Libya and Ethiopia in Prophecy

On December 16, 2010, Mohammed Bouazizi was an unknown 26-year-old street vendor trying to make a living in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. It wasn’t an easy life. Selling vegetables from a wooden cart isn’t exactly lucrative. And rampant government corruption and regular mistreatment by the police made earning a living all the more difficult.

On December 17, a cantankerous policewoman decided to confiscate Bouazizi’s cart, his vegetables and his livelihood. Although he offered to pay the fine, the policewoman refused his offer and “allegedly slapped the scrawny young man, spat in his face, and insulted his dead father” (Time, Jan. 21, 2011).

Bouazizi then took his complaint to the local authorities, but they refused to see him.