Mexican congress debates daylight-saving time

One senator has complained that "Summer Timetable" gets in the way of the morning quickie.

Six years ago, Mexico instituted "Summer Timetable," or daylight-saving time, and some people still havent gotten used to it.

According to a recent Reuters report, 16 of the country's 31 states want to scrap the biannual time change. Why? Because it's putting schoolkids at risk by requiring them to commute to school in the dark. Given current crime levels, many parents don't want their children making this walk unescorted. To make matters worse, this leaves no time for the maqanero, or morning quickie.

"It affects good marital relations," said Sen. Felix Salgado during a recent congressional debate on the subject. He and his leftist comrades of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) are leading the opposition to Summer Timetable. By springing forward, they say, wives are getting out of bed earlier in order to walk the kids to school and losing the opportunity to take advantage of their husbands' ubiquitous morning presence.

Mexico's head honchos are unsympathetic, however; government officials told Reuters that Summer Timetable is staying. They claim it saves energy and keeps Mexico on pace with the United States, its most important trading partner. In other words, business before pleasure.

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