January 5, 2012--Meanwhile, In Samoa . . .
While the rest of us New Years Eve popped a few corks and watched the ball drop in Times Square, while Dick Clark was trotted out for the 40th time to wish us a happy new year (could it be true that he's "only" 82?), while Mayor Bloomberg lindy -hopped the night away with Lady Gaga (I am not making this up), while all of this fun-fun was underway, out in the South Pacific, in the island archapelico of Samoa, some very serious business was transpiring.
They eliminated Friday. Not forever but for last week only. Their local calendar went from Thursday right to Saturday. This to enable them to move to the other side, the western side of the International Date Line.
The International Date Line is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, running between the north and south poles, that demarcates one calendar day from the next. It passes through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly along the 180° longitude, on the opposite side of the globe from the Prime Meridian, which runs through Greenwich, England.
Without it, as one moved across the time zones, at some point about half-way round the world there would be confusion as to what day of the week it was. Thus, the international agreement in 1884 was not only to set the Prime Meridian near London (after all, at that time, England ruled the oceans and the sun never set on its empire) but also to establish and situate the IDL.
Thus, traveling east on a Tuesday, after crossing the Line in the middle of the Pacific, it would suddenly become Wednesday.
But things such as this are not as simple as the may at first seem. Some countries, really island nations near the 180th, opted to chose to have the Line bend around them so they could be one either the eastern or western side.
Which brings us to Samoa.
Until recently, a few days ago, this island territory had been on the eastern side of the line and thus observed the same day of the week as countries in Europe and North and South America. But for years their cultural and economic orientation has been shifting from a Euro-American one to an Asian-Pacific focus. This shift last week to the western side of the IDL was to reverse Samoans being persuaded (which is a benign and only semi-accurate way to put it) by America in 1892 to move from the western from the eastern side so as to align themselves with West Coast U.S. business interests. At that time, much of Samoa was called American Samoa since it was, in effect, a possession of ours.
Get it?
As a preview of this reorientation, two years ago Samoa moved to drive on the left side of the road, just as they do in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Countries that these days more constitute their sphere of affiliation than the United States.
Since most of their commerce is with New Zealand and Australia, to quote Samoa's prime minister, because of their previous position on the eastern side of the IDL, "We lost out on two working days a week. While its was Friday here it was Saturday in New Zealand; and when we were at church on Sunday, they were already doing business in Sydney and Brisbane."
So what they did makes perfect sense. Except perhaps to some Americans who see this as yet one more example of America's loss of international stature and influence. If the Samoans can diss us this way, what can we expect from the . . . ?
They eliminated Friday. Not forever but for last week only. Their local calendar went from Thursday right to Saturday. This to enable them to move to the other side, the western side of the International Date Line.
The International Date Line is an imaginary line on the surface of the Earth, running between the north and south poles, that demarcates one calendar day from the next. It passes through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, roughly along the 180° longitude, on the opposite side of the globe from the Prime Meridian, which runs through Greenwich, England.
Without it, as one moved across the time zones, at some point about half-way round the world there would be confusion as to what day of the week it was. Thus, the international agreement in 1884 was not only to set the Prime Meridian near London (after all, at that time, England ruled the oceans and the sun never set on its empire) but also to establish and situate the IDL.
Thus, traveling east on a Tuesday, after crossing the Line in the middle of the Pacific, it would suddenly become Wednesday.
But things such as this are not as simple as the may at first seem. Some countries, really island nations near the 180th, opted to chose to have the Line bend around them so they could be one either the eastern or western side.
Which brings us to Samoa.
Until recently, a few days ago, this island territory had been on the eastern side of the line and thus observed the same day of the week as countries in Europe and North and South America. But for years their cultural and economic orientation has been shifting from a Euro-American one to an Asian-Pacific focus. This shift last week to the western side of the IDL was to reverse Samoans being persuaded (which is a benign and only semi-accurate way to put it) by America in 1892 to move from the western from the eastern side so as to align themselves with West Coast U.S. business interests. At that time, much of Samoa was called American Samoa since it was, in effect, a possession of ours.
Get it?
As a preview of this reorientation, two years ago Samoa moved to drive on the left side of the road, just as they do in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Countries that these days more constitute their sphere of affiliation than the United States.
Since most of their commerce is with New Zealand and Australia, to quote Samoa's prime minister, because of their previous position on the eastern side of the IDL, "We lost out on two working days a week. While its was Friday here it was Saturday in New Zealand; and when we were at church on Sunday, they were already doing business in Sydney and Brisbane."
So what they did makes perfect sense. Except perhaps to some Americans who see this as yet one more example of America's loss of international stature and influence. If the Samoans can diss us this way, what can we expect from the . . . ?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:17 AM
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