What befell dream of making Dar ‘non-sleeping’ commercial centre?

It was just a week or so after New Year’s Day in 2019.

His remarks targeted generally bars – or pubs – where people often had literally to be pushed from their chairs and stools simply because it is closing time, according to laid-down regulations.

The unofficial explanation for this decades-old practice is that it is feared that, unless that was done, some people would not have enough energy or sobriety to work as expected the next day.

In fairness, police and other authorities in the city (and elsewhere) will have had many reasons to wish that businesses operated on an 18-hour schedule at most – to be precise, a 17-hour schedule except for two days whose mornings – for many people – fall on non-working days.

Of course, the model currently in place is not all that popular as it kills continuity in business operations, especially for a city priding itself with attracting tourism and for people on vacation but being forced to go to bed by 11 p.m.

Putting our major towns on a non-stop business schedule like many cities across the globe will have its pluses and minuses, with critics arguing that it is not much of a priority for now or that it would fan criminality.

However, supporters might say that it would raise sales of goods and services, attracting investments in the hospitality sector, etc.

Surely, stern disciplinary controls are usually expected to lead to an enhancement indiscipline, while the pursuit of leisure is credited with making the world go round.

This, essentially, underscores the need to strike a balance between taking measures to make business grow on the one hand and maintaining law and order on the other.

The world is not flat, and it is thus important to take a new and more realistic look at the whole idea of ‘working hours’.

The point, though, lies in this short rhetorical question: What happened to the good RC’s grand dream?