Friday and Saturday weekend: is it really a problem?
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Air Commodore Muhammad Zakiul Islam ndu acsc (Retd)
ARE we cut off from the rest of the world, especially the western world, for three days and to the detriment of the overall growth and development of the national economy and the gross domestic product (GDP)? I think the answer is a big 'NO' and let us examine.
General HM Ershad drew a lot of flak both from the progressive thinkers and concerned business community for having declared Friday as a weekly holiday. He was even blamed for his attempts of appeasing the religious political parties through his 'pseudo love' of Islam. He was the one who also later on introduced the two-day weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday for which he drew much criticism from the economists and the chambers as well. The system was changed to a one-day weekend to Friday by the BNP Government in 1991 in the backdrop of demands and pressure from the business community, but it was the Awami League government which again went back to the two-day system rather hurriedly through an evening declaration over the BTV and other state media and the decision was made effective from the very next day!
Little wonder that it had to be changed again on assumption of the office by the Four Party Alliance to Friday only at the behest of the business community. But at some stage, the Alliance Government again re-introduced the two- day weekend purportedly 'to conserve energy'. The system is still on and every once in a while, the business community and some progressive thinkers are issuing statements and airing their serious concern and views about the damaging effect of having two- day weekend, and they seem to object more to having Friday as the weekend in deference to the practice in the west and some other Muslim countries like Pakistan and Malaysia. The caretaker government (CTG) has also been under pressure to 'reform' the present system, but it has stood the ground so far.
A few years ago, I made an attempt to explain the apparent contradiction and hollowness of the argument against having weekend on Friday, on the plea of getting cut-off from the world economic activities, through the Letters Column of a national English daily. I did so under a different name (MZ Islam). But let me try it again.
The earth we live in is not a flat plate and the mother- earth takes 24 hours to rotate around its own axis giving us the days and nights. Theses are established scientific facts and we are not trying to re-invent the wheel here.
Let us suppose that Friday is made a working day and let us also suppose that our Mr. Rahman in Bangladesh goes to his office on Friday at 0900 hrs BST sharp, which is 0300/0400 hrs GMT or UTC depending on whether we are talking of summer or winter. All the banks, bourses and financial institutions are still not open at such odd hours in London and elsewhere in Europe. When the Englishmen come to their offices and business centres at 0900 hrs GMT (UTC) it is 1400/1500 BST hrs here in Dhaka and all the banks and the bourses are about to pull down their shutters for the day. That too, if we do not give any break to Mr. Rahman for the Juma Prayer.
Similarly, in New York, it would be 1900/2000 hrs in the evening on Thursday, well past COB (Close of Business), when our punctual officer goes to the office at 0900 hrs on Friday morning. Obviously, there will be no one to answer his call from the offices in New York.
And, in case, if we decide to have a half- working day on Friday and close our offices and businesses at 1230 hrs BST as used to be the practice earlier in the past, that is 0530/0630 hrs GMT (UTC) in London. We are closing down even much, much before they are open for conducting banking and trade between Dhaka and London. The situation and timing is even more odd in case of North America.
Once again, similar situation would be repeated on the Saturday morning for Mr. Rahman. In fact, when he is in the office at 0900 hrs BST, his colleagues are in deep slumber past midnight of Friday in London and elsewhere in Europe and they would not come to the office for the next 48 hours because their two- day weekend of Saturday and Sunday had already begun. And in New York, it is Friday evening, and people would be just preparing for their weekend for the next 48 hours as well after a five-day week from Monday through Friday.
Now let us suppose that we have our weekend on Sunday, as is the demand, to stay in tune with the western world. No cause for complaint.
But lo and behold! On Monday morning, when Mr. Rahman is rushing to his office, it is only past midnight in London and in most of Europe, and it is dinner time in the Sunday evening in New York. Mr. Rahman's Monday will also be 'lost' as far as his banking and business with the west is concerned. It's time trap. The only way Mr. Rahman can synchronies his work pattern is to turn his nights into days and vice versa! But is it really that serious a problem?
Now a day, not many trading are done on a real time basis unless you are taking part in the spot auction in the Chicago grain market or in the NASDAQ.
Living in the modern Info-age with all the Hi-Fi gadgets like fax, internet and other devices, banking and all other business transactions and correspondence can be done on-line with ease and comfort. However, sitting in Bangladesh, if one wants to do a real time trading with Dow Jones or FTSE, or if one wants to do a video-conferencing with Bill Gates, one has to stay awake and burn the midnight candle.
Many businesses and buying houses do exactly that, because changing the weekend from Friday to Sunday is not going to be of much help as is evident from our discussion above.
Neither would blaming the weekly holiday on Friday do us any good. In fact, it is a pity that many of us quote the holy book out of context to justify a point. I am no authority on the Holy Quran. But it is my humble understanding that the particular 'ayats' ( Nos. 9 and 10) in verse Juma (62) were not sent down to settle our confusion about whether to have a weekend on Friday or not, but these have a much wider meaning of assigning priorities and defining the synergy between one's religious duties and seeking livelihood.
Curmudgeonly speaking, if we at all need to have Friday as a working day, we have to start our work sometime in the afternoon after the Juma prayers, if you like. That way, it will satisfy both the Quranic dictates as well as help us synchronise our working hours with the west.
It is well known why the western world (Christian civilization) observes Sunday as their holiday. The tradition has been inherited and adopted from the ancient times when the Greeks and Romans used to worship their Sun God. The day is observed as a Holy Day and a day of prayer in the Church. It is as simple. Add Saturday to it which is a Jewish Sabbath and it matches perfectly well. Being a colony of the British, we had been observing Sunday as our holiday as a legacy of the colonial days, but this was more of a weekly resting day rather being a Holy Day for the Muslims and people of other faiths.
But puzzles and riddles of such time trap and lag and lead are not new. Think of the erstwhile mighty Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. Spreading from Vladivostok to the Bering Sea, it had eleven time Zones. The mighty empire was being centrally administered from Moscow; when Moscow said today, it was literally yesterday in Kamchatka in eastern Soviet Union! Did anyone have a complaint?
Likewise, when a gentleman in New York is heading for his office in the morning, his counterpart in San Francisco is probably still in deep sleep, four time zones away. There is no grumbling or disconnect for the so-called disruption of banking, business or for any trading difficulties.
And Canada with one of the largest landmass has the second largest spread with six time zones. When it is mid-night in Vancouver, it is time for 0600 AM jogging in Halifax.
In some countries, weekends are matters of convenience and not religiosity. In Communist China, workers of the different factories in the same city observe 'Holidays' on different dates of the week. For, in an overpopulated country, there would be gate-crash and mass movement if all the town folks turn up at the super market on the same day!
Very often, we are confronted with much dilemma about timing of our religious functions in Bangladesh. Being some 3000 miles apart, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh are not at the same latitude and it is a scientific reality that the 'new moon' may not be sighted on the same day and same time at both the places. While the Saudis can afford to print their official Hijri calendar at the beginning of the year and follow it for all official and other activities, we need to have a moon sighting committee to sit at the end of every month and decide the dates, controversy and confusion not withstanding.
Admittedly, Lunar Calendar is a thing of the orient. It is not only in Islam; see how all the rituals of Buddhism and Hinduism are also planned and guided by the movement and position of the moon.
Perhaps what is important here is not to create controversy, but rather remaining within the broader principles and dictums; we should try to find ways and means that will suit a modern man to practise his religion.
While the logic and rationale behind having a two-day weekend by an impoverished economy and a populace known for its laxed work culture could be argued and contested, the question of whether to have Friday as the weekly holiday may be put to rest permanently.
Among many abbreviations in popular circulation in North America, there is a term known as TGIF -- Thank God, It's Friday. Being an obiter dictum, this light expression is probably meant more to thank the Creator as the day happens to herald the weekend after a week of hard work rather than for the existence of the 'Day' itself.
I am no connoisseur of any Party policies or fundamentalist views. But facts ought to be accepted as they are. However, borrowing a cue from the TGIF, Bangladeshi Muslims may thank God that He has given them the Friday and, being in Bangladesh, they can observe it as a Holy Day; with a request to the learned economists, enlightened thinkers and the concerned business community not to take it away from them in the name GDP or economic growth, more so, when there is not much physical reasons and valid arguments for it.
ARE we cut off from the rest of the world, especially the western world, for three days and to the detriment of the overall growth and development of the national economy and the gross domestic product (GDP)? I think the answer is a big 'NO' and let us examine.
General HM Ershad drew a lot of flak both from the progressive thinkers and concerned business community for having declared Friday as a weekly holiday. He was even blamed for his attempts of appeasing the religious political parties through his 'pseudo love' of Islam. He was the one who also later on introduced the two-day weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday for which he drew much criticism from the economists and the chambers as well. The system was changed to a one-day weekend to Friday by the BNP Government in 1991 in the backdrop of demands and pressure from the business community, but it was the Awami League government which again went back to the two-day system rather hurriedly through an evening declaration over the BTV and other state media and the decision was made effective from the very next day!
Little wonder that it had to be changed again on assumption of the office by the Four Party Alliance to Friday only at the behest of the business community. But at some stage, the Alliance Government again re-introduced the two- day weekend purportedly 'to conserve energy'. The system is still on and every once in a while, the business community and some progressive thinkers are issuing statements and airing their serious concern and views about the damaging effect of having two- day weekend, and they seem to object more to having Friday as the weekend in deference to the practice in the west and some other Muslim countries like Pakistan and Malaysia. The caretaker government (CTG) has also been under pressure to 'reform' the present system, but it has stood the ground so far.
A few years ago, I made an attempt to explain the apparent contradiction and hollowness of the argument against having weekend on Friday, on the plea of getting cut-off from the world economic activities, through the Letters Column of a national English daily. I did so under a different name (MZ Islam). But let me try it again.
The earth we live in is not a flat plate and the mother- earth takes 24 hours to rotate around its own axis giving us the days and nights. Theses are established scientific facts and we are not trying to re-invent the wheel here.
Let us suppose that Friday is made a working day and let us also suppose that our Mr. Rahman in Bangladesh goes to his office on Friday at 0900 hrs BST sharp, which is 0300/0400 hrs GMT or UTC depending on whether we are talking of summer or winter. All the banks, bourses and financial institutions are still not open at such odd hours in London and elsewhere in Europe. When the Englishmen come to their offices and business centres at 0900 hrs GMT (UTC) it is 1400/1500 BST hrs here in Dhaka and all the banks and the bourses are about to pull down their shutters for the day. That too, if we do not give any break to Mr. Rahman for the Juma Prayer.
Similarly, in New York, it would be 1900/2000 hrs in the evening on Thursday, well past COB (Close of Business), when our punctual officer goes to the office at 0900 hrs on Friday morning. Obviously, there will be no one to answer his call from the offices in New York.
And, in case, if we decide to have a half- working day on Friday and close our offices and businesses at 1230 hrs BST as used to be the practice earlier in the past, that is 0530/0630 hrs GMT (UTC) in London. We are closing down even much, much before they are open for conducting banking and trade between Dhaka and London. The situation and timing is even more odd in case of North America.
Once again, similar situation would be repeated on the Saturday morning for Mr. Rahman. In fact, when he is in the office at 0900 hrs BST, his colleagues are in deep slumber past midnight of Friday in London and elsewhere in Europe and they would not come to the office for the next 48 hours because their two- day weekend of Saturday and Sunday had already begun. And in New York, it is Friday evening, and people would be just preparing for their weekend for the next 48 hours as well after a five-day week from Monday through Friday.
Now let us suppose that we have our weekend on Sunday, as is the demand, to stay in tune with the western world. No cause for complaint.
But lo and behold! On Monday morning, when Mr. Rahman is rushing to his office, it is only past midnight in London and in most of Europe, and it is dinner time in the Sunday evening in New York. Mr. Rahman's Monday will also be 'lost' as far as his banking and business with the west is concerned. It's time trap. The only way Mr. Rahman can synchronies his work pattern is to turn his nights into days and vice versa! But is it really that serious a problem?
Now a day, not many trading are done on a real time basis unless you are taking part in the spot auction in the Chicago grain market or in the NASDAQ.
Living in the modern Info-age with all the Hi-Fi gadgets like fax, internet and other devices, banking and all other business transactions and correspondence can be done on-line with ease and comfort. However, sitting in Bangladesh, if one wants to do a real time trading with Dow Jones or FTSE, or if one wants to do a video-conferencing with Bill Gates, one has to stay awake and burn the midnight candle.
Many businesses and buying houses do exactly that, because changing the weekend from Friday to Sunday is not going to be of much help as is evident from our discussion above.
Neither would blaming the weekly holiday on Friday do us any good. In fact, it is a pity that many of us quote the holy book out of context to justify a point. I am no authority on the Holy Quran. But it is my humble understanding that the particular 'ayats' ( Nos. 9 and 10) in verse Juma (62) were not sent down to settle our confusion about whether to have a weekend on Friday or not, but these have a much wider meaning of assigning priorities and defining the synergy between one's religious duties and seeking livelihood.
Curmudgeonly speaking, if we at all need to have Friday as a working day, we have to start our work sometime in the afternoon after the Juma prayers, if you like. That way, it will satisfy both the Quranic dictates as well as help us synchronise our working hours with the west.
It is well known why the western world (Christian civilization) observes Sunday as their holiday. The tradition has been inherited and adopted from the ancient times when the Greeks and Romans used to worship their Sun God. The day is observed as a Holy Day and a day of prayer in the Church. It is as simple. Add Saturday to it which is a Jewish Sabbath and it matches perfectly well. Being a colony of the British, we had been observing Sunday as our holiday as a legacy of the colonial days, but this was more of a weekly resting day rather being a Holy Day for the Muslims and people of other faiths.
But puzzles and riddles of such time trap and lag and lead are not new. Think of the erstwhile mighty Union of Soviet Socialist Republic. Spreading from Vladivostok to the Bering Sea, it had eleven time Zones. The mighty empire was being centrally administered from Moscow; when Moscow said today, it was literally yesterday in Kamchatka in eastern Soviet Union! Did anyone have a complaint?
Likewise, when a gentleman in New York is heading for his office in the morning, his counterpart in San Francisco is probably still in deep sleep, four time zones away. There is no grumbling or disconnect for the so-called disruption of banking, business or for any trading difficulties.
And Canada with one of the largest landmass has the second largest spread with six time zones. When it is mid-night in Vancouver, it is time for 0600 AM jogging in Halifax.
In some countries, weekends are matters of convenience and not religiosity. In Communist China, workers of the different factories in the same city observe 'Holidays' on different dates of the week. For, in an overpopulated country, there would be gate-crash and mass movement if all the town folks turn up at the super market on the same day!
Very often, we are confronted with much dilemma about timing of our religious functions in Bangladesh. Being some 3000 miles apart, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh are not at the same latitude and it is a scientific reality that the 'new moon' may not be sighted on the same day and same time at both the places. While the Saudis can afford to print their official Hijri calendar at the beginning of the year and follow it for all official and other activities, we need to have a moon sighting committee to sit at the end of every month and decide the dates, controversy and confusion not withstanding.
Admittedly, Lunar Calendar is a thing of the orient. It is not only in Islam; see how all the rituals of Buddhism and Hinduism are also planned and guided by the movement and position of the moon.
Perhaps what is important here is not to create controversy, but rather remaining within the broader principles and dictums; we should try to find ways and means that will suit a modern man to practise his religion.
While the logic and rationale behind having a two-day weekend by an impoverished economy and a populace known for its laxed work culture could be argued and contested, the question of whether to have Friday as the weekly holiday may be put to rest permanently.
Among many abbreviations in popular circulation in North America, there is a term known as TGIF -- Thank God, It's Friday. Being an obiter dictum, this light expression is probably meant more to thank the Creator as the day happens to herald the weekend after a week of hard work rather than for the existence of the 'Day' itself.
I am no connoisseur of any Party policies or fundamentalist views. But facts ought to be accepted as they are. However, borrowing a cue from the TGIF, Bangladeshi Muslims may thank God that He has given them the Friday and, being in Bangladesh, they can observe it as a Holy Day; with a request to the learned economists, enlightened thinkers and the concerned business community not to take it away from them in the name GDP or economic growth, more so, when there is not much physical reasons and valid arguments for it.