Around ten at night on December 16, 2010, a struggling Tunisian street vendor in the town of Sidi Bouazid got a loan of about US$200 to buy some commodities he intended to sell the next day. In the morning, at eight o’clock, he set up his stall on a street corner.

But two hours later the police arrived. They claimed that Bouazizi had no vendor’s licence and confiscated his wares.

The fact that this young 26-year old had become a st