Sunday, February 13, 2011

The man who changed the world


Have you heard about Mohamed Bouazizi?
Most of us haven't.
After all he was no one. Not a politician, not a sportstar nor a filmstar.
He was a simple fruit vendor on the Tunisian streets who unwittingly changed the world.
His actions bought about a revolution in a region where self confidence among people was rare and tyranny of the rulers was high.

Ironically, turning points in history have often been small relatively trivial events.
Either it be death of Hao Bang or the Archduke Ferdinand assassination – These were small events but they resulted in Tiananmen Square Massacre and the World War 1.

Bouazizi sacrificed his life but its a paradox that his death was more significant than his ordinary life.
What Bouazizi achieved can be assessed be the aftermath of his death.
Bouazizi’s suicide was the much needed spark which ignited the Tunisian revolt against its President Abidine resulting in his stepping down after 23 years in power.

The triumph of the Tunisian protests inspired agitation and revolts in several other Arabic and Middle East countries where quite a few men emulated Bouazizi's suicide act. They audaciously attempted to bring an end to the oppression from corrupt dictatorial powerful governments which had seemed impossible a few months back. Those men and Bouazizi are hailed as "gallant martyrs of the new Middle Eastern revolution” who changed the world forever. Bouazizi’s revolution spread to several countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, and Yemen where rulers made commitments to improve the lives of its citizens providing better employment and medical facilities. The most momentous of these revolutions happened in Egypt where Hosni Mubarak resigned, ending his 30-year reign as the president of Egypt.

Bouazizi was a common man but he proved to the world what a common man can achieve.
He raised his voice against tyranny and prejudice and during that process lost his life but he will be remembered as someone who didn't back down to the suppression of a rogue government and in process, inked his name in the history books for ever and yes of course, CHANGED THE WORLD.

3 comments:

Ray said...

Missed your blogs man ;)

Welcome back!

venkat_(n)ever_thinking said...

Nice piece..

And ya, small incidents spark-off major events in history; they don't usually cause them :)

instant_blogger said...

Hey Ray - thanks a lot man
Venky - true
Glad u liked it