DU weigh in on this please - The Tunisian street vendor who started two revolutions

[underpants]

I first heard a bit of this story a few days ago. At first, because it was so new, it sounded like the media had finally come up with a better story than "high food prices". I do not mean to make a joke about this but I wanted opinions on it from my fellow DU'ers.


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The first flame was lit by a 26-year-old street vendor in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, when he set himself alight. Angry that the police had confiscated his wares, humiliated when, seeking redress from the local government, a female official slapped his face and spat on him, frustrated when the governor refused to see him, Bouazizi doused himself in petrol and burnt to death.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/temples-of-doomed-democracy-begin-to-stir-from-their-coma-20110131-1ab3l.html

Fuse lit in Tunisia
Then Mohammed Bouazizi lit the fuse in Tunisia. The 26-year-old street vendor — underemployed like so many in his generation — set himself on fire after police confiscated the fruit cart he needed to support his family.

"That was the spark that got this whole thing started," Assaad said. "It caught on and spread through this tremendous base of frustration. Now, people simply are not going to accept the status quo anymore."
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2011/01/31/25343/behind_the_turmoil_in_egypt_angry_young_people_who_expected_more

[Catherina]

1. It's no joke. Totally true. See this thread and his picture

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Catherina/125

[underpants]

2. I did a search on it

but I didn't find anything here

that is amazing.

[Catherina]

4. If you have time

skim through my journal backwards and working your way up from that thread.

Desperate young men immolated throughout the Middle East. The ensuing fury over their misery, that so many people were sharing, was uncontainable.

[underpants]

6. I will

thanks

[Statistical]

3. The unrest was there just below the surface but contained.

That event was a spark. It showed people how little they have and how much the corrupt, cronny government has taken. Many protestors likely identified with him. He had no options, no choices, no freedoms. Just a little cart and some fruit barely making enough to keep his family alive and the govt simply took it without recourse. Out of options, and without freedom or recourse he channeled his frustration into a single act of defiance.

[Catherina]

5. +1. Just reading your post is making me cry all over again

I can only imagine how it affected North Africans and Middle-Easterners.

[lonestarnot]

7. Taking the last crumbs from one's mouth can ignite many things.

Such sadness in the world.

[Brickbat]

8. I find it interesting that some of his humiliation came from the fact that the officer who slapped

him and spat on him was female.