My friend
Waterlillie informed me this morning that on her way to work today, she saw a guy driving a navy blue
Cadillac Escalade (ugh!) with a bumper sticker on it that said:
PROUD TO BE A COMMONER
We had a few suspects in mind, but our detective work came to nothing.
So what do you think of the sticker's message, folks?
Just as it reads..
ReplyDeleteMaybe its a reply to what zain al-sabah have said on Oprah's show!
ReplyDeleteA proud commoner...proud slave..whats the difference.
ReplyDeleteThere used to be two kinds of slaves, the ones who work in the fields - outdoors, and the ones who work as butlers ,cooks and maids - indoors. Naturally the ones who worked inside thier masters house became more succeful, educated, and with time became less black than white.
The person who was driving that car is an indoors commoner, he has benefited well from being close to his masters. He could be one of them too but he doesnt know about it.
I think the message this person is sending is "I am an idiot"
ReplyDeleteأنا ماني شايفه الأهانه اللي أنتو شايفينها..واحد سفيه حب أن يسوي شئ يلفت النظر حق سيارته
ReplyDeletenano, I agree, ma feeha ihaana, its just stupid by the person! Simple!
ReplyDeleteBy the way a lot of those people just stick things on their cars without understanding what it means
ReplyDeleteموسان موسان
ReplyDeleteكلامك صحيح...وايد يحطون ستكرس من غير معرفة المعنى..
من غير مبالغه
مره شخص حاط على سيارته ستكر عليه علامة فيزا و مكتوب عليه أدفع
نفس اللى يوضع على الابواب
People... lets not make such a big deal out of this. Commoner does NOT mean Hailegy.. In Britain, it is very normal to say, for example, Princess Anne married the commoner Capt. Mark Phillips
ReplyDeleteThis guy with the sticker is proud to be a "commoner", i.e. a non-Sabahi.. What do you say to that? ;-)
Sarcasm on a not so funny level. Where you have the expensive car but are not actually considered a commoner? Or could it be that its common in q8 to be driving a Escalade?
ReplyDeleteproud to be kuwaiti i can understand but proud to be commoner ? wouldn't be like " whip me i'm a nigger " ?
ReplyDeleteZaydoun:
ReplyDeletethen I'M A COMMENER
And so am I, and damn proud of it too!!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI will not try to figure the sticker's message, I prefer to look at the cultural ramification of using it.
ReplyDeleteAround 40 years ago, Abdulla AL-Salem (RIP) banned the usage of car plates with red flags at the corners which indicated that the owner is a Saba7e; he believed that it created class distinctions which he sought to eliminate.
Apparently, the process of eliminating the royal/non-royal distinction did not succeed in the long run, and people today are more aware of the difference, and they know that Suba7es do enjoy privileged rights not shared with 'commoners'.
The more important question is: are people happy with such a demarcation between suba7e/non-suba7e - the answer is no, otherwise we wouldn't have seen this bumper sticker.
I don't think the guy who used this sticker is an idiot, or doesn't know what it meant. He is sending a very strong message, which people "up there" ought to listen to.
If someone is proud not to be part of the royal family, then he will be equally proud to get rid of it - but that is extreme, but again, we are living in the age of extremes.
B.... what have we started here? I must find a new topic before this gets out of hand!!
ReplyDeleteI find the term "proud to be ..." very discriminative, whether it's used to declare a person's "class", nationality, origin, religion, or sexual orientation.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm allergic to the word 'pride'.
H
ReplyDeleteYes it was spelled correctly, and that was a cause for celebration at Kuwait Unplugged Headquarters.
Whether the guy understood its meaning or just put it on his car without understanding it like any number of idiots on Gulf Road remains to be seen..