There will be
no Friday in Samoa this week.
The decision to push the international dateline further to the east and go back to the future -- going directly from Thursday to Saturday -- was prompted by new economic realities rather than a need to be the first place in the world to celebrate New Year's Day in 2012. Samoan prime minister, Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi, said the move would put the Pacific island nation of some 180,000 people on the same footing as its key trading partners in New Zealand and Australia, taking advantage of those economies links to China and the Pacific Rim.
In 1892 Samoa had two consecutive July 4ths when the king moved the dateline west in order to match the calendar of San Francisco-bound shipping.
There will be no Friday in Samoa this week.
