http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-12-09-voa24.cfm By VOA News 09 December 2007 Venezuelans have set their clocks back half an hour as the country adopts its own time zone. Speaking ahead of Sunday time change, President Hugo Chavez told reporters that he doesn't care if people think he is crazy. He said the new time will go ahead anyway. The Venezuelan leader has said the time change will give schoolchildren more daylight. The change was first announced several weeks ago but had been delayed for technical reasons. Clocks will be set to Universal Time (UTC) minus 4.5 hours. The change is likely to affect time/date entries on computers and other devices. Several other countries have time zones that set them apart from other nations. They include Afghanistan, Burma, India and Iran.
...and Sri Lanka (was just there a couple of weeks ago). That list above pretty much says a lot... Chavez is terrible for Venezuela.
What's funny is a while back while talking about the time change during a live broadcast, he couldn't even remember if it was setting them forward or back and he had to look back at one of his advisors to find out.
how exactly do they get more daylight? will there still not be 10-12 hrs of daylight regardless of what the clock says?
I'm gonna guess it will be lighter when they go to school in the morning. Sort of like how we "Fall backwards" when the days start getting shorter, which I think is a good idea. But changing it 30 minutes instead of an hour is just plain loopy.
come to think of it, this isn't much different than us changing our daylight savings date this year. according to bush we're going to save energy... as mentioned this all just seems kinda loopy. but i'm not convinced. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/08/09/MNGF6E53FP1.DTL
I implemented my own time zone at our house. It's awesome. It's only 6:12 pm right now in fact. I think I'll get to making dinner. My boss does get a bit irritated when I show up for work at noon...that's the only major drawback.
Well except that we made the decision democratically. Hugo just did it cuz he felt like it. I dont think Bush has the power to just implement a new time zone.
Well, to be fair to ol' Hugo, he did it democratically as well. Venezuela is a presidential system just like the USA, so all law making decisions have to originate and be passed by a legislative body. Basically Venezuela's legislators serve as Chavez's puppet, doing whatever he tells them to do, but they were democratically elected just as Chavez was, and the system in Venezuela is the same as it is in the United States.
I think there are a lot of differences in the Venezuelan and US systems. And did legislators pass this or did Huges make an executive decision?
The Venezuelan and US systems are fundamentally the same. And Chavez cannot make "executive decisions" under Venezuelan law. All law making must originate from the legislative body. Venezuela's Congress has NOT ONE member of an opposition party, which essentially does allow Hugo to rule by decree, but Chavez cannot just make executive decisions and have them be law.
Actually....no.........I created the time zone in such a way that at 3 pm, the time "springs forward" 2 hours. So I really only get a good 3 hours of work in per day.
