Digication ePortfolio :: Elizabeth Buckner

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

There is a common joke here that Jordanian time (and Arab time) in general, just functions differently than American (i.e., Western/foreign) time. It's much less precise, and much later in general than American time!

Of course this is great because you can always use it to your advantage when you are late for something...

But today, I was reading the Jordan Times newspaper -- and the breaking news article is actually about Jordanian time! The article read "Government rescinds dcision to switch to winter time" -- meaning the government, which had previously declared that we would have to "fall back" on the last Friday in October, has now changed its mind -- 2 days before "fall back".

According to the Jordan Times: "Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Samih Maaytah told The Jordan Times that the government has coordinated with Royal Jordanian (RJ) and other airlines before the decision was issued.

In a statement, RJ called on its passengers who hold tickets for travel between October 26, 2012 and March 30, 2013, to add one hour to the departure time mentioned on their tickets for travel from Jordanian airports or the arrival time to Jordanian airports, according to Jordan local time.

No explanation was given for the abrupt Cabinet decision, which moves Jordan to a different time zone, making the country join the GMT+3 zone which includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen, instead of the GMT+2 zone which includes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Turkey and Egypt."

Really? Really Jordan? I have so many reactions to this small piece of news (honestly, I don't think I would have even known to set my clock back otherwise), so here are some of my thoughts:

First, shouldn't this sort of thing be set months in advance, not weeks? (The article says the initial decision to move to Winter time was only made about a week ago)
Why? What possible reasons could the government possibly have for this last-minute (no pun intended!) change? And with no explanation?
Why is the Cabinet making these decisions? Shouldn't there be some official government body making these decisions, not high-up political officials?

I'm really curious, does this decision reflect general incompetence on the part of the government (because it really does seem quite incompetent to change time regulations twice in two weeks), or if there is some strange political aspect to the decision?

Upon reflection, I think it might have more to do with the fact that Friday is the Eid holiday, (Eid Al-Adha), which is one of the major holidays in Islam, and which comes from the decision by Ibrahim that he was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael, until God intervened and instructed him to slaughter a sheep instead. So on this holiday/rememberance, many Muslims slaughter sheep as a religious tradition. However, I have learned here in Jordan that Eid is quite different from in Morocco, and that in fact, many Jordanians do not actually do the slaughtering of the sheep, and instead just visit relatives, eat Eid cake (ca'k al-eid -- yummy!), and many donate money to have a sheep slaughtered and donated to the poor.

But of course the date of Eid was not a surprise! Didn't the Cabinet know it was going to be Eid when they first set the time shift? Moreover, moving forward, what does this mean for the future? And this tricky timing of Eid doesn't seem to bother the other countries of the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, etc).

Also, I leave for Tunisia in one week from Saturday exactly -- but not on Royal Jordanian -- what does this mean for my flight?