It is nearing the 5 month mark since I returned home from my studies in the US. As expected, I was congratulated by everyone with a 400 kilometer radius. I got the piece of paper that I went out of the country to get.
Yay.
Now what?
I am the youngest of eight. I will not jump at the first good thing that comes my way. I will wait until the best thing comes my way. I will get while the getting is good. That is my mentality. There are so many things I learned in the US. Most of them were about me. What I value. What I expect from others. What I expect from myself. I also learned a few things about Biochemistry, but not nearly enough to hold a candle to the rest of it.
I learned about value when I make a purchase. Some things you will purchase and get your money’s worth ten times over - and then some. Some things you will purchase and feel like they were nothing more than a void in your bank account. I wormhole through which money was transported through away from your possession. This value I quantify very practically. A first aid kit is practical to have in case someone needs it, for example; so is a plunger. I was fortunate enough to avoid using either in the US, but I did buy a plunger… And I value its presence. Some other things, not so much. Here, value is looked at differently.
I don’t know if its because of the culture here of the fact that I returned to the upper class from a period of life in a middle/lower class income. I choose to blame the culture; it makes for a better narrative. Everything you own here is a social cue. What car you drive. How long your dishdasha is. What brand watch you wear… Not color, not size, not shape, but price tag. How unfortunate is that? How sad and unnecessarily challenging to most people is that? How many people stretch themselves too thin to set a higher bar of expectation for themselves? How much does your brand cost? Yes. YOUR BRAND. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? We need a clear parameter because it is harder to value individuals; there are too many criteria. Reduce it to one! How much expendable money do they seem to have? That is how the hierarchy is structured here. At least, until they know you better…
If you thought I was ranting unnecessarily, then buckle up. It is about to get worse.
Adult Stickers
I have coined this term myself! I am quite proud of it, too. No, it is not pornographic content where one side can stick to something. Oh, no. It is much worse.
It is an extension of the reference scale for the social pecking order. It is… number plates.
Number plates here are an enigma all their own. If you know what I mean, you can skip reading. If you don’t… You are in for a doozy. Number plates here leave a lasting impression on people. Government officials used to get number plates roughly correlated to their ranks. The lower the number plate, the higher the rank, roughly speaking. Nothing wrong with that, right? Right. Until you put the cart before the horse.
The amount of number plates given to everyone started to increase as more cars were added to the road. Only natural. I think people would see a single digit number plate and think: Minister/Government official/Ambassador/etc. The logic follows. Number plate given to important people is ‘fancy’, therefore, someone with a ‘fancy’ number plate must be ‘important’. Let us examine this for a second. Important people are seldom important for no reason. At least a majority of them are smart, qualified, talented and worthy of being important. A government official, for example, can start a business with his capabilities that is more likely to succeed than the average Joe. More success, more fame, more importance.
It came to be that number plates were a sign of someone’s success. Isn’t that just different? It is so different. The sticker you put on your car to identify it as your car can say so much about you because people agreed it probably does say so much about you. People silently conferred and formed a norm that people follow.
Opinion so far: Nothing wrong with this. People have all kinds of norms. A lot are useful. A lot are not. A twist to the tale is a-brewing!
People started to buy and sell number plates. Oh, you want these number plates that make you look successful and important? I can sell them to you if you can buy them from me! Well shucks, isn’t that just cute? This government issued metal plate that one would pay a symbolic fee for are now worth money. Initially, it wasn’t much. Four figures or so for a single digit number plate, I think. Now, a 8 or a 9 number plate wouldn’t sell for less than ~100k dollars. That is the price of a Porsche 911 Carrera. For a sticker on the damn thing! The most coveted of all number plates, 1, is worth six figures. Funny… you would be a fool to part with it… It is worth so much more than that in the hierarchy. It means you are better off than 99% of people. It means you are very special. Very important. You would not sell something like that because, if you have it, you don’t need any more money.
See what I mean? People sell these damn things to elevate themselves in the hierarchy. A 200,000 dollar car looks bleak with a random, 5 digit number plate. A 50,000 dollar car looks modest with a single digit number plate. “Screw the car, I’ll be fine with just the number!” - is a joke you hear a lot. There is a famous Toyota Corolla here. It is red. Why is this red Corolla famous among other red Corollas? I has a single digit number.
What tastes the most sour, however. What really makes me dismiss any rational explanation for this practice is this: All these number plates are government-issued, at some point. All of them cost the same, symbolic price. If you know someone on the inside, they just might find ya a good plate number and add a five figure sum into your networth. How is it that a government-employed person can do such a thing LEGALLY in broad daylight is beyond me. Such a sum of money is life changing for most people if invested properly…
It is just dumb that people elect to play this game. And most of them, here, do. Will I be shill and play along? Will I stick to my guns and have any number plate on my future F-Type?
We’ll see.