Accidental Blogger

Although a large country, India has just one time zone and no Daylight Savings. Time is always the same in all parts of the country 365 days a year – Indian Standard Time or IST.  Officially, IST is like EST, CST or PST as they apply to American time zones. But in common Indian parlance, Indian Standard Time has a dismissive and sarcastic connotation. It means, "expect everything and everyone to be late."  Indians are notorious for their lack of punctuality and the more powerful the person, worse he or she is likely to be in his/her total disregard for this simple courtesy. Public events hardly ever start on time. Buses and trains don’t necessarily follow a predictable schedule. On social occasions, people are more than fashionably late. And political events can be a nightmare for attendees because VIPs can make the audience wait for hours with no concern for their time or energy. One Indian First Lady used to routinely arrive a half hour to an hour later than her husband at public functions to ensure a separate honor guards ceremony for herself – she wasn’t happy to share presidential pomp with the President of India! And of course, nothing starts until the bigwigs arrive. During my childhood and student years, I remember being bombarded with a slew of slogans pertaining to patriotism, simple life, lofty thoughts, cleanliness and later, the need for birth control. Never was there a public service message about punctuality.  We used to joke that to majority of Hindu Indians, believers in reincarnation and the endless cycle of birth and death, mere hours, minutes and seconds of one life were minor, inconsequential matters. Who cares for now when you are staring at eternity?  (I must note here that southern India is better disciplined than the northern half. As India becomes capitalistic and business friendly, private businesses are striving to be more professional. Government agencies remain woefully stuck in their old ways.)

It seems there are other countries like India where time matters little and today blends languidly with tomorrow. Everyone recognizes the national malady on an intellectual level. But it is always the other guy who is the malingerer. Peru, a country which like India is perpetually late, has taken official steps to cure the national affliction of procrastination.

LIMA, Peru – The government wants to take some of the manana out of Peruvian life.

Manana, meaning tomorrow, is an age-old euphemism for the lateness and procrastination that are common in Latin America. Weddings, funerals, meals and business meetings rarely begin on time, and it’s even considered rude to be punctual for a party.

But Peru’s government says it’s time for an attitude adjustment.

On a recent Friday – known affectionately as sabado chico, or little Saturday, because workers tend to have their minds on weekend parties – the government announced a campaign to combat lateness, saying it reflects a negative attitude toward work and hurts productivity.

The Forum for National Consensus, a government-led council of business and citizens’ groups responsible for the effort, says La Hora sin Demora, or Time without Delay, will begin with a nationally televised ceremony in Lima on March 1 at noon. Sharp.

Sirens will sound and church bells will ring out, alerting 27 million Peruvians to synchronize their watches.

But short of hoping latecomers will be shamed into mending their ways, the campaign offers no rewards for compliance or penalties for tardiness.Schools, businesses and government institutions will be asked to stop tolerating hora peruana, or Peruvian time – which usually means an hour late.

"The goal is for citizens in general, not just public officials, to undergo a change in mental attitude to start fulfilling their obligations," Cabinet chief Jorge del Castillo says.

One problem, according to a poll by Apoyo, Peru’s leading pollster, is that most Peruvians think it’s the other guy who’s always late. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said they are punctual, but only 3 percent think others are too. It’s a vicious cycle, says publicist Jose Centurion.

"If you set the time for 3, you think 3:15 is OK," he says. "The problem is that if you think everyone else is going to be late, you are not going to show up on time."

Well, yesterday was March 1 and Peru rang in the Punctuality Parade around noon.  According to an Associated Press report, it may take more than pep rallies to change Peruvian’s perception of time.

The government could face an uphill battle to make sure 27 million Peruvians keep an eye on their watches: An invitation to the 11 a.m. ceremony was delivered by messenger to The Associated Press at 1:30 p.m., well after the ceremony had ended.