Saturday 5 October 2013

Does the rest of the world

argue the way we do in Australia?
This weekend we are switching over to the so-called "daylight saving".  Unlike some areas of the northern hemisphere we are not far enough from the equator to really benefit from this but some were convinced it was of benefit to them and pushed for it. It makes assumptions about people's lifestyles and activities which have been largely disproven. People still need to go to work at the same time and, once home, they tend to stay indoors. The latter is particularly true in the heat of summer.  But, we now have daylight saving and we are likely to be stuck with it.
Every year however my state, which is half an hour behind the next state - yes, I did say half an hour - does not take the opportunity to rectify that half hour difference. There has been talk from time to time of moving our time forward "so that it is in line with the eastern states". That would put us even more out of line with the world time zones but business keeps insisting that we should move forward rather than back. It makes all sorts of spurious excuses as to why this is necessary. Of course it is not necessary. It is merely desirable for business. After all, Australia does not - apparently - do business with the rest of the world.
I read the usual letters to the editor about these things and also pondered on the fact that today the last major football match is apparently being held at something called "Football Park". I have never been there. It was built and opened some time in the 70's because - yes, wait for it - an argument between football and cricket officials. Apparently that has been resolved and football will now be returned to its "rightful" place - a venue in the city centre and the hallowed home of cricket. It took a lot of government money for that to happen. I don't understand the politics of it all and I don't want to. It is a waste of money in my view.
We have other arguments here that just cost money, such a two organisations for guide dogs and numerous other small charities for highly specific purposes. Most of them achieve very little but no doubt those who run them feel they are doing some good.
There are duplicate "guilds" too. Some of them have come about because of other arguments. People have disagreed about how things are run, how things are done. It all costs money, more money than it should. Our community is not large enough to have such duplications and waste simply because people argue, a minority want something and get it or people are simply too lazy to organise themselves in accordance with the natural rhythms of nature.
Does the rest of the world argue like this? It might. It just seems more obvious here.

3 comments:

Helen Devries said...

When I first moved to France the village had two amateur dramatic societies and two bands - on one side the priests' am dram and band and on the other the lay equivalent.

jeanfromcornwall said...

Go back a couple of hundred years and that is the same reason in operation, when the great rise of non-conformist chapels occurred. Sects dividing and dividing and I am sure a lot of it happened because of personal disagreements.

We had the experiment of summer time all year some years back - it was not a good thing. Thank goodness we have GMT through the winter again, although there are still campaigns to change it.

catdownunder said...

Sounds typical Helen.
I think it was also a power thing Jean - like some of those modern cults but not quite as disastrous.
Why would anyone want to change GMT? The rest of the world relies on Greenwich!