A reporter, having just arrived in Venezuela four years ago, showed up more than an hour late for his first press luncheon.
Seeing the room largely empty, he rushed up to the host and began apologizing, figuring that he had missed the event.
‘But the guy told me that I was the first reporter to arrive,’ the journalist says. About 15 minutes later, others trickled in. ‘I learned that you never arrive earlier than an hour late for events like that,’ he says — a lesson quickly learned by virtually all newcomers to this Latin American nation.
So it came as something of a shock to many when the International Time Bureau announced that Venezuelan clocks have officially been 0.9 seconds ahead of the rest of the world for years. Venezuela’s official clock was set back to coincide with global time pieces.
Foreigners accustomed to living in nations ruled by the sweep of the second hand find it difficult to shake off habits learned in their nations. It took one British reporter months of arriving on time at events — and thus being the first one there — before he began showing up late. ‘Yet, I still don’t feel comfortable planning to show up one hour late,’ he says.
It is a custom to show up late in Venezuela because if you show up early or on time, it is considered being rude or greedy. It is recommended to show up 10-15 minutes late.
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