Self-Immolation, Catalyst of the Arab Spring, Is Now a Grim Trend
"He had already done that as a last resort two or three times before
and he told me it worked." The last time Mr. Ghanmi tried, in a police station, he set himself on fire and died.
" Mr. Dridi said in an interview while lying on a mattress in his family’s home, where he was still recovering, his neck and chest scarred by burns.
that I wanted to burn myself because I was burning inside,
Yet it is a paramount irony that in Tunisia — cradle of the Arab Spring and the one country
that has the best hope of realizing its aspirations for democracy and prosperity — Mr. Bouazizi’s once-extraordinary act has become commonplace, whether compelled by anger, depression or bitter disappointment, or to publicly challenge the authorities.
Mr. Dridi, 31, is also a fruit seller, and, like Mr. Bouazizi, he snapped after the police spilled his apricots, bananas
and strawberries on the ground in front of the city hall here in his hometown.
Mr. Dridi, the only breadwinner for his mother and family since the age of 14, said he had wanted to do "like Bouazizi"
on the morning of May 10, when police officers ordered him to leave, saying he had not paid for his vending spot.
You see, I literally saw him burning and I can still remember the smell." A week later, another pupil in the town, who was just 13, also tried to burn himself alive,
but survived after a friend snuffed out the fire with his jacket.