Postcard from Bishkek

Following Sunday’s election, one analyst posed the question, “Will Central Asia’s Autocrats Follow Kyrgyz Example?”  She was, of course, referring to the Kyrgyz experiment with Parliamentary Democracy, and democratic elections, (flawed or otherwise), leading to a peaceful handover of power.  She also took the view that, whilst it was unlikely the present generation of leaders in Kyrgyzstan’s neighbours would be sympathetic to the Kyrgyz experiment, other in their respective countries were already casting an interested glance in our direction and “looking on with admiration”.

Well, that may, or may not, be the case but I was interested to see another example where Kyrgyzstan has appeared to set a trend … followed by no less than Russia.

Back in 2005, Kurmanbek Bakiev’s government took a decision to end the annual switch to summer time.  That autumn, instead of putting the clock’s back an hour they left them alone … and we have been on summertime ever since.

According to our longitude, Kyrgyzstan should fall into the time zone five hours ahead of  GMT, Greenwich Mean Time.

The practice, however, had been,to alter the clocks every spring, (on the last Sunday in March), to put them one hour ahead, (effectively losing an hour on that night), so that we were six hours ahead of GMT.  It didn’t really matter that much because most in the Northern hemisphere did the same thing.  Then in the Autumn, (on the last Sunday in October), putting them back ag hour once more, (thus gaining an extra hour that night), and returning to GMT+5.  By not puttuing the clocks back, Kyrgyzstan remained on GMT+6, effectively on permanent summertime, and the same time as operates in our Northern neighbour, Kazakhstan, which has never operated DST.

This is adjusted time is known almost everywhere around the world as “Daylight Saving Time”, (DST), although in Britain we are our usual parochial selves, stick to our guns, and refer to it simply as “Summer Time” or “British Summer Time”, (BST).

The idea of DST was first proposed in 1895 and it was introduced in Britain during the Second World War in order to maximize procution in munitions factories.  Although it has been widely adopted around the world, it has not been without controversy.  It has been both, praised and criticized.   The chief advantage of DST is that there are more hours of daylight in the afternoon, although less in the morning which benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but it also causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun.  There is also some controversy about its effect on health and crime, although the cases for and against do not seem to be very conclusive.   One of the early goals of introducing DST was to reduce energy costs for providing lighting,(and also heating).

The arguments put forward by the government suggested that they wanted to reduce the health problems associated with changing the clocks, accident rates, (which seem to rise after each change), and also to continue saving energy in the summer months.

This made Kyrgyzstan unique.  It was the only country on the world that operated on summertime, (or DST all year round).

For the record: It’s true that Iceland also effectively operated on summertime because it’s clocks were set to coincide with European time, (which is one hour ahead of what it would be if Iceland set its clocks according to its longitudinal position), but as Iceland has never operated DST, I am not sure that counts.

Now, changing the clocks is nothing new.  Kiribati did it in 1999, crossing the International Dateline, so that it would be the first country to greet the new millenium.  Somoa announced in May this year that it was going to do the same, (but in the opposite direction), so that it’s clocks would be in line with those in its major trading parties, (Australia and New Zealand).  Under the old system, because they were a day ahead, either their offices were closed for the weekend whilst those of their trading partners were open, or vice versa.

Well, now it appears that Russia and Belarus have decided to follow Kyrgyzstan’s example.  This autumn they are not putting their clocks back, using the same arguments as Kyrgyzstan did fiver years ago to support the decision.

More to the point, (for me at least, after all, I am British), I see that Britain is contemplating a similar move.  It wouldn’t be the first time, either, because back in 1968 we tried an experiment when Britain moved onto BST all year round, but three years later we reverted to the dual, GMT/BST, system.

This time the plan is to leave the clocks one hour, on BST – or GMT+1, next year so that they will coincide with clocks on mainland Europe, hopefully making business communications easier.  (There is an important difference, however, compared to the situation in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Russia, in that they would then advance the clocks once more the following Spring, meaning that for the summer months they would be operating on GMT+2)  They intend to introduce this for a three year experimental period so that the results could be analyzed.

It’s not, however, a “done deal” … only a proposal that is going to be put to Parliament … and there is opposition, particularly from Scotland where one of the effects of the proposal would mean that dawn would not arrive in the far north of the country until nine o’clock.  The responsible minister has said that the Scottish parliament will be given a “absolute veto” over the proposal, so nmaybe nothing will come of it in the end.

It didn’t stop me thinking, however, how nice it was that Kyrgyzstan, in one way at least, appears to be a real trendsetter.

Tags: Expat, Kyrgyzstan