Good, Bad, and Ugly
Reader reaction to Reuters news
Square or round?
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Bahrain opposition meets to agree demands
Protesters swept back into Pearl Square late on Saturday after Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa ordered troops and armored vehicles to withdraw and offered to lead a national dialogue after days of unrest that left six dead.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE could you stop referring to ‘Pearl Square’ in your Bahrain news reports as there is no such place. The area in which the protests are being held is the Pearl Roundabout in Manama.
Carol
Several readers have made this point to us in recent days, and we do understand the argument.
Virtually all Western media are using the name Pearl Square, and to avoid using it would cause some confusion.
There is also the point that while the word “roundabout” is commonly used in some English-speaking countries, it isn’t well understood in the States: GBU Editor
Anti-government demonstrators prepare a bed of charcoal to cook dinner at Pearl Square in Manama February 20, 2011. REUTERS/Caren Firouz
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Honestly, I don’t see confusion resulting. If I read a story in one venue reporting an uprising in Pearl Square and another in Pearl Roundabout … I would actually take issue with the one that was WRONG, not the one who named it correctly.
If all the other journalists jumped off a bridge …?
But I suppose calling it “Madison Garden Mall” when referring to Madison Square Garden would make it more understandable (universally, since everyone has gardens and Malls, right? I can understand changing between languages, but if the name of a site is Roundabout, the English equivalent is … Roundabout.
I see the point but there are bigger issues at stake here.