Eleventh hour

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Reader question: GM’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, has repeatedly described bankruptcy as the “probable” route for restructuring the stricken automotive behemoth. But experts say there is still a slim chance that lenders could buckle at the last minute. “In very hostile negotiations, most of the progress is made at the 11th hour,” Edward Neiger, founder of the New York bankruptcy law firm Neiger LLP, told CNN. “It’s very hard to predict what the outcome will be until the 11th hour, when the parties often realize the alternative is worse for both of them.” In that passage from the Guardian (Fiat improves bid as GM faces crunch week, May 24, 2009), what does “11th hour” mean?

My comments: The eleventh hour means simply the last moment (before a decision has to be made), and this saying comes from the Christian Bible (King James Version, Mathew 20):

And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?

They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, [that] shall ye receive.

So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them [their] hire, beginning from the last unto the first.

And when they came that [were hired] about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.

In olden times, people worked only during daytime from dawn to dusk, or roughly speaking during the twelve hours from six o’clock in the morn to six o’clock in the afternoon. Literally, those who come in to work at the eleventh hour arrive at 5pm, which is pretty late, obviously. In the Bible story, some laborers came in at the eleventh hour but received a full day’s pay, the same as those who came in at day break and had to “borne the burden and heat of the day.”

Anyways, I have more than once encouraged readers to read the Bible. I’ve done that not because I believe that the Christian God created man (I believe the contrary, in fact, that men created God) or anything like that. I encourage Chinese learners to read the Bible just as I encourage them to read Greek mythology and roman history. And the reason is simple: Got to read these to really understand the Western psych. Language-wise, there are so many widely used idioms and sayings that come straight from the Bible that it simply doesn’t make sense not reading it. Similarly, a Westerner studying Chinese can hardly succeed big time without reading the likes of Lao Tsu and Confucius.

Alright, back to “the eleventh hour”. If you do something – usually involving a difficult decision to make – at the eleventh hour, you do it at the last moment, when you absolutely have to. In other words, it’s the very last minute before the deadline.

Here are more media examples:

1. Chancellor Gordon Brown only gave his backing to the invasion of Iraq at the 11th hour, according to his former Cabinet colleague David Blunkett.

The Guardian and Daily Mail, which are serializing Mr Blunkett’s memoirs, said the book reveals the “chaos” and rows in Tony Blair’s war cabinet.

Ministers were said to have asked Mr Blair searching questions about the lack of post-war planning in Iraq.

And Mr Brown allegedly questioned the point of going to war cabinet meetings.

The chancellor complained that he learned more about what was going on from the media, according to Mr Blunkett’s account.

He finally only gave his support for the invasion of Iraq “at the 11th hour”, the newspapers said.

- Brown backed war ‘at 11th hour’, BBC.co.uk, October 9, 2006.

2. Rupert Murdoch has pulled off a dramatic coup by winning the battle for Dow Jones at the 11th hour.

In an announcement this morning, Mr Murdoch’s News Corp said it had agreed to buy Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, for $60 a share, or $5.6bn.

Mr Murdoch, whose hopes of gaining control of The Wall Street Journal appeared to lie in tatters on Monday, managed to swing 37pc of the voting stock controlled by the founding Bancroft family.

Key members of the Bancroft family were persuaded after a promise by Mr Murdoch to pay the advisory fees of the Bancroft family.

- Rupert Murdoch wins Dow Jones at 11th hour, Telegraph.co.uk, August 2, 2007.

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