- For the first time ever, millions of people in a small country are suddenly traveling across two different time zones due to a disagreement between Lebanon’s political and religious authorities.
- This has caused chaos and confusion for airports, businesses and people across Lebanon.
- “The whole thing is a dumb and dumber film,” said a Lebanese economist.
Aerial view of the coastal district of Manara near downtown Beirut.
Bilwander | Getty Images
Nobody knows exactly what time it is in Lebanon.
On Sunday, the Mediterranean country of around 6 million people was expected to put its clocks back one hour to daylight saving time, as it does every year along with much of the region and Europe.
This time, however, there was a last-minute objection.
The holy month of Ramadan, which is practiced by a large part of the Lebanese population and during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, falls in March and April this year. DST would mean sunset would fall around 7pm instead of 6pm, giving practicing Muslims an extra hour before they could break their fast and eat and drink again.
A few days before the clocks were due to be turned back, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri decided to end daylight saving time on the 21st. The country’s leadership is divided between Sunni and Shia Muslims and Christians.
Lebanon’s powerful Maronite Church, the country’s largest Christian institution, protested, saying it had not been consulted and that such a last-minute change would wreak havoc in the country and bring it into conflict with international standards.
The result? For the first time ever, millions of people in one small country are suddenly traveling across two different time zones.
Importantly, however, people’s clocks did not change automatically; The government expects people to change their own clocks manually. With no unified authority dictating time in the country, Lebanese say they get confused and everyone goes through different time zones.
This has caused chaos and confusion for airports, businesses and people across Lebanon.
Even Apple and Google can’t agree on what time it is in Lebanon – on iPhones and iPads, Apple has set Lebanon’s time zone as unchanged and not adjusted for daylight saving time. But if you ask Google what time it is in Lebanon, it’s an hour behind.
The whole thing is a dumb and dumber movie… The decision was dumb, but the sectarian response was even dumber (and more dangerous).
Dan Azzi
Lebanese economist
At Beirut International Airport, the departure schedule board shows two different times for the exact same flight: Flight A3 947 to Athens, for example, was listed twice, namely at 3:30 p.m. and at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“I go to Beirut airport four hours before my flight just to make sure I don’t miss my flight because of this nonsense,” Peter Sleiman, executive of a media startup, told CNBC.
“Personally, I follow International Time (Daylight Saving Time),” Sleiman said. “There’s no way I can do my meetings and planning in the time zone they’re in [the prime minister] sought.”
A bevy of memes have emerged on social media poking fun at the situation, while some fear an over-focus on the religious aspect of the decision could spark sectarian tensions in a country that has long been home to numerous different religious groups is.
“A very sad and common meme right now is, ‘Hey guys, let’s meet at 5 p.m.’ ‘What time zone? The Christian or the Muslim?’” Sleiman described.
Some in Lebanon have suggested Mikati’s move is a conspiracy to deepen divisions in the country and threaten its Christian population.
“The DST issue is not a trivial matter, but a symptom of a deeper crisis in Christian political representation in Lebanon, and it deserves serious attention,” Mustapha Hamoui, a Lebanese writer and blogger, wrote on Twitter.
“By ignoring or downplaying this issue, we risk further alienating and marginalizing the Christian community, and that will backfire on everyone,” he said. “It was a grave offense to many Christians to witness Berri and Miqati decide an issue affecting everyone’s life without even asking their opinion.”
Others, however, reject the sectarian formulation of the issue.
“In my opinion this is a dumb and dumber movie,” wrote Dan Azzi, a Lebanese economist and former CEO of Standard Chartered Bank’s Lebanese subsidiary, on Twitter.
“The decision was stupid, but the sectarian response was even more stupid (and dangerous). The response should have been to solicit unified support across the various sectarian, political and media lines to undo it,” he wrote.
It remains to be seen whether the Lebanese government will correct and unify their time zone, or whether the Lebanese people – already struggling with skyrocketing inflation, a near-collapsed currency, daily power outages and general government disruption – will have to continue to exist in two simultaneous time zones for the next month.