date Line. It is a common knowledge that earth rotates from west to east. So considering the day as Monday, on left side as the earth rotates, we can see actually two date lines right? The ‘Tuesday’ keeps on covering larger parts of earth until the whole earth has a Tuesday and the two date lines coincide to be one again.  Again the cycle starts between Tuesday and Wednesday, Wednesday and Thursday and it continues on and on. It should be taken in mind that there is nothing to be confused of. The present convention was accepted in the year 1884 in International meridian conference.

My opinion: The convention keeps on changing. It is a constant evolution. It will continue till all countries arrive at a mutually acceptable conclusion. However the fact cannot be neglected that whatever we decide as a revised date line, still it may happen that two neighboring countries are a day apart. As far as Samoa is concerned, the decision is good as it would help strengthen its economy still further.

 

Source: How does a country change its time zone? - BBC News

Replies

You are reading an archived discussion.

Related Posts

The days may not be very far when you will carry a small diary in your pocket made with the next version of paper for sending mails and reading e-books....
“An XYZ app wants to access your personal information : Name, Friend List, Date of Birth” Allow | Don’t Allow This security vulnerability gave easy access to users’ account and...
It so happens that we need uninterrupted power supply for some time and it is cut off! So what we do in that case? We simply wait, nothing more. But...
The keyboards we use are already great, but what will happen if you get a keyboard that can sense your fingers? It’ll know what you want to type and will...
In a major strategic decision on Friday, Chevrolet announced the increase in production of its Chevrolet volt. A total of $100 Million investment is expected from General Motors Co. in...