Trotsky once remarked that if poverty was the cause of revolutions, there would be revolutions all the time because most people in the world were poor. What is needed to turn a million people’s grumbling discontent into a crowd on the streets is a spark to electrify them. Read more from the BBC on recurring patterns in revolutions

I saw a boy the other day right in the middle of the city centre just sitting by the pavement and wondered what the heck he was doing there when he was obviously supposed to be in class. You see the young lad was wearing a school uniform and I paused and asked him what his story was. He told me he was a grade four pupil in one of what was once Bulawayo’s elite schools. “I was told to go home.” “Why,” I asked. “I have not paid school fees,” he told me. Obviously it brought me back to the gulf that glaringly exists between policymakers and policy implementers in this country especially after the coming of the GNU. Where do we situate a grade four pupil who is loitering in the city centre because his parents are broke and pronouncements by the Minister Education that every child has a right to education and therefore must not be expelled because the parents are poor? Of course there is nothing new in this enquiry, but the fact that these pupils seen in the city centre are usually dismissed by many strangers as  playing truant, it does provide a disturbing trend when one thinks that next time you see child in uniform right in the CBD, it is not because they decided to bunk, skip classes, but it could be because they have been told they have no place among paying students, yet it is already known that parents are failing to pay for everything including feeding their children. When is it all going to end so that these so-called future leaders in Zimbabwe are made to inherit the wind? Who needs daft future leaders when we already have our plateful?

The more publicity the better:

When people take to the streets and the army is called out to stop them, at least two things can happen: Tunis, or Tiananmen. When the world is watching, a peaceful outcome is more likely. A threatened regime, when they think they’re immune to scrutiny, is a very dangerous thing.
- Ethan Zuckerman on the revolution in Egypt

I watched in bewilderment the other day, when in the foyer of one building, a crazed woman tore the head off  security guard who had asked her to sign-in before she could proceed upstairs.  She unleashed an unbelievable, unwarranted, temper tantrum of great magnitude.  Having gotten her way, the woman sashayed on upstairs, self satisfaction obvious in each step, while the guard was left embarrassed and virtually cowering behind his desk.

I believe that what I witnessed that day was “bullying”.  The woman was deliberately hostile and aggressive and her actions caused pain, distress and humiliation.  A classic bully.  Statistics say that adult bullying occurs more commonly than we think.  Observation of life confirms this fact.  We are all familiar with that person who habitually victimises waiters, other service staff, colleagues at work, family members, “friends” etc.

It is one thing to assert one’s position not to sign-into a building or to insist on a good standard of service or level of work.  It’s completely unacceptable when anyone treats another like their personal punching bag.  That can never be justified and it is never right.  Such behaviour says a lot more about the bully than it does about the dawdling waiter or timid electorate.

Characteristically, bullies lack empathy for others.  They take advantage of individuals perceived as being vulnerable and they aim to gain control over their victims.  Bullies make life miserable for others, particularly those who do not conform to their way of thinking.

However, bullies can and have been known to be beaten.  Experts suggest negotiating with the bully or enlisting the help of a third party in order to prevent further bullying.  This is the more peaceful and preferred route.  Of course, the bully might be beyond reasoning with, the stubborn and arrogant sort.  In this case, former-victims are forced to rise up and fight back.  They may resort to confront the bully so as to regain their lost dignity and once more control their destiny.  And when that day of reckoning comes, the bully will stare in the face of forceful, relentless and unprecedented retaliation.

Hosni and others who have met an unceremonious exit can attest to that.

An activist in Egypt tweets:

The criminal has left the palace

An SMS sent to the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper:

We want elections now. We can’t have two leaders in one nation. Its either we have Robert Mugabe or Morgan Tsvangirai.
- Muroro.