Samoa takes day off to skip International Date Line Samoans have lost a day overnight, as the country jumped straight to 31 December by shifting to the opposite side of the International Date Line. The Independent State of Samoa, decided to skip the day in order to align its clock more closely with that of its main trading neighbors: Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The time …
Since there are at lest s many Samoans here in Aotearoa as there are in Samoa, the switch makes sense. As did the changeover to driving on the left they made a couple of years ago to facilitate the import of cheaper used cars from here and Australia. That change was also supposed to end in Ragnarok, but instead went pretty much without a hitch.
Name-Entitlement: I didn't think that it worked that way. I was always under the impression that the victors got to call the shots.
On the topic of invading and renaming France, the Germans (well, Franks actually) invaded what is mostly France some 1,300 years ago and renamed the old Roman provinces of Gallia to 'France'. Bloody Germans.
Very doubtful that the Maoris had a name for the whole place and, then again, which Maoris? What about the Moriori? Also, what the hell is Ragnorok? Some other fanciful takeover of a Europeanised Maori word from one of the old dialects or, as it sounds, some kind of adoption of fantastical Norse?
Or are you just one of those Pakehas keen to hold the "Maori" back in their pre-European state, untainted by the advantages of modern medicine, education, food, transport, housing and the gift of a mother tongue that happens to have become a world language? Into the ghetto, you Maoris. Let's reintroduce cannibalism and slavery and none of this feminist nonsense about women on Maraes. Let's get them to use their old weights and measures, that should help them along the way.
By the way, it must be between 50 years and a century since there were any "pure" Maoris. Perhaps there is a handy operation to remover the impure genes. Racialist horror, I find you.
And do not tell me how disadvantaged "Maoris" are: I remember in the 1980s when both the Police minister and the head of the armed forces were "Maori", poor, repressed souls. They can vote on the general roll and have a couple of reserved parliamentary seats and there are, sadly, nowadays some no-go areas for non-maoris (especially in the North, plus lots of formerly public land and coast for which you now need permission from "Maori" and DOC to go there).
Pay them proper respect as modern, capable people and do not patronise them by stealing their original language to satisfy your feelings of inadequacy.
Perhaps you should learn to take pride in the many good things that Europeans (that's you according to your name) achieved in their whole history and specifically their courage and success in New Zealand (Is n't it nice that the British colonists respected the Dutch name? Dig dig). Mind you, if the French had been a day or two earlier, we could all be speaking French.
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Biggest mistake we made letting the world's time be regulated and controlled from France. No way they were going to live with a huge reminder like GMT of who originally regulated and organised time.
Oh well, we've still got a f*ck off great laser and a big brass strip on our meridian, they haven't found a way to steal that, although it won't be long before the gypsies have a go at getting the brass.
What's more, I think it was agreed at a conference in the USA as a tribute to the work and formalisation of time zones by those awful people (now, clear out your chromosomes), the British (hence the passing of the line through Greenwich, England.
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/time-zones-history.htm
What's so clever about discarding history?
If you decide to shell 2k on plane tickets from EU or USA it ain't going to be just for the sunset.
The switch to driving on the left is interesting though. Someone should show that one to Polish legislators (I know that safety has little to do with them sprouting bullshit and banning registration of right wheel drive - it is all to protect those precious "indigineous" car manufacturing in violation of the EU treaties).
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If Samoa went from 23 hours behind Sydney to 3 hours ahead, there would have to be 26 hours in a day :-)
Sydney is now 1 hour behind Samoa, which is one hour behind both Aotearoa and New Zealand. In the AU/NZ winter, Sydneysiders will be two hours behind the Samoans, who will be idemchronous (is that a word?) with the Kiwis.
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