The clock in Lebanon does not advance an hour to the last minute: daylight saving time begins a month later | outside

Normally, Lebanon switches to daylight saving time at the end of March and continues until the end of October. But on Thursday, a Cabinet statement sounded: “The clocks will be brought forward – exceptionally – by one hour this year on the night of April 20-21.”

The decision was not clarified in the statement, according to various international media, but the postponement coincides with the month of Ramadan, when the Muslim community fasts from sunrise to sunset. By sticking to winter time, it gets dark earlier and people can end the fast an hour earlier than that day.

However, the government’s failure to explain the decision is viewed with suspicion by some, reviled by others, and there are still others who do not accept the decision. The decision is sure to lead to all kinds of practical problems.

Read also: Daylight Saving Time: Timekeeper’ will sleep well the next night and check the atomic clock tomorrow morning

MTV Lebanon and LBCI Lebanon television companies said they would not cooperate in rescheduling the start of daylight savings time. They set their clocks forward one hour last night. The Catholic Church and all its affiliated institutions have done the same in the country.

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Middle East Airlines has announced that next month all flights departing from Beirut will be brought forward by one hour. The question is what other companies and schools are doing. There is a possibility that two time zones will practically appear in Lebanon, certainly because the time on computers, phones and other equipment has also been automatically switched in many cases.

It leads to obscurity in a country that is already struggling financially, among other things. Lebanon finished last week in World Happiness Report 2023 Along with Afghanistan at the bottom, as the least happy country in the world.

The International Monetary Fund warned Lebanon, Thursday, that the country is in a “very dangerous situation.” A year ago, the international organization signed a $3 billion agreement with the state, hoping to tackle recession, poverty and inflation. But the reforms that the state has promised to implement have not yet been adequately implemented. The Lebanese currency has lost 98 percent of its value and the International Monetary Fund sees only “very slow progress”. “Without quick reforms, Lebanon will plunge into a crisis that will never end,” he added.

He tempts a Lebanese tweet with a sarcastic comparison. IMF: Your time is running out. Berri and Mikati: We will change the times, quoting Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri. A video was leaked of the two discussing the proposal to postpone the start of summer. “It can’t happen. (…]It will lead to a lot of problems,” Mikati says in the video. However, he announces that the start of daylight savings time will be postponed later.