This is what a poet and a cartoonist say
A Famous professor, writer and activist
Zafar Iqbal vents his frustration in this way,
Our in-house economist Jyoti Rahman explains the necessity to turn the clock back in the following way:
1. Suppose in summer the sun rises at 5am and sets at 7pm, and in winter it rises at 7am and sets at 5pm.
2. Introduce DST during summer. Now sun rises at 6am and sets at 8pm. That extra hour of sunlight towards the end of the day can be used by people after work. All else equal, this saves electricity. Say the savings is quantified at Q.
3. If we don’t reverse the decision in winter, then the sun now will rise at 8am and set at 6pm. All else equal, we will need one extra hour of electricity in the morning. Say this extra electricity costs P.
4. there are now two impacts: energy is saved in the summer (Q), but there is extra demand in the winter (P). Which is greater is indeterminate.
5. Note the important caveat of ‘all else equal’. All else is not equal in real life — there are questions about public preparation etc. If this is not done properly, there is extra cost to the society — say Z.
6. This extra cost must be weighed against the benefits. If we reverse the DST in winter, the calculation is Q – Z. If we don’t reverse DST, it is Q – P – Z.
7. If we do a one off change, then you get no benefit at all. People just become used to the ‘new time’ — 8am is now new 7am. That is, Q and P are both close to zero, and given the hassles incurred while people get used to it, there is a loss of Z to the society.
Seems to me that properly done, DST would have saved energy. It wasn’t done properly, and now it risks becoming a political football. Like everything else, we will now have an Awami time and a jatiyatabadi time.
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Activist Asif Saleh writes from Dhaka: But honestly folks, I feel this has become now an issue for the ‘atels’. The people on the street are LEAST bothered about it.
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What I say? We Bangalees are racially lazy, bunch of late risers. Nobody except the retired folks wake up before sunrise. Keep the change permanently and force Banglalees to wake up early and see the sunrise for the first time in their life.
And school kids? Let them learn to wake up and go to school under darkness. If they want to come to the west for higher education and job, they would have to wake up before sunrise anyway.
What do you think?
USA has Daylight Saving time, so BD has Sleep Less Saving Time
USA has loan bailout, so BD has LOAN DEFAULTER bailout.
USA has democracy, so BD has ‘digital dinbodol democracy’
USA has law & order, but BD has big-talk and election promise.
USA has crime & punishment, BD has crime!!
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“We Bangalees are racially lazy, bunch of late risers.”
So you are equating late rising with Laziness and it is in our racial construct? REALLY!!!!!!
May be you also became one of the atels, who only know themselves and project all their faults to the whole nation and blame them
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rumi Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 12:57 am
iqo, all these DST, going to school under cover of darkness, changing school times etc hoopla are meants for urban middle class. A poor farmer and his son does not bother what clock says, they wake up before sunrise and get ready to go to work. So, the sweeping comment of lazyness implies to the lazy class only, not all.
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[...] rolling back to the old time this winter. This has created much debate in the country and Rumi at Unheard Voice has details. Cancel this [...]
Boy, storm in a teacup time!
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rumi Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 2:27 am
What do you mean?
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jyoti Reply:
November 11th, 2009 at 5:18 am
Say what? Energy is storm in a teacup? Must be a pretty big tea cup.
Accha, oit baad den. There is another issue highlighted by the MZI article: who makes these decisions, and how they are done.
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It is not Rumi but the time, only read Zafar Iqbal’s quote. Though I do not read him regularly yet I guess I can say it safely that if this -playing with the time, anger him so much (krodh) how about many other issues that has direct impact on our economy that is our plates, our pockets and future?
All the actions taken to save electricity is done knwoingly only to confuse suffering folks, that is all i can say.
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being quite equatorial there is little variation in the seasons.
i like the potential for increasing daylight working hours. mass people might not be too fussed, but folks running sme’s might benefit significantly.
im ok, so long as its nonsecular time.
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I would like to believe that all was done with a good intention. But perhaps a review of the DST is needed before Winter 09 to see if our country can save energy in the morning.
On another point – late risers are not necessarily lazy – often they work late therefore need that extra bit of sleep in the morning. Some are just night owls.. specially young students.
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In the US, they have the ’soccer moms’ — supposedly apolitical homemakers whose views can swing elections. Will we see something like ‘digital time’ apa/bhabi/khalamma in Dhaka?
Asif is in Dhaka and thus can gauge the city’s mood much better than me. But I have a feeling that if you are middle aged mother of two with a part-time job, life in ‘digital time’ would be very difficult. Yes, Rumi bhai says this is just a middle class problem, but the middle class has controlled our politics in the past.
Let me give you an example to illustrate the impact of the ’supposedly apolitical women’ demographics. Back in early 2007, the first rumbing against the army government wasn’t about human rights or democracy, it was these supposedly apolitical women who were complaining about the fact that in the entire Uttara area, there was no functioning kacha bazar thanks to the army. I saw this first hand when the blogosphere was ga ga about reform and the arrest of Tarique Rahman.
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Finally good sense prevails.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=119228
On the upside, this is how democracy is supposed to work. A popularly elected, and responsive, government amends earlier policy stance to reflect public opinion. Well done.
On the downside, why was it dragged out for so long? It’s not like the concept of daylight saving was invented by this government. Why couldn’t they have done this properly back in June?
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