It's About Time

photo by Hassan Ali for Reuters

The Saudis have erected the world’s largest clock tower at Mecca, and have suggested that it replace Greenwich as the starting place for global time. Aren’t clock towers a bit, uh, medieval, or at best, early industrial? And were the decision-makers  fully conscious of what it means to put a clock tower, the ultimate symbol of modernity, right in the middle of their most sacred place?