It's December 17, 2010, in City Busid, a small town in central Tunisia on the north coast of Africa.

It's a busy morning. Traffic chokes the dusty roads as throngs of people shuffle along the town's narrow sidewalks.

In the central square, a policewoman and two of her deputies surround a 26-year-old street peddler.

His name is Mohamed Bouazizi.

He's a familiar face to many in town.

Every day, the young man rolls a cart of fruit and vegetables through the streets selling produce.

And every day, the police come looking for him.

Corruption is rife in Tunisia, and local officials are always harassing street vendors like Buazizi for bribes.

But today, the young peddler doesn't have the money to pay them off.

So the police officer search his cart looking for anything valuable.

The policewoman soon finds the electronic scales he uses to price his fruit. Buazizi pleads with

her. He needs the scales to do his job. He has a family that relies on him. But the police woman

doesn't listen. When Buazizi tries to take back the scales, she slaps him across the face.

Immediately, her deputies take hold of Buazizi.

Two men begin punching him hard in the stomach, then throw him to the ground and upend his

cart behind him.

Fruit and vegetables spill over the dusty stones.

Then the police officer stride away to find

another street cellar to hassle. As Buazizi picks himself up and dusts off his clothes, he notices

people staring at him. Some look down on him with pity. Others laugh. He trembles with shame

and humiliation. He leaves his cart and has scattered goods behind

and marches off in the direction of a local government facility to lodge a complaint.

...