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[그렉의 한국 엿보기] Saving Daylight
When I wake up the sun is already out and has been working hard for a few hours. Right now I am visiting my parents in the Northeastern United States and the signs of spring are unmistakable. Forsythia is blooming and robins have migrated back from their winter homes. As the day goes on I can see joggers in new track suits ambling down the sidewalk next to their dogs and watch pick-up baseball games take shape on the thawed-out diamonds. Not only are the plants and animals and people becoming more active but also the daylight, with a little governmental help, has stretched itself out and pushed back the night. Instead of watching the sunset at 6:30 P.M, it now gets dark at 7:30 P.M., one hour later. One more marker of Western spring, Daylight Saving Time has begun.
 [그렉의 한국 엿보기] Saving Daylight 청취
Daylight Saving Time (or Summer Time) was the brainchild of Benjamin Franklin. In Puritanical fashion, he felt that very few people made enough use of early morning spring and summer sunlight so he officially proposed taking an hour from the morning and moving it to the evening. Although he had followers his suggestion was not taken seriously until over one hundred years later when William Willett, a builder from London, advocated the idea again. He wanted to give people an extended opportunity for after-work leisure time activities. However, his efforts were often stalled or laughed at, especially by the farming industry which stood to lose valuable early morning work time. It finally took the demands of World War I for these thinkers' novel and controversial concept to be made into a reality.
Though regularly challenged, Daylight Saving Time (DST) became official in many Western countries after World War Ⅰ. Nowadays in the United States the clocks 'spring forward' one hour in March and 'fall back' again in November, making it easier to finish that summer round of golf but causing the winter sky to darken before dinner. Other countries follow similar patterns and some countries, South Korea for example, do not practice DST at all. Lobbyists for continuing DST usually cite the energy savings and increased sales for recreational products that are a result of the extra hour of evening light. The detractors question the actual benefits that DST produces and find the entire project unnecessarily complicated. The shift in time for example can disrupt international communication, computer applications, and reduce vital farming time.
In Korea, I'm sure the telltale indications of spring's arrival are also obvious. The street-side vendors are selling strawberries from their blue trucks and cherry blossoms are spreading their pink blankets over the mountain slopes. But, while the countryside is naturally shifting in color, there is no artificial shift in the times allotted for sunrise and sunset. DST currently does not exist in Korea, for better or worse. Daylight is not being 'saved', or extended, but this does not effect the change in seasons or the warming of the air. Next week, when I fly back to Busan I will recognize the same spring and will use the available sunlight in the best way I see fit. The only difference is: I'll just have to remember the new time-difference that DST has caused, whenever I call home.
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 / 입력시간: 2008. 04.15. 15:09
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