E.A.S.T. Samoa
Samoa will leap 24 hours into the future, erasing a day, thereby facilitating greater cooperation between the South Pacific nation and burgeoning East Asia.
Now, as the volume of trade with their Asian neighbors has surged ahead of the West, Samoans have decided to go "back to the future," reversing a decision it made 119 years ago to stay behind a day with backward Americans and Europeans.
In essence, Samoa is turning away from and rejecting the fledgling West, in favor of Eastern innovation, ensuring that the island nation gains valuable working days in alignment with their prospering Asian partners.
"Today we do a lot more business with China and Pacific Rim countries such as Singapore," Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said, adding that his latest idea will make commerce with the bustling region "far, far easier."
The Time Zone "shift" will take effect on December 27, 2011. At midnight, when it will be 9 p.m. on December 28 in the West, clocks in Apia, the capital of Samoa, will jump to 00:00 of December 29, 3 hours ahead of its closest Westernized neighbor located in the Trans-Tasman.
