Tunisian collaborative painting his family. Ben Ali’s police took his fruit away and beat him. Mr. Bouazizi poured paint thinner on himself and lit a match. Word of his fiery death spread quickly and some of the Tunisian artists David Black had painted with risked their lives demonstrating in the streets. The Jasmine Revolution ended a month later on January 10, 2011 when Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the ruler of Tunisia for 23 years, fled the country. In November 2011, the new government of Tunisia gave permission for the Tunisian artists to travel to America as guests of David Black. The participation of
Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State but she avoided specific issues of U.S. aid and when elections should take place. President Obama was reportedly unhappy with U.S. intelligence agencies following their failure to foresee the 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising and the downfall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali as well as the Egyptian protests. Responding to criticism that the State Department had failed to see the developments in Egypt coming, Clinton defended the U.S. in an interview on Al-Arabiya, saying "I don't think anybody could have predicted we'd be sitting here talking about the end of the Mubarak presidency at the time that this all started." Reflecting