THE Baptist University recently completed a new complex in Renfrew Road, Kowloon. The top of this building features a large clock, replete with chimes. The positioning of this clock, which faces a large number of residences on Broadcast Drive, shows disregard for local sensitivities. Chinese people consider it very bad fung shui to be overlooked by a clock. This is why very few buildings in Hong Kong have external clocks.
The chimes sound during the day, on the hour, and every 15 minutes including every half-hour. On Sundays, these unwelcome intrusions are accompanied by loud and prolonged renditions of nursery rhymes and, strangely, Christmas carols.
Situating these offending appliances in a densely populated residential area was an act of arrogance that discredits an avowedly Christian organisation. Perhaps the Baptist University could learn from Hong Kong's Muslim community.
The territory's mosques, out of deference to local conditions, are almost unique amongst Islamic places of worship in refraining from using amplified calls to the faithful to worship. I am, incidentally, a Christian.
Would the Baptist University and the Environmental Protection Department care to comment? HO LIM-PENG Kowloon Tong
