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grantcart

(53,061 posts)
Sun May 31, 2020, 10:01 PM May 2020

George Floyd is America's Mohamed Bouazizi (street vendor who ignited the Arab Spring)



His father died when he was young and at the age of 10 he started working to support his mother and siblings



He supported his mother, uncle, and younger siblings, including paying for one of his sisters to attend university, by earning approximately US$140 per month selling produce on the street in Sidi Bouzid.[11][15] He was also working toward the goal of buying or renting a pickup truck for his work.[20] A close friend of Bouazizi said he "was a very well-known and popular man who would give free fruit and vegetables to very poor families".[15]



He worked by selling vegetables out of a wheelbarrow. The local police hassled him and stole from him. One day the burden became too great.



. Around 10 p.m. on 16 December 2010, he had contracted approximately US$200 in debt to buy the produce he was to sell the following day. On the morning of 17 December, he started his workday at 8 a.m.[11] Just after 10:30 a.m., the police began harassing him again, ostensibly because he did not have a vendor's permit.[20]
. .

according to the head of Sidi Bouzid's state office for employment and independent work, no permit is needed to sell from a cart.[19]



They seized his cart, beat him, extorted him.



Bouazizi, angered by the confrontation,[26] went to the governor's office to complain[20] and to ask for his scales back.[27] The governor refused to see or listen to him, even after Bouazizi was quoted as saying, "If you don't see me, I'll burn myself."[20] Bouazizi then acquired a can of gasoline from a nearby gas station and returned to the governor's office. While standing in the middle of traffic, he shouted, "How do you expect me to make a living?"[27] He then doused himself with the fuel, and set himself alight with a match at 11:30 a.m. local time, less than an hour after the altercation.



Public outrage swept across dozens of countries. Public pressure forced the removal of Presidents of Egypt (2), Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen.

There are three key parallels between the two men.

Both were perceived as innocent regular people who lost their lives at the oppression of the state.

The establishment of both Tunisia and the United States both share the image of being run by a corrupt leadership that is only concerned with maintaining power and person enrichment.

Individual expression of the masses has been curbed (in our case in part by the Covid 19 virus) and occurs at a time when regular people are frustrated and want to express themselves in both honoring the loss of a simple human being and their deep motivation for a change in political leadership.

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George Floyd is America's Mohamed Bouazizi (street vendor who ignited the Arab Spring) (Original Post) grantcart May 2020 OP
The Arab Spring was fundamentally a failure. J_William_Ryan May 2020 #1
The comparison is to the reaction of the people in the street. grantcart May 2020 #3
Glad you expanded on your earlier post! Lars39 May 2020 #2
This is not an Arab Spring, nor is it an American Spring. icymist May 2020 #4

grantcart

(53,061 posts)
3. The comparison is to the reaction of the people in the street.
Sun May 31, 2020, 10:21 PM
May 2020

I don't disagree with the assessment that the current ME governments fail to reflect the voice of the masses but if you think the Electoral College is not a massive failure then you would be naive one.

icymist

(15,888 posts)
4. This is not an Arab Spring, nor is it an American Spring.
Sun May 31, 2020, 10:32 PM
May 2020

This is organized groups of outsiders usurping peaceful protests in order to induce rioting and looting. The asshole in the White House is pointing fingers at antifa while getting off on the violence. More than likely, this is people like the proud boys and their ilk, which have a history of instigating violence.

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