Mizna Volume 13 | Issue 1 2012
A little over a year ago, helpless despair was the final refuge for Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit and vegetable vendor. He was bullied by the system, spat on by officials, and his fruit stand, his only source of livelihood, repeatedly confiscated. He lit a match to his gasoline-soaked body. His self-immolation, not unlike that of many suicide bombers before him, might have been destined to be a wasted scream for change. Yet this time the spark took. The rubber wall that previously absorbed every blow unscathed, suddenly gave in. Tunisians took to the streets. They reclaimed a rudimentary evolutionary tenet in life: strength in numbers. Lulled by its own excesses, the system was caught off guard and it fell. The same repression, injustice, and impotent isolation drove many like Bouazizi into the streets, not to honor another death, but to reclaim their very humanity. “Al Sha‘b . . Yurid . . . Isqat . . . al Nizam.” Their demand rang out over and over: “The People . . . Want . . . to Eject . . . the Regime.” It was the cry in the background of Western media reports, and in the foreground of shaky phoneuploaded YouTube videos. One can even discern in what region the footage was filmed simply by listening to the accents of the mantra. Egyptian chants were somewhat melodious, with the first word pronounced, “ishSha‘b.” Bahrainis, like other Gulf residents, stressed the patrician “zh” in “nizam.” Meanwhile, the “qaf” in “isqat” was definitely more fervent in Syrian renditions. The success of the Arab Spring seems to be the result of the victory of Arab altruism over helplessness. It’s a triumph of browbeaten isolated spirits in finding a community. The genie is now out of the bottle. We Arabs know our history well. The genie had to be tricked to get himself back into the bottle. We should know all stops will be pulled out by those who benefit from the status quo in order to reverse any gains. This is another generation to pay in tears and blood for that elusive liberty. New fallible technologies may help them communicate better and faster, yet they can be circumvented. Meanwhile, it pays to heed the moral of the old fable: no one else but the genie has the power to force himself to retreat into the repression of days past. M
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