Times Are Changing: Samoa To 'Skip A Day'
A beach in Samoa, where clocks are set to go forward by a whole day
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16138681
Occasionally we all wish we could skip a day. Well now that wish is to come true for the people of Samoa.
This week the tiny Pacific island nation is to bend time and will skip Friday altogether; Samoans will go to bed on Thursday night and wake up on Saturday morning.
At the moment, Samoa is the last country in the world to see the sunset. Very soon it will become the first nation to welcome the new day.
The move is not being done as a publicity stunt or to appeal to tourists wanting to be the first to see dawn. Rather, the time shift is being carried out because of economics.
Currently Samoa is 10 hours behind London, five hours behind New York and, crucially, almost a day behind Australia and New Zealand.
Given that most of the country's business is carried out with Australia and New Zealand, Samoa's government believes it makes good financial sense to be closer to them on the clock.
The island of Samoa in the Pacific Ocean
Samoan prime minister Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi recently todl the Samoa Observer: "In doing business with New Zealand and Australia we're losing out on two working days a week. 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."
Samoa, which is roughly halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, is just 20 miles from the International Date Line which will now shift to accomodate the country's plans.
Samoa will go from being 21 hours behind Sydney to being three hours ahead.
The current timezone was agreed back in 1892, to work in line with American traders based in California.
But times have changed and trading partners are now from Australasia and China.
American Samoa, which is about 100 miles to Samoa's east, will not, however, be making the change.
