Samoa Sacrifices a Day for Its Future
The Pacific island nation of Samoa and its even tinier neighbor Tokelau are skipping Friday this week, jumping westward in time across the international date line and into the shifting economic balance of the 21st century.
The time change, officially decided in June, is meant to align Samoa with its Asian trading partners; it moves the islands’ work days further from the United States, which dominated its economy in the past.
In this giant-step version of daylight saving time, the island’s 186,000 citizens, sacoche louis vuitton and the 1,500 who live in Tokelau, will go to sleep on Thursday and wake up on Saturday. The government has decreed that those who miss a day of work on Friday will be paid all the same.
Samoa has been out of alignment with its Asian-Pacific neighbors since 1892, when American traders persuaded it in 1892 to shift from the western side to the eastern side of the international date line to facilitate business with the West Coast of the United States. That earlier shift took place on the American Independence Day — so the Samoans could celebrate July 4 twice. This one takes place at the stroke of midnight, so that two minutes after 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 29, it will be 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 31. The new time zone will put Samoa 3 hours ahead of eastern Australia rather than 21 hours behind it, and 22 hours ahead of California, instead of 2 hours behind it.
The prime minister of Samoa, Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi, acknowledged the new distance from the American orbit but said the move would make it much easier to do business with Australia and New Zealand, whose economies are linked increasingly with the rest of Asia, particularly China.
“In doing business with New Zealand and Australia, we’re losing out on two working days a week,” Mr. Tuila’epa said. “While it’s Friday here, it’s Saturday in New Zealand, and when we’re at church on Sunday, they’re already conducting business in Sydney and Brisbane.”
“Today,” the statement said bluntly, “we do a lot more business with New Zealand and Australia, China and Pacific Rim countries such as Singapore.”
Two years ago Samoa took a step to align itself with Australia and New Zealand, putting drivers on the left side of the road rather than the right. The prime minister said the change would make it easier for Samoans in those neighboring nations to send used cars home to their relatives.
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