As a general rule, clocks run clockwise — it’s right there in the name. After all, time moves forward, not backward, and it tends to be helpful for timepieces to operate the way we expect them to. A notable exception is the “Clock of the South” in La Paz, which can be found on the facade of the building housing Bolivia’s congress. 

The clock was changed to counterclockwise in 2014, with the country’s foreign minister David Choquehuanca waxing philosophical as he urged people to think outside the box. “Who says that the clock always has to turn one way? Why do we always have to obey? Why can’t we be creative?” he asked when making the announcement. Why indeed, David. Why indeed.

The numbers on the Clock of the South are flipped, meaning it still tells accurate time while making a statement on decolonization. “We don’t have to complicate matters,” Choquehuanca said. “We just have to be conscious that we live in the south, not in the north.” This remark was, of course, a reference to the fact that clocks evolved from the sundial, the shadows of which run clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.