'I started the Arab Spring. Now death is everywhere, and extremism blooming'

WOW. I'm sharing this because it's amazing to look back to the beginning of the Arab Spring and see what I feel is a textbook example of 'The Butterfly Effect' in action.
Read this and realize how even the simplest of things we do each day can change the world...for better or worse.

THIS story begins one day, five years ago, with a council inspector doing her job and confiscating a vegetable stand.

Look at how the world has changed since that day.

Faida Hamdy confiscated a vegetable stall in Tunisia five years ago today. Neither she nor the rest of the world could have imagined the consequences

It is hardly surprising that when Faida Hamdy wonders whether she is responsible for everything that happened after her moment of fame she is overwhelmed.

Mrs Hamdy was the council inspector who, five years ago today confiscated the vegetable stall of a street vendor in her dusty town in central Tunisia.

In despair, that young man set himself on fire in a protest outside the council offices. Within weeks, he was dead, dozens of young Arab men had copied him, riots had overthrown his president, and the Arab Spring was under way.

As the world marks the anniversary, Syria and Iraq are in flames, Libya has broken down, and the twin evils of militant terror and
repression stalk the region.

“Sometimes I wish I’d never done it,” Mrs Hamdy told The Telegraph, in her only interview to mark the occasion.

Hers is a voice that has been rarely heard: the family of the young man, Mohammed Bouazizi, became unwilling celebrities in the weeks after his lingering death, but a nervous regime arrested Mrs Hamdy when the protests began.

By the time she was acquitted of all charges and released, President Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali had fallen, and media attention was focused on Egypt, Libya and Syria.

“I feel responsible for everything,” she went on. Her voice was shaky as she spoke of the traumatic consequences, five years that have transformed the Middle East but seemingly changed very little in poor, provincial towns like Sidi Bouzeid.

“Sometimes, I blame myself and say it is all because of me. I made history since I was the one who was there and my action contributed to it but look at us now. Meanwhile, Tunisians are suffering as always.”

Mohammed Bouazizi’s death triggered some deep nerve in the Arab world. Many myths were told about his own story and that of Mrs Hamdy, as there were about the nature of subsequent uprisings and downfalls, but there remains a basic truth underlying his experience and that of many others.

FULL ARTICLE:
www.telegraph.co.uk... ing.html

REST OF ARTICLE (because the source link isn't working):

Corruption, stifling bureaucracy, and repressive police states were holding back a largely youthful population across the region, and their victims had little way to make their frustrations felt other than extreme actions.

Subsequent studies found that self-immolation had already become a common act in Tunisia, accounting already for 15 per cent of all burns cases in Tunis hospitals. Within six months, more than 100 Tunisians had followed suit, and scores more around the Arab world, from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, had also set themselves on fire.

Still, not many observers could have imagined the chaos that would ensue, even when Mr Ben Ali gave way to weeks
of protest and boarded a plane for Saudi Arabia with his wife and a large chunk of the country’s gold reserves.
Next Hosni Mubarak of Egypt went, after 18 days of telegenic demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Then Col Muammar Gaddafi was forced out, after protests turned into civil war and then international war, with the West’s air forces joining in.

By the time he was bayoneted and shot in October 2011, Syria was in flames, and the West was starting to vacillate about its role, with effects that can still be seen today. Libya, Syria and much of Iraq remain failed states. Egypt is on the brink.

In the process a social uprising had turned into a conflict between Islamism, part peaceful, part violent, and secular governments and politicians; and then between religious sects, as Sunni and Shia turned on each other.

Despite Mrs Hamdy’s despair at the poverty that remains in Tunisia, the country is still seen as the sole success. It has had two general elections in the years since, with a moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, winning the first, before stepping into opposition in the face of an alliance between secular parties that included members of the former regime last year.

"When I look at the region and my country, I regret it all. Death everywhere and extremism blooming, and killing beautiful souls"
Faida Hamdy

Much of that is down to a deal negotiated by Rached Ghannouchi, Ennahda’s head, who agreed to give up power despite the party’s electoral strength.
He told The Telegraph this week that he and his colleagues had decided to compromise after considering fundamental issues of what democracy meant.

“Majoritarian rule, 50 per cent of the vote, is not sufficient,” he said. He said he had always known, from the start of Tunisia’s political “transition”, that he would have to seek alliances, and in the first government Ennahda ruled alongside a centre-left secular party.

“We thought having a government with a majority would be enough,” he said. “Then we realised we needed more: we needed consensus.”

The difference between Tunisia and Egypt here is stark. While, as he points out, Egypt, Syria and Iraq are all more complex and difficult countries than Tunisia, the fact remains that Ennahda downplayed Islamist demands when the country drew up a constitution, the resulting document winning 94 per cent of the votes in the country’s constitutional assembly.

In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, which won the presidency by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, tried to force through an Islamist constitution by decree. It was toppled by a coup seven months later.

Syria and Libya, meanwhile, appear not to know the meaning of the word consensus.
Mr Ghannouchi, perhaps oddly, is still optimistic about the future of democracy in the Arab world. “The year 2011 was a leap from tyranny in the Arab world,” he said. “History shows that the transition to democracy is not always linear – the transitions that took place in France and Britain took over 100 years.”
"My brother is a lover of life and he would have rejected both the stupid politicians and death-loving extremists"
Samia Bouazizi

Whether the Arab world can last that long is another question. Mr Bouazizi’s family, whose initial fame turned to
hostility in their community, could not: his mother and one sister moved to Canada, while another, Samia, now works in Tunis. She is the first to say that her brother’s death has been hijacked by politics and ideology.

“His death is destiny and I accept it,” she said at a café in the city. “But if he were here he would be the first in the street to ask for more dignity.

“My brother created something that greedy people are trying to destroy in the region. My brother is a lover of life and he would have rejected both the stupid politicians and death-loving extremists. My brother died for dignity not for wealth or an ideology.”

At the end of all the wars, few may end up remembering either him or Mrs Hamdy. The two began at opposite sides, but both now seem telescoped out of proportion by a history that became perverse beyond all recognition.
“Mohammed Bouazizi and I are both victims,” Mrs Hamdy said. “He lost his life and my life is not the same any more.

“When I look at the region and my country, I regret it all. Death everywhere and extremism blooming, and killing beautiful souls.”

www.telegraph.co.uk... ing.html

She should not be so hard on herself.

Arab Spring would have been nothing without Soros funding, Obama administration supporting and progressive media/bloggers cheerleading their buddies in the "moderate" Muslim brotherhood, whose stated goal is the caliphate.

Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." - motto of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The guy made the choice to kill himself or to just stay at home. Other wouldn't have rioted if they hadn't felt discriminated in the same way.

a reply to: IAMTAT

This isnt the first time somebody has set themselves on fire as a means of protest.

From what i've heard, facebook was used to organize many protests. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg should be blamed?

I understand that.
I'm just looking at the direct chain of events that started with a woman closing down a veggie stand in Tunisia, five years ago...to the world we have today.

She closed down a vegetable stand.

www.scientificamerican.com - Climate Change and Rising Food Prices Heightened Arab Spring...

In 2010, droughts in Russia, Ukraine, China and Argentina and torrential storms in Canada, Australia and Brazil -- all major wheat and grain producers -- considerably diminished global crops, driving commodity prices up. The region was already dealing with internal sociopolitical, economic and climatic tensions, and the 2010 global food crisis helped drive it over the edge.

It seems these regions were already pressed to their limits, so it was like hte straw that broke the camels back.

a reply to: jonnywhite

I'm sure her decision to close the veggie stand down had something to do with Climate Change.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Remember the good old days when Glenn Beck was warmongering about the eminent threat of a rising caliphate and the Arab Spring was just a little step in the direction to jihad against the USA and our allies?

Silly, Beck!

originally posted by: NewzNose
a reply to: IAMTAT

Remember the good old days when Glenn Beck was warmongering about the eminent threat of a rising caliphate and the Arab Spring was just a little step in the direction to jihad against the USA and our allies?

Silly, Beck!

Gee, I wonder if anyone in the msm, besides Megan Kelly, admitted Beck was right.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Yeah, like that'll ever happen. As likely as Obama calling Beck and apologize. (Beck still has that red phone)

Several of Beck's then "warmongering" predictions have proven true.

I hear he accepts apologies, even non-heartfelt ones.

Oh yeah.
Arab Spring is American think tank strategy progress.

I'm afraid the poor dear had ZIP to do with it at all.

originally posted by: NewzNose
a reply to: IAMTAT

Yeah, like that'll ever happen. As likely as Obama calling Beck and apologize. (Beck still has that red phone)
Several of Beck's then "warmongering" predictions have proven true.
I hear he accepts apologies, even non-heartfelt ones.

Maybe Obama; never from Don Imus. Text messaging between the two goes as this; Imus: "You have lost weight and are still fat!"; Beck : "Your still alive?". What was the contract ending with FoxNews; I thought it was pushed because of Becks Arab Spring rants (too many blackboard diagram depictions) that were coherent and insightful. The red phone will never ring.

Hahaha, Hamdy must be kicking herself. Whoops-a-daisy. I once accidentally started a bushfire, but this is on a whole other level.

Seriously though, every time something like the Arab Spring pops up, there are more than just the one cause. Multiple factors come into it. Hamdy might've struck the match that lit the fire, but the Arab Springers needed more, they needed money and supplies and so on, and I don't think Hamdy was the one doling out bank loans for AK-47s and making their sandwiches.