The Old
The replacement
The replacement
18 November, 2008
Dubai Clock Tower
Am I being weird or is my annoyance justified cause after seeing the new clock/s on Dubai clock tower I am not too happy. They replaced a clock that had Arabic numbers on it with a Roman numbered clock. Why couldn't they keep it Arabic??? Roman numbers are easier to read for most people (read: new expatriates) but I still feel Arabic was the way to go....though there is this hope that the Clock Tower will not be torn down/replaced any time soon like many other old things in Dubai (Omega has a three year contract with them)....
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17 comments:
Commercialism, most likely.
Omega probably paid to have their name up there.
At last the offline form for id card is available..Please post this as a new message. Here's the link:
http://www.dubai.ae/en.portal?topic,Article_000576,1,&_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=home
It's all very simple
Evil foreigners came and tore down the the arabic sign and stole the identities and replaced it with english letters.
...it doesn't matter though, because the english numerals are actually arabic numerals in which case the arabic numerals are probably from iceland.
"We have entered into a contract with a local agent for three years. He will be making a payment of Dh750,000 to the municipality [in lieu of publicity] and will be responsible for the maintenance of the clocks over the three-year period. One advantage of linking the clocks to GPS is that it does away with the need to manually adjust the hands," said Al Fuqae.
Yup...commercialism...
yes it was annoying .......
That is the tackiest thing I have ever seen - bring back the Arabic one!!! :(
No it's not TACKY .... You are missing the whole point here. Clock Tower has historical as well emotional value to Dubai. It should be preserved in it's orignal form.
OMG. That is awful. I must get on the phone now and sort this mess out.
Perhaps, a classic case of selling out. CG, you go girl make some noise!
I think Clock Tower is Clock Tower...personally, I would love that it remain a symbol of history, without any changes, if logistically feasible.
logistically feasible.
purrrp I think I had a small bout of verbal diarrhea there.
sorry.
prrrp.
what idiot did the numerals? It's IV for 4, not IIII. Couldn't they at least keep the Arabic numbers and design? Guess money is more important than preserving national identity and landmarks. And 750000 a year? Cheap!
they've even added a digital clock and a temperature meter on it....brilliant!!!!
I saw it today ... ppl new to the UAE won't notice the difference... but to ppl like us... well it looks terrible. I saw the temperature thingy and everything... and I agree... whoever did the clock hasn't studied basic 4th grade Math where they teach roman numerals.
Would I be extra-annoying if I point out that the original numerals were actually hindi? The numerals used in English are actually the "Arabic" numerals. They were taken by Europe to use in Latin languages instead of the Roman ones that need a whole page to mention how much money any one of us owes the banks for rent this year for example.
I do however place my voice in agreement to protest this outrage, the tackiness as well as loss of heritage. And it is unbelievable that the designer not only messed up the 4 as IIII instead of IV, but also that they are in tasteless Arial-like font rather than a "Times New Roman" one which is specifically for Roman numerals.
DW
Just a point - the IIII isn't a mistake, it's a convention on roman-numeral time pieces. See here for a scarily comprehensive look at why.
Interesting, though - I'll follow up on the commercial aspects...
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