Dust
to Dawn Curfew:
This
reflection is inspired by the fact that unlike in the summer and winter
solstice where an hour of sunlight is either gained or lost in the evening,
last September 9.2018, guvernoturial act decreeing a dust to dawn curfew
sprung back clocks in the Northwest by three long hours from the previous 9PM
curfew in the evenings and by one hour in the mornings, from the previous 5AM .
It
is the more informed by the fact that the further poking of his finger into the
face of every clock in the Northwest Region after a more than one year long 9PM
to 5A.M curfew, Governor Adolf Lele L'Afrique has not not only gone a
long way to destabilize or change the body clocks of every inhabitant in the
Region, but has also contributed greatly to creating sleeping disorders and
other health hazard in people.
It
is also inspired by the fact that although the new dust to dawn curfew may
further contribute in putting a final nail to the already battered
economy of the Region, it has the advantage of saving energy for future
use as the lockup of the city saves energy and reduces environmental and noise
pollution.
Without
any intention of challenging the decreeing of curfews as a security strategy in
modern times, I make bold to state that such a strategy smarks of panic
than advised. It also seems a copycat of the secessionists who decree
ghost towns and restricts movements. There is no evidence to proof that
the security of persons and property has improved in the Region since the
introduction of curfews.
Interestingly,
the decreeing of the change of clock time from the previous 9PM to 6AM
seem to give freedom fighters an opportunity to act given that their excuse for
not engaging in the cities was how to minimize civilian casualties. With
the curfew driving home inhabitants in broad daylight, armed groups can own the
town. Let's leave that for another day and come back to the issue of clock
change.
The
new clock change in Bamenda is detrimental to business, homes, health,
education, and agriculture. Businesses that used to benefit from the
three hours evening rush can no longer survive. Farmers that used to set
sail for the fields from 5AM can no longer do so. School starts time is
adjusted as students can no longer set out for school early. Because the
whole city is shutdown by 6PM, a lot of energy would obviously be
conserved as businesses are closed. The consequences is that the
electricity corporation would register significant losses.
Conversely,
energy consumption at home would increase drastically as lights and
appliances like TVs and stereos would continuously be in use. When people
stay out longer, lights and home appliances are not on. Returning
home at 6PM and not able to leave in the morning until 6PM means light and
appliances must be on. Because people in the Region are now exposed to
less sunlight, they turn to use more energy at home. The curfew means an hour
less in the morning for farmers to milk their cows or get harvested crops to
the market.
Perhaps,
the advantage with Lele L'Afrique's dust to dawn curfew in the Northwest as it
resets the clocks is that people get up consistently with sunrise and go to bed
consistently with sunset at 6PM. Why not note that the 6PM to 6AM curfew
brings people in the Anglophone part of the country back to 'God's own time'
and takes them away from the unregulated francophone lifestyle where merriment
time is endless.
Despite
the advantages of returning home this early, the danger is that it could jolt
the body's internal body clock, causing a higher risk of sleep disorder, heart
attacks, strokes, and many miscarriages. Certain changes in circadian rhythms
can affect fertility as well. Fatigue, decreased productivity and even
cluster headaches would also be more common.
While
the curfew has pushed back agency travel time in the night to 3PM with arrival
time in Yaounde and Douala at the risky hours of 2AM, peak evening
consumption of alcohol has dropped by over 25%. However, pedestrian fatalities
from cars caused by morning and evening rush hours, is on the
increase.
Measured
in terms of the longitudinal meridian, the 6PM to 6AM dust to dawn curfew set
by the North West Governor, as compared to time across the national territory,
could be referred to as 'Local Mean Time, LMT. Apart from what
obtains in the North West today, Germany seems to have been the first country
to have taken up the practice of regulating the time when people go to bed and
when they stepped out in the morning. That was in an effort to save
energy or fuel during World War I. Governor Lele L'Afrique's dust to dawn
curfew could be compared to the 1966 U. S Congress Uniform Time Act.
Clock
change is not a new phenomenon. For millennia, people have measured time based
on the position of the sun. When the sun was overhead, it was considered noon.
Only during the Middle Ages did mechanical clocks like the one Governor Lele
L'Afrique is regulating in every home in the Northwest, began to appear. During
that time, cities would set their time clocks by measuring the position
of the sun.
By
resetting longitudinal meridian time in the Northwest, is the Governor not
signaling that Cameroon has two time zones?
The
Colbert Factor 20/9/18
The
Muteff Boy's Take.
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