Egyptians ditch daylight saving time
Parliament has prevailed in its quest to keep the government from adjusting clocks twice a year, as daylight saving runs out of time in Egypt.
CAIRO — After a long tug of war, the Egyptian government has finally relented to parliament and given up daylight saving time, based on a number of studies concluding daylight saving time is, well, pointless.
Daylight saving time is the practice of setting clocks ahead one hour during summer months so that it seems to be light outside for an extra hour each evening. The idea is to take advantage of daylight while also saving energy. Clocks are turned back again in the winter.
The debate over daylight saving time’s usefulness has gone back and forth, much like Egypt’s clocks. This summer, the government insisted daylight saving time would continue. Parliament countered by passing a law to cancel it. The Cabinet persisted, but then, on July 5, just three days before daylight saving time was to take effect, officials reversed their position, resulting in a mad scramble to revise schedules at the last minute.
The Cabinet’s change of heart might have been influenced by parliament’s escalation of the debate, accompanied by pressure from social media users. Young Egyptians satirically demanded the return of former President Hosni Mubarak, who supported daylight saving time for decades, if the government insisted on keeping daylight saving time. Some later joked that their success in getting rid of daylight saving time was one of the most recent gains from the revolution that ousted Mubarak in 2011.
