[philtar]

The actual instigator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Bouazizi

Fuck a prominent position. He doesn't have a prominent position, and every single large exec would open their mouth when their entire country is being destroyed.

Fuckin' hell HN. As an Arab, I'm severely disappointed that everyone forgot the reason the Arab Spring started was because a 26 year old burned himself alive because he couldn't afford to live. Not some social media savvy guy from google.

[Pintok]

So whats the lesson? To me it's pretty simple. You want change learn to do it the right way. Gandhi, MLK and Mandela didn't burn themselves and get change over night. And guess what, being media savvy is how you make change happen. There are to this day people who will call those three characters the most media savvy men of their time.

If marketing can sell Coke, Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian it can be used to sell other things too. Positive things. Constructive things. To pretend without media savvy your message will get out and have influence is highly misguided in this day and age.

[noobie]

What fucking media and marketing are you even talking about? I am a Tunisian citizen and I have never heard of this guy until these last couple of days.

[Pintok]

Well I have. And I deeply respect what he is trying to do. It's solution oriented unlike cheap talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwJ0hNl1Fw

[maceo]

Give it up. I left out an important part in my original post: this guy only got media attention in America. No media attention in the Arab world, because being a Google employee didn't make his sacrifice any more significant. The European media had enough sense to not focus on this guy either. Only the insufferable mainstream American media is self-centered enough to push the narrative that an employee of an American company was instrumental in the Arab Spring.

[Mira_s]

I am Arab. Please speak for yourself. Nobody appointed you spokesperson for Arab opinion.

I think Wael has played and continues to play a very important role.

[noobie]

sigh

Again, he is NOT the Arab Spring instigator.

[rebussuper]

Appears to me you are confusing the words instigator and initiator. Check a dictionary for the difference.

One could make the case that Bradley Manning or Julian Assange or Wikileaks initiated the Arab Spring. But nobody is going to deny they instigated it.