# Help me understand Afghanistan time.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 4, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347 "2009-08-04T22:02:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347/1 "2009-08-04T22:02:42Z")
Right now it’s 6pm EST but it’s 0230 in Kabul.
I didn’t realize that there were places in the world that split up the time zones into 30 min chunks.
Is this what is happening in AFGN?
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347/2 "2009-08-04T22:06:13Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#):
>
> Is this what is happening in AFGN?
Yes - [World timezones map with current time- 24 hour format](http://www.worldtimezone.com/index24.html)
India, Newfoundland, Nepal and Saudi Arabia are other oddballs.
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### Author:  [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347/3 "2009-08-04T22:07:04Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> Yes - [World timezones map with current time- 24 hour format](http://www.worldtimezone.com/index24.html)
>
> India, Newfoundland, Nepal and Saudi Arabia are other oddballs.
I feel dumb for some reason. It never occurred to me that there were places that do this. Is there a reason or is it just to be different from the infidels?
Is this a new thing (dumb questions I know but…) because I was deployed ro both Riyadh and Kuwait City and I don’t remember the 30 min time issue (though it was 10 years ago).
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347/4 "2009-08-04T22:29:11Z")
Usually it’s a compromise. Like if a country should be in two time zones, often the government feels for buisness and governmental issues it’s best for everyone to be on the same times.
So if “Acme” Country should have two time zones say
3pm and 4pm, the simply split the difference and make the whole country 3:30pm.
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### Author:  [@mrpayday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrpayday)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347/5 "2009-08-04T22:34:34Z")
South Australia too.
also [UTC−00:44 - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC-0:44)
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347/6 "2009-08-04T23:24:44Z")
[Here](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/114/why-is-india-30-minutes-out-of-step-with-everybody-else) is Cecil’s answer to the question of why India’s timezone is thirty minutes different than the rest of the world. Short answer, it’s as **Markxxx** suggested; the country straddles two time zones.
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### Author:  [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-understand-afghanistan-time/505347/7 "2009-08-05T01:01:05Z")
Newfoundland definitely does it to be different from the infidels. That’s why they left Labrador in the Atlantic zone\* with the other non-Islanders.
In practice. Officially N&L is all in the same zone