On Dec 19th 2010. Mohamed Bouazizi A poor Street Vendor had his fruits and
vegetables - which he used to sell to feed his wife and children - destroyed
by the Tunisian dictator in the payroll of the Awful Americans. He commited
suicide by burning himself - and forever unshackled the Arabs from the vice
of the Vampires.
A Tribute
By Mathew Jallow
Barely three months ago, few people outside his small town in rural Tunisia,
knew who he was. He does not have a fancy college degree. And he was poor;
dirt poor. But each morning, Mohamed Bouaziziwoke up and hit the dusty
pavements of his small town, with very little hope in his heart, but with a
lot of determination in his mind. After all, that was all he had left. For
despite the odds stacked against him, Mohamed Bouazizi had an appointment
with destiny to provide for his family, and refused to be found wanting in
that burdensome responsibility. But without any formal education or a
marketable skill, Mohamed Bouazizi adopted a volatile and unpredictable way
of making a living; a profession that was subject to external forces in the
informal market environment under which he operated, but above all, a
profession in which the income he made largely depended not on how hard he
worked for what he got, but on the goodwill or lack there of, of the
municipal agents who prowled the streets of his small town extorting the
poor and vulnerable.
As a street vendor who earned the barest minimum, Mohamed Bouazizi needed
every penny he got, and what he did with the little he earned, made the
difference between providing for his family or starving them. As usual, on
an uneventful morning three months ago, Mohamed did what he always did;
trudge the weary streets of his small town determined to provide for his
family. But what he did not know was that the day was going to be unlike any
other in short his life. It all began when a municipal agent confiscated his
goods and wares, and left him with nothing to sell to provide for his
family, and a frustrated Mohamed Bouazizi responded the only way he knew
how; he set himself on fire in protest. The rest is a history that is still
unfolding in the ancient narrow cobble-stone streets and wide modern
boulevards of Cairo; a history that set Tunisia on fire and toppled its long
time dictator Ben Ali; a history of political and social revolts, which
continue to sweep across North Africa and the Middle-East; and a history
whose cascading effects continue to shake the social, political and economic
foundation of the world.
The poor street vendor who no one outside his small town knew only three
months ago, has become the unlikely hero to millions yearning to be free
from political tyranny, and a villain to a few tyrants who hold them down in
virtual bondage. In death Mohamed achieved what he never could in life. When
he set himself on fire on a street corner in his town to protest the seizure
of his goods and wares, neither he nor anyone else could imagine that he
would set off a wave of revolutions the like of which the world has not seen
since the downfall of socialist regimes across Asia, Africa and Eastern
Europe in the 1970s.
Today, Mohamed Bouazizi can look down on earth from heaven's door and smile
at what he has accomplished for all of mankind.
REST IN PERFECT PEACE blessed Mohamed Bouazizi.
vegetables - which he used to sell to feed his wife and children - destroyed
by the Tunisian dictator in the payroll of the Awful Americans. He commited
suicide by burning himself - and forever unshackled the Arabs from the vice
of the Vampires.
A Tribute
By Mathew Jallow
Barely three months ago, few people outside his small town in rural Tunisia,
knew who he was. He does not have a fancy college degree. And he was poor;
dirt poor. But each morning, Mohamed Bouaziziwoke up and hit the dusty
pavements of his small town, with very little hope in his heart, but with a
lot of determination in his mind. After all, that was all he had left. For
despite the odds stacked against him, Mohamed Bouazizi had an appointment
with destiny to provide for his family, and refused to be found wanting in
that burdensome responsibility. But without any formal education or a
marketable skill, Mohamed Bouazizi adopted a volatile and unpredictable way
of making a living; a profession that was subject to external forces in the
informal market environment under which he operated, but above all, a
profession in which the income he made largely depended not on how hard he
worked for what he got, but on the goodwill or lack there of, of the
municipal agents who prowled the streets of his small town extorting the
poor and vulnerable.
As a street vendor who earned the barest minimum, Mohamed Bouazizi needed
every penny he got, and what he did with the little he earned, made the
difference between providing for his family or starving them. As usual, on
an uneventful morning three months ago, Mohamed did what he always did;
trudge the weary streets of his small town determined to provide for his
family. But what he did not know was that the day was going to be unlike any
other in short his life. It all began when a municipal agent confiscated his
goods and wares, and left him with nothing to sell to provide for his
family, and a frustrated Mohamed Bouazizi responded the only way he knew
how; he set himself on fire in protest. The rest is a history that is still
unfolding in the ancient narrow cobble-stone streets and wide modern
boulevards of Cairo; a history that set Tunisia on fire and toppled its long
time dictator Ben Ali; a history of political and social revolts, which
continue to sweep across North Africa and the Middle-East; and a history
whose cascading effects continue to shake the social, political and economic
foundation of the world.
The poor street vendor who no one outside his small town knew only three
months ago, has become the unlikely hero to millions yearning to be free
from political tyranny, and a villain to a few tyrants who hold them down in
virtual bondage. In death Mohamed achieved what he never could in life. When
he set himself on fire on a street corner in his town to protest the seizure
of his goods and wares, neither he nor anyone else could imagine that he
would set off a wave of revolutions the like of which the world has not seen
since the downfall of socialist regimes across Asia, Africa and Eastern
Europe in the 1970s.
Today, Mohamed Bouazizi can look down on earth from heaven's door and smile
at what he has accomplished for all of mankind.
REST IN PERFECT PEACE blessed Mohamed Bouazizi.
