The Arabs' fascination with "nice numbers" by JessH
Arabs have a strange fascination with special numbers in order and sequence. I have no idea where the interest in this stems from, but it is most visible with a) car number plates
b) telephone numbers.
It is extremely common to hear an Arab standing at the counter, applying for a new mobile or landline telephone asking the clerk "do you have any nice numbers?" Such numbers would be anything with an order or repetition, such as 1234567. Or maybe 4560456? Or even 7777007.
I have to admit: the allure of special numbers tends to become contagious! After living here for more than a decade, I find myself noticing nice sequences when people give me their phone numbers, and I even felt a little bit pleased when our new home phone number turned out to be really easy to remember ;-)
For car number/registration plates, this attraction to numbers takes on a whole new level of craziness - read here:
14th June 2008: "Dubai holds special number plate auction... about 100 plates were auctioned netting more than Dhs 32.25 Mio" (8.8 Mio US$)
%L[http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/06/14/10220951.html
]Click here: http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/06/14/10220951.html
(further stories of this kind are archived on the right side of the webpage)
Usually, this kind of behaviour would justify some rude language from regular people like you and me: what a waste of money!!!
But, as crazy as these amounts are, at least something good is being done with the raised funds: they either go to supporting the families of car-accident victims, or towards building a new trauma centre for road accident victims or other charitable causes.
Also, single or double digit number plates indicate members of the royal family. Usually, plate number *1* is the ruler of that respective emirate (Sheikh Mohammed, ruler of Dubai, has the number 1 and used to drive around in a white Mercedes Benz G500), followed by the numbers 2, 3, 4, etc. for chauffeur-driven cars for the wives or children. The double-digit numbers 11, 12, 13, 14 etc. often belong to brothers or uncles of the ruler, or employees of the ruler's court in high governmental positions.
Three and four digits mostly indicate very influential and wealthy businessmen, who have either had a long and successful family business throughout the generations, or are simply rich enough to purchase these desirable number plates.
For those of us that don't have royal connections or millions to spend, nice number sequences are still big business in the emirates. When I bought a new car last year, the gentleman at the registration office said "you want nice number? I can give you 5-digits number (that's normal) with 333 in the middle. I give you good price: only 9,000 Dirhams! (2,500 US$)."
Needless to say, that kind of money can be spent in so many better ways, right? Like travel! Haha!
Don't believe me? Well, a few days after I wrote this tip I spotted a Porsche Cayenne infront of me at the traffic lights, with the number plate 5. Also, I noticed a sticker on the car for this website: http://www.vipnumberplate.com/
