Time magazine person of the year is ‘The Protester’

The yearly tradition for Time magazine is to choose the name that will carry the glory and the burden of being the person of the year. In 2011, however, the decision represents a symbolical and political reference, as the person who owns the cover of the December edition is ‘The Protester’. With a visible reference to the Arabic culture, the chosen character honors those who fought for the past 12 months, literally, and brought back the concept of protest.

A Global Cause

To explain the magazine’s decision, Time’s international editor Jim Frederick wrote “for the past 20 to 25 years, almost a full generation, protest had stopped being a really viable way to change the political order. And then suddenly, almost out of nowhere, all across the globe, you have global, mass market protests that… we’re two regimes down and counting, whether it’s in Russia and London, Wall Street and all across the Middle East, suddenly the protest has become one of the ways people are actually taking back political power.”

The beginning of the protests happened in Tunisia and spread through the North of Africa and Middle East countries. Besides the people that craved for democracy, such as Egypt and Libya, cities in London and Russia also went through turbulent times regarding their own society’s problems. Either way, no matter what the main cause was, individuals created the sense of fighting for their rights in several countries.

War Stories

In Tunisia, the last drop that made rebels go out to the streets was named Mohamed Bouazizi. After several years of being disrespected by the police and authorities, Bouazizi decided to drench himself in paint thinner and lit a match to set his body on fire. His mother, when interviewed by Times, said “my son set himself on fire for dignity”. But that was not the only or last time a human being would burn alive with the purpose of sending out a message.

In other countries, such as Egypt and Libya, the media attention made it evident that the people were eager to get rid of dictatorship. Considering specifically the Libyan, Muammar Gadafi, the former dictator, was seen falling apart once discovered by the rebels. Even with the intention of fighting for democracy, doubts were raised when his death was confirmed while on the way to a local hospital.