Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks started the Montgomery Bus Boycott after she showed her defiance by not handing over her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery Alabama. She felt she did not do that to accommodate a white passenger who was paying the same fair with her, its success launched nationwide efforts to end racial segregation of public facilities.
It was a resounding example of a movement started by one, but grew into a movement of many. It did not stop there, it went across the country, millions across America joined the movement. Rosa parks would not have succeeded by herself, but she goes down in history as the mother of public transportation desegregation in Alabama.
The Arab Spring began when A year ago, 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi was getting ready to sell fruits and vegetables in the rural town of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. Bouazizi was the breadwinner for his widowed mother and six siblings, but he didn’t have a permit to sell the goods. When the police asked Bouazizi to hand over his wooden cart, he refused and a policewoman allegedly slapped him. Angered after being publicly humiliated, Bouazizi marched in front of a government building and set himself on fire.
This act of desperation, and defiance to some extent touched many across other towns immediately. Protests began that day in Sidi Bouzid, captured by cellphone cameras and shared on the Internet.Within days, massive protests started popping up across the country, calling upon President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his regime to step down. About a month later, he fled.
It did not end in Tunisia, but spread across the Middle East toppling down several strong arm leaders, some may say, that there were unintended consequences, but that’s another story for another discussion.
In sweden a young 16 year old girl named Greta Thungberg started a climate change movement that resonated with youth globally, her movement has attracted millions of followers. She started with organizing a School Strike for Climate by staging a protest in front of the Swedish Parliament.
We have seen other examples of few people starting movements that grow, and increase in numbers all over the Caribbean and all over the world. We have seen it in Dominica before also, take for instance the movement lead by the then Secretary General of the Public Service Union (PSU) now president Charles Savarin in 1979. His movement lead to the downfall of the then Labor party Government lead by Patrick John.
The people of Dominica now have many grievances that they cannot get redress for form any institution, most notably, electoral reform which they have been demanding the eleven years now, and the disappearance of $1.2 Billion which Roosevelt cannot or refuse to account for. Those are very serious issues that need resolution.
As a result a few brave young men decided to go to the last resort. That is, to start a people’s movement along with the concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) which quickly joined forces, other staunch activist has only joined.
In light of this, they decided to start with a vigil around the compound of Charles Savarin, the president who they believe is the man who can address their concerns since all else have failed.
Today Friday November 17th is the fifth day of this vigil/peaceful protest, but the numbers have not grown yet they relent . We applaud and thank them for their initiative and give them our support, but we must ask,why are they still so few? What it keeping others from joining them? As far as we know more than half of the population share their same concerns and want the same results they are looking for, so why are they leaving them to fight that battle alone? Without the numbers these movements cannot be effective, numbers matter, it’s all about numbers! When will there be a tipping point, that is the critical point in this movement when the unstoppable effect and change will occur. We need that tipping point!
We take this opportunity to give thanks and appreciation to the few who relentlessly persevere against all odds.
