John North Editor & Publisher

Venezuelan President Hugo Ch·vez never ceases to amaze me.

One of his latest theatrical stunts, which captured worldwide attention, was to mandate that time in Venezuela be advanced 30 minutes.

His pronouncement caused many people to recall a hilarious scene in Woody Allenís film ìBananasî when a revolutionary hero becomes president of a Latin American county and announces that from now on, ìunderwear will be worn on the outside,î according to Gail Collins in an Aug. 23 column in The New York Times.

While one might jump to the conclusion that Ch·vez did this to show his power as his countryís strongman, it appears that his decision was motivated by what he seems to consider more pragmatic concerns.

The time change, he said, is part of his plan to reduce the Venezuelan work day in 2008. It would facilitate cutting everyoneís work day to six hours in order ó paradoxically ó to increase national productivity.

Changing the start of the day from 7 a.m. to 6:30 will also create a ìmetabolic effect, where the human brain is conditioned by sunlight,î Ch·vez claimed.

Backed by his Science and Technology Minister, he also asserted that the change will provide a more ìfair distribution of the sunriseî for poor children who have to get up early to go to school, though he didnít explain why shifting the time of sunrise would be easier than just shifting the time school starts.

No one ó least of all in Venezuela ó is quite sure what to make of all this. Some might speculate that Ch·vez is actually trying to counter the Latino custom of being 30 minutes late.

But I wonder if Ch·vez merely is following the lead of Congress, with its constant lengthening of Daylight Savings Time in the United States. We now have DST three-quarters of the year, so that our clocks are an hour ahead of ìactual timeî way more often than not.

Ch·vezís time change also makes me ponder how our lives are so constrained by the tyranny of clock time ó an artificial construct that is ever more loosely connected to the natural cycles of day and night on which it is supposed to be based.

Ironically, Ch·vezís move would put his countryís clocks closer to natural time, based on day and night cycles. It also returns Venezuela to the time system it followed up until the 1960s.

All of this buzz about time makes me wonder what happen if Ch·vez has launched a trend and other world leaders started dictating time changes arbitrarily.

Certainly, international business dealings could be disrupted by confusion over working hours, with nobody quite sure when lunch hour, tea time, siesta and quitting time occur.

Maybe this is much ado about nothing? But just imagine a dictatorial leader of any country decreeing that clocks be perpetually set back ó and time delayed forever ó to prevent a legislative or judicial ruling against him from taking effect. It would be shades of the film ìGroundhog Dayî ó by presidential fiat.

Ch·vez hasnít gone that far ... yet. At his last inauguration, however, he called for abolishing presidential term limits so he could stay in power longer. Maybe heís also considering doubling the length of each day so he can stretch his current six-year term of office into 12.

In the short run, Ch·vez appears to be in a position to do pretty much as he likes, including changing time at will. In the long run, though, I have a feeling Venezuela will revert back to abiding by international time zones.

Like King Canute, the medieval English ruler who sought to show flatterers that his great power had its limits ó by ordering the tides to stop ó Ch·vez may find he has his limits, too. Especially as Venezuelans ó eventually ó decide for themselves whether the time change is good or bad for them.
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John North, publisher and editor of the Daily Planet, may be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .