When two of Lebanon’s top leaders
decided to delay daylight saving time by a month, they were aiming to ensure
that Muslims would not have to break their dawn-to-sunset fast an hour later
during the holy month of Ramadan.
اضافة اعلان
But the decision last week sent the nation
into a tailspin and set off a firestorm of outrage. On Monday, the officials
backtracked and said the clock change would go ahead around midweek, just a few
days later than originally planned.
Christian clergy and leaders of Christian
political parties had rejected the last-minute change, made by two senior
Muslim officials — Prime Minister Najib Mikati and House Speaker Nabih Berri —
without consulting other religious groups. They vowed that they would abide by
daylight saving time regardless of what the officials had decreed. And many
other Lebanese found their lives upended, as they were forced to navigate
between two time zones.
The country was already caught up in
multiple crises, grappling with severe economic turmoil and political
paralysis. And in a nation divided mainly between Muslims and Christians with a
long history of violent sectarian and religious conflict, the time change
decision immediately aggravated those deep rifts.
“Do the Lebanese people not have enough
problems they are going through to add to them the problem of time?” the Greek
Orthodox archbishop, Elias Odeh, said in his Sunday sermon, expressing sadness
over how the issue had taken on a sectarian overtone.
Lebanon is divided among Sunni and Shiite
Muslims, Christians, and smaller religious minorities. Although a 15-year civil
war fought mainly between Muslims and Christian militias ended in 1990, the
sectarian scars live on.
Last-minute decisionThe decision to delay the time change was
made on Thursday, the same day that Ramadan began.
“Do the Lebanese people not have enough problems they are going through to add to them the problem of time?”
After the outrage spilled into the new
week, Mikati met with Cabinet members on Monday afternoon — something he did
not do before announcing the initial change — and announced that Lebanon would,
indeed, switch to daylight saving time overnight between Wednesday and
Thursday.
But the damage was already done.
Some Lebanese, who generally rely on a
steady diet of dark humor to deal with the country’s dysfunctions, asked what
was the point of breaking fast an hour earlier when some people did not even
have food to eat. Others wondered if couples in mixed religious marriages would
have to divide their homes into two time zones.
A map of the country circulating on social
media showed the country divided into green, orange, and yellow zones: green
for +1 GMT, orange for +2 GMT, and yellow where both time zones could co-exist.
“In the height of an economic crisis when
people don’t even have their basic needs met and food to eat, look at what
we’re arguing about,” said Myriam Sfeir, 50, director of the Arab Institute for
Women at the Lebanese American University.
Sfeir said she missed a dentist’s
appointment on Monday because she was going by daylight saving time while her
dentist, in line with the leaders’ decree, was still on winter time.
She began asking beforehand whether an
appointment is on “iPhone time or al-Berri time”, as some people have taken to
calling the competing time zones. Others refer to Lebanon’s extended winter
hours as BMT — Berri-Mikati Time.
“In the height of an economic crisis when people don’t even have their basic needs met and food to eat, look at what we’re arguing about.”
Sfeir — a Christian who is fasting for Lent
and who is married to a Muslim man who is not fasting for Ramadan — blamed the
leaders for inflaming the sectarian tensions with the time conflict.
“This has nothing to do with religion,” she
said. “This has to do with a state that make decisions without consulting
anyone. But sectarianism has reared its head whether you like it or not.”
Chaos and confusionIn other industries, the time change got
complicated.
The national airline, Middle East Airlines,
announced that flight departure times from Beirut’s international airport would
be adjusted by an hour, in line with daylight saving time. A widely shared
video from the airport showed a board with two different times on either side:
one for flights and the other for taxis.
On Sunday night, students and teachers were
at a loss about when classes would begin the next morning because of
conflicting statements by the education minister.
Lebanon’s television channels chose sides,
with secular ones such as MTV and LBC deciding to abide by daylight saving
time, while channels associated with Shiite Muslim parties remained on winter
time.
“There’s no time limit as to how far we can stretch the multiple crises,” she said. “We can just drag our feet, so what’s just one hour during Ramadan?”
Hassan Moraib, an influential Muslim
cleric, accused the MTV and LBC channels of “racism and sectarianism” by not
adhering to the government’s decision. He called on Muslims to boycott the
channels.
Dysfunctional decision-makingThe move to delay daylight saving time
until after Ramadan is not without precedent in the Arab world.
The Palestinian Authority announced such a
change this month, too. And Egypt, after banning daylight saving time for
years, decided to bring it back but only for the end of April, once Ramadan is
over.
The news in Lebanon came not in an official
announcement made weeks in advance, but via a leaked video clip in which Berri
is seen urging Mikati to make the change. Hours later, state media announced
it.
“It was just a very populist approach to
policymaking,” said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in
Beirut. “You think this is going to distract people from the economic problems
they are facing or that families are going hungry?”
The anger was less about shifting the time
and more about how the decision making was emblematic of the way Lebanon’s
leaders have governed for years, she added.
“There’s no time limit as to how far we can
stretch the multiple crises,” she said. “We can just drag our feet, so what’s
just one hour during Ramadan?”
‘This one hour’For Roula Mouawad, the switch back to one
time zone cannot come soon enough. The 52-year-old journalist has a flight to
Paris on Tuesday. When she bought the ticket, it was scheduled for 4pm But then
she received a message that the time of the flight had changed to 3pm.
“It has become the talk of a nation, this one hour,” Mouawad said. Referring to the politicians, she added, “And, meanwhile, they are taking us back 20 years.”
“But three on what time?” she said. “The
three on the international time? Or three on the Berkati time?”
Berkati time, she explained, was yet a
third iteration of Lebanese time, a melding of the names of the two officials
behind the delay in daylight saving time.
Mouawad, who works for Lebanon’s Annahar
newspaper, spoke at an elementary school on Monday, and it was all the children
wanted to discuss. One seven-year-old said he went to the cinema with his
parents to watch a 5pm movie, but when they got there, it had already started.
“It has become the talk of a nation, this
one hour,” Mouawad said. Referring to the politicians, she added, “And,
meanwhile, they are taking us back 20 years.”
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