le East. They are discovering their capacity to change things, their inner "Basta!" That's how the Arab spring began on Dec. 17 in the little town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia — with a fruit peddler's "enough" to humiliation. In my end is my beginning. Three months later the genie is not only out of the bottle, i

episode on November 27th between police and disenchanted youths in the southwestern town of Siliana, strikes broke out in various regions, including Sidi Bouzid—the epicenter of the Tunisian uprising in late 2012. While a nationwide general strike was originally called by the UGTT for December 13th, it was

Islamists, Fear Salafis Robin Wright August 19, 2012 -- THIS spring, I traveled to the cradle of the Arab uprisings — a forlorn street corner in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, where a street vendor, drenched in paint thinner, struck a match in December 2010 that ignited the entire Middle East. "We have far more

efore Sweden did so), and among the first to enact women's suffrage (1959). There, on December 17, 2010, a 27-year-old fruit vendor in the town of Sidi Bouzid had his wares confiscated. He was allegedly slapped in the face by a female inspector and beaten by her aides. After being denied interview by the

es of the party have tried to build contacts with grassroots activists in the marginalised towns that have come to symbolise the uprising, including Sidi Bouzid, Kasserine, Gafsa and Siliana. The reception has been mixed. Abdennaceur Laouini, who had led the lawyers' protests in December and January. was on

ohan Lagerkvist June 11, 2012 -- One man, fruit seller Mohammad Bouazizi, sparked the Arab Spring with his self-immolation in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid in January 2011. Since then, leaders in Beijing have grappled with how to handle the political fallout of the democratic youth-quakes reverberating

elf-franchising social movement, appearing in hundreds of cities: Occupy Hollywood. Occupy Central in Hong Kong. Occupy - strangely — Vegas. Then in Sidi Bouzid, a Tunisian town you've never heard of, far away from all these unstable looking mobs, a spark lands. A local man has set himself on fire. Police (wo