from our online reporter Eric Geit
Some Dutch traditions are older than the discussion on zwarte piet, and one of them is complaining about changing the clock from summer savings time, to the ‘normal’ GMT +1 time.
Unlike the zwarte piet discussion, the matter is not complex. In fact, it is simple. Everyone agrees. No one likes to change the clock. That does not mean it can’t be highly debated, even in the news. So a general discussion will look like the following:
- Wow, it’s dark now isn’t it? (question)
- Yes, because they changed the clock one hour! (answer)
- So in fact it’s one hour later? (people thinking really hard)
- No it’s one hour earlier! (people again thinking really hard)
- No, I think it’s the other way around, because it’s dark now, you set the clock one hour forward! (confusion)
- No, you set the clock one hour backwards, and that’s why it’s dark now! (more confusion)
- Anyways: it sucks! (agreement)
So then it would have seemed that everything went well and people can continue with their lives as if nothing ever happened. However:
- I wish it was always summer time! (statement)
- What? You’re kidding? I wish it was always winter time! (opposite statement)
- How do you mean? Summer time is sooo much better, it is always light and shit! (emotional argument)
- Naah, you got mixed up, Summer is better, but it’s winter time that is the natural time(‘natural’ argument’)
- You’re crazy (constructive criticism)
- No you’re crazy! (playing the ball back)
etc. etc. So there you have it, the real summer savings tradition! And this tradition is not limited to the living rooms and coffee corners, it is also found on national radio, the news and in European parliaments. People all love it.
But now, the shocking part. Sunday 27th of October. I wake up, it seems light. How late is it? I watch the clock. It seems that it has changed. In my daily ritual I obsessively read national news (NOS). I read about nitrogen, I read about Baghdadi and about Catalonia. And then I realize: nothing about summer savings! No headings, no headlines, no small little scribble somewhere. Nothing.
I do not consider myself a conspiracy thinker, and that’s why I haven’t come up with one. But why is the government silencing the discussion? Are we in a psychological experiment? Did something strange happen in this one extra hour between 2 and 3? Certainly, something is terribly wrong and needs to be investigated!
Honor our traditions, and keep the discussion alive. We will not be silenced!