"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
09/08/2015 at 17:40 • Filed to: Samoa, Left
2
0|
"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
09/08/2015 at 17:40 • Filed to: Samoa, Left | 2
| 0 |
Today is the sixth anniversary of the first full day of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in Samoa.
Unlike the Swedes who went to the dark side, Samoa saw the light and realised that left is right. Despite most of their vehicles being lhd and despite driving on the right having been in place since Samoa was somewhat unexpectedly a German colony until New Zealand took over in WW1, the government of the day decided that if the country was to switch leftwards they could import JDM cars from Australia (or Japan presumably) which would be cheaper than lhd ones from elsewhere. Unlike Sweden, the government didn’t provide financial assistance for bus owners. Like Sweden, the populace didn’t like it one little bit. Unlike Sweden there was a certain amount of public disorder. So preparations were made. Roads were widened, speed bumps put in, the speed limit reduced from 35 to 25 mph (!), the Congregational Church prayed for divine assistance, blood supplies were increased (as opposed to alcohol supplies, which were banned for the three days before), and at 5.50am on the 7th everyone had to stop, wait until 6.00 and proceed leftwards. A certain amount of chaos was predicted but didn’t materialise. Indeed there was an air of national celebration, partly because everyone saw the essential rightness of going left, partly because not much normally happens on Samoa and partly because there were two days of national holiday.
