... that started the flash point to the revolt in Tunisia....it was one man with a food cart (along with Wikileaks...)
The proximate spark was an unemployed college graduate who was assaulted by the police for selling fruits and vegetables without having paid the proper protection money. They confiscated his fruit cart and stock, the one and only thing he had in order to struggle to support his family and try to preserve some shred of human dignity. That’s the exact kind of extortion and confiscation the US government’s recently passed food tyranny bill intends to impose on every kind of fruit cart here. In despair, he publicly burned himself alive.
This sparked escalating demonstrations. At first the police responded with violence and repression. They shot protesters and carried out mass arrests. As the protests and street fighting escalated, the now frightened thug Ali promised reforms.
... Wikileaks may have played a role in bringing anger to a flash point. Tunisians were outraged to read cynical US state department cables which frankly discussed the Tunisian regime as a vile tinpot despotism the US must nevertheless prop up. (so remember that the next time you see some corporate liberal scoffing at how Wikileaks can’t make any difference anyway.) - volitility
The rebellion, referred to by the media as the Jasmine Revolution, was sparked by a single, unemployed, university graduate Mohammad Bouazizi. The 22-year-old Bouazizi made his living with an unlicensed vending cart on a market street in the town of Sidi Bouzid, a place described as "hard scrabble," and is 190 miles south of the country's capital of Tunis.
Bouazizi was roughed up by the police and his cart was confiscated. Angry and upset, the young man did a dramatic protest. With a message that he "can't live without food anyway," Bouazizi set himself on fire and died. Self-immolation has been used throughout many countries as a form of protest.
bouazizi's dramatic action sparked mass protests throughout the country. tunisians were fed-up with the mass unemployment and government corruption. - people's world
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