Hugo Chavez: The Man of the Hour

I was trying to find out the time in Caracas when I realized that Caracas has half-an-hour difference from the U.S. Central Time, which geographically also applies to Lima or Santiago and, supposedly, Caracas. Confused, I found out that, in 2007, Mr. Hugo Chavez had decided to make Venezuela stand out from the rest of nations by setting the standard time in Caracas about 30 minutes earlier. Actually, the same thing happens in almost ten other nations (Iran, India and Afghanistan among them). I wondered why this happens and, of course, at the end of my little research I got the answer that I should have supposed from the beginning: Politics.

Because of the size of the country, in the continental U.S. we have Pacific, Mountain, Central and Eastern times. But did you know that China, which is even larger and it contains at least five time zones, has only one standard time (Beijing time) for the whole country? That means that, especially during the summer, quite a few millions of Chinese people must leave their beds, start working and saying good morning when they still have three or more dark hours to go. And they should be going to bed when it is still a bright day outside if they want to get up on time to work the next day. Of course, none of this everyday annoyance is worthy of consideration by the Chinese government. The important thing for them is that millions of Chinese obey its central, autocratic rule.

Just the same, it seems to be that Mr. Chavez is determined to set his own time for his own country. Thirty minutes difference with the rest of the world might not sound like a big deal but why to bother with it if not to create international flights and telecommunications confusion, delays and misunderstandings galore. Just a perfect "innocent" tool to advance the growing sense of isolation that engulfs Venezuelans in every possible way.

Apparently, many people are right when the say that Hugo Chavez is the Man of the Hour in Latin America. He sets the clocks, he sets the hour. He is the Man.

Check this article. I am sure that you will find very interesting how hard it is to know, at any given time, what time is it.