Monday, February 21, 2011

News Spotlight: Egyptian Names Daughter "Facebook"



We can enter this one into the Fuckery Files. As a disclaimer, I was more excited than anyone for the Egyptian people for standing up for what the believe in and gaining their independence. And I was also more than fascinated at Facebook's role in the matter, thinking it served as more than validation that Facebook is the most important invention of our time and that Mark Zuckerberg is most definitely deserving of Time's Person of the Year. So now that the praise is out the way, I can shout out a big "What the fuck?" A little girl a few years from now will be taunted and teased because her father decided it was cute to name her after the social network. The ironic part is, as she is being teased, her bratty harassers will say, "It's a free country, I can tease you if I wanna."

From CNN: "A man in Egypt has named his newborn daughter "Facebook" in honor of the role the social media network played in bringing about a revolution, according to a new report.

Gamal Ibrahim, a 20-something, gave his daughter the name "to express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth," according to a report in Al-Ahram, one of Egypt's most popular newspapers.

Many young people used Facebook and other social media networks to organize the protests, which began January 25 and ultimately led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power.

Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who organized a Facebook page on his own time, became a central figure of the revolution."

2 comments:

  1. Honestly, people aren't as cruel in other countries as they are in the US. Teasing and bullying isn't as bad elsewhere. I'll bet this little girl is not teased like we may think she would be, especially given the profound impact Facebook had on the country of Egypt, and their freedom.

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  2. Yeah that may be true. Unfortunately, this isn't a "we'll have to wait and see" scenario because we will never know ;) But there is no disputing the relevance of the site's importance, especially to the Egyptians.

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