One term that you have to understand when you live in the Middle East is "wasta." It means "influence" or "clout." If someone tells you, "I have wasta", it means, "I know people in high places [and if you know what's good for you, you'll let me have my way]."
It's hard to tell exactly who has wasta. Lots of people say they have it, but you never really know. Our Associate Dean likes to tell a story about a time that he had a student in his office who was accused of cheating in a course. The student said, "You can't do anything to me. I have wasta and I'll call the Sheikh if you kick me out of school." Our Associate Dean said, "Really? I have the Sheikh's number, too. It's right here in my mobile. Why don't you go ahead and call him. We'll talk to him together."
According to our Associate Dean, the student nearly wet himself. The student was totally bluffing.
There's one interesting way to check on somebody's wasta. You can check their license plate. There's not a direct relationship between plate number and wasta, but you see, Sheikh Mohammed, Vice-President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has plate number 1 on his white Mercedes-Benz G-wagen. So if you see someone with a low plate number, it's a reasonable assumption that they're from the royal family. Also, when you see a plate with a "unique" number, they're probably well-connected, too. Here are a few that we saw at the mall the other day. [BTW - we couldn't snap a picture of the "4" plate that we saw on the black Porsche Cayenne because there was somebody lurking near the vehicle - but we saw it - that's the lowest one we've seen].
Having said all of that, it is possible to simply buy a low plate number if you're really wealthy - and I suppose wealth is a form of wasta, too. So like I said, there's not a perfect relationship between plate number and wasta, but it's a good barometer. In case you're curious, our plate has five digits.
It's hard to tell exactly who has wasta. Lots of people say they have it, but you never really know. Our Associate Dean likes to tell a story about a time that he had a student in his office who was accused of cheating in a course. The student said, "You can't do anything to me. I have wasta and I'll call the Sheikh if you kick me out of school." Our Associate Dean said, "Really? I have the Sheikh's number, too. It's right here in my mobile. Why don't you go ahead and call him. We'll talk to him together."
According to our Associate Dean, the student nearly wet himself. The student was totally bluffing.
There's one interesting way to check on somebody's wasta. You can check their license plate. There's not a direct relationship between plate number and wasta, but you see, Sheikh Mohammed, Vice-President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has plate number 1 on his white Mercedes-Benz G-wagen. So if you see someone with a low plate number, it's a reasonable assumption that they're from the royal family. Also, when you see a plate with a "unique" number, they're probably well-connected, too. Here are a few that we saw at the mall the other day. [BTW - we couldn't snap a picture of the "4" plate that we saw on the black Porsche Cayenne because there was somebody lurking near the vehicle - but we saw it - that's the lowest one we've seen].
Having said all of that, it is possible to simply buy a low plate number if you're really wealthy - and I suppose wealth is a form of wasta, too. So like I said, there's not a perfect relationship between plate number and wasta, but it's a good barometer. In case you're curious, our plate has five digits.
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