The Tunisian protests that saw President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali flee the country on Friday after 23 years in power began when a young man set himself on fire after police had confiscated merchandise he was selling on the streets. The demonstrations that followed – and their success in forcing Ben Ali out of power – have sparked similar incidents of self-immolation in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania.

The Zimbabwean government might well be tempted to ban the use of matches here – to prevent similar protests. But with so many power cuts, how would people light their candles and cooking fires? Hmmm. That might make things worse.

This entry was posted on January 18th, 2011 at 11:33 am by Amanda Atwood and is filed under Activism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.