To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution, Egyptian Names His Firstborn “Facebook“

Cultural relativity is an amazing thing. While American parents worry about their kids being on Facebook, Egyptian parents are naming their kids “Facebook,” to commemorate the events surrounding the #Jan25 revolution.

According to Al-Ahram (“The New York Times of Egypt”) a man in his twenties named his first born daughter Facebook in tribute to the role the social media service had in organizing the protests in Tahrir Square and beyond. Helmed by now-famous Googler Wael Ghonim, the “We Are Khaled Said Facebook” page showed up within 5 days of Said’s death in June and served as a hub for dissidence against Egyptian police brutality as well as a way to disseminate logistical information about the escalating anti-government protests. Other activist pages like one actually called “Tahrir Square” cropped up shortly afterward.

 

Translation:

A New Day

Man Names His Newborn Girl Facebook

A young man in his twenties wanted to express his gratitude about the victories the youth of 25th of January have achieved and chose to express it in the form of naming his firstborn girl “Facebook” Jamal Ibrahim (his name.) The girl’s family, friends, and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. “Facebook” received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name. A name [Facebook] that shocked the entire world.

There are five million Facebook users in Egypt, moreso than any other country in the Middle East/North Africa region. Facebook itself has reported an increase in Egyptian users in the past month, with 32,000 Facebook groups and 14,000 pages created in the two weeks after January 25th.

While the baby girl could just have easily been called “YouTube,” “Twitter” “Google” or even “Cellphone Camera,” it seems like Facebook has become the umbrella symbol for how social media can spread the message of freedom. There are countless manefestation of this, the above graffiti in Cairo, “Thank you Facebook” protest sign, and Wael Ghonim himselfpersonally expressing his gratitude to Mark Zuckerberg on CNN.

I’m hearing that the temporary military government has even begun using Facebook to reach out to Egyptian youth, even creating a Facebook Fan Page page (here). The Ministry of Interior, in attempt to repair the image of the state police, has set up multiple pages. And while my guess is that being a locus of political uprisings wasn’t the original intent of the American college campus-based social network, somewhere Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has got to be secretly super proud.

Even though I do think the Internet as a whole should win the Nobel Peace Prize this year for all it’s done for democracy in the MENA region, let’s not let this naming kids after websites get out of hand. I’d hate for little “Facebook” to have to share a classroom with a little “AOL,” or worse a little “Yahoo.” Even though you have to admit, a girl named “Quora” would be kind of pretty.

 

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New Speed cameras in Kuwait

The new speed cameras in Kuwait, have a wardrobe with 2 peep in-views.  I keep wondering each time I pass through, the sophistication it has.  What if someone just drives over them, down goes two different cameras, the speed and the normal one.

Local blogger in Kuwait sued by Benihana

A Lebanese  blogger Mark (248am.com), who resides in Kuwait is being sued by Benihana, a Japanese style restaurant.

They are suing him for KD 5001. What Mark said on his blog to send a legal notice is

A few days back I posted about Benihana opening up at the Avenues and yesterday night I decided to pass by with Nat and try it out. The service wasn’t too bad for a restaurant that’s just been open for a few days and the staff were really friendly. The restaurant itself is made up of islands and bars with a grill in the middle of each one. You sit around the grill and the chef will come to your table and prepare the food right in front of you which makes things entertaining. It’s actually why I prefer sitting at the bar in Japanese restaurants in general, since you can talk to the chef and watch them put your dish together. The problem with my experience last night though was with the food, it was disappointing to say the least.

Amazing, Kuwait does not have such laws on copyright, but they could very well sue him for violating trade secrets. He took a video on how a particular dish was being prepared, photographed it.   Inshort, Benihana has got the publicity, if any, they were looking for.

I was reading their court order.  It clearly states

1. Pictures and Videos were taken without authorization

2. Mark is working for an advertising company.  This could be translated as, he might have done this for a competitior

3. Spelling of  Marc (should have been Mark) is wrong, or were they going French.

They might just let Mark go because of the attention he is getting, or they might just sue you further after this for violation of trade secrets.  Either way settle it off court, and keep this off public view.