​Mohamed Bouaziz was just ten years old when he became the main provider for his family.   When he was 26, he made his money by selling vegetables and fruits off an old wagon in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid.  

Ten years ago this week (December 17, 2010), Sidi Bouzid policemen seized Mohamed's produce for the umpteenth time, but this time the local police also beat and humiliated him in public.  Mohamed walked to the town hall and tried to get his vegetables and fruits back, but no one would talk to him.  He then walked outside, drenched himself in gasoline, and lit himself on fire.  

All around the world, news media and social media started broadcasting Mohamed's story across the  Middle East.  By the time he died on January 4, 2001, protesters who knew the hopelessness and pain that drove Bouazizi to suicide had packed Tunisian streets demanding reform.  Just ten days after Mohamed's death, Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to leave after being in power for over two decades.  The demonstrations spread throughout the Middle East.

Decades of strongman dictatorship in the region left the ground dangerously depleted, but Mohamed Bouaziz lit the match that ignited a revolution.  This week is the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Arab Spring.  What is the legacy of Mohamed Bouazizi?

Aspirations that "people power" revolutions would yield a democratic awakening in the region have been dashed.  Only in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi's home has created a democracy.  Protests in Egypt overthrew  Hosni Mubarak, and elections were held. Still, Egypt's military toppled the elected president after one year in office and restored control of its politics.  

Yemen, Syria, and Libya were all fallen into civil war.  A staggering half of the Syrian population ten years ago have been killed or forced from their homes, and the resulting refugee crisis capsized politics and societies in Western Europe.  

In the past decade, many protestors of the Arab Spring demanded an end to endemic corruption, freedom of expression, and more and better opportunities for young men and women like Bouaziz.  Sadly, the best available evidence shows that there are just as many crooks in power, more jobless young people, and more journalists in jail a decade later. 

Perhaps the most disturbing story of all is that the tools and technologies that drew attention to Mohamed Bouazizi's tragedy and raised hopes for change have contributed to the ensuing devastation.   From Cairo's Tahrir Square, Facebook, Twitter, and other social medial platforms helped protesters spread their message, organize demonstrations, and capture the world's attention.  Unfortunately, Islamic State militants were soon applying these same tools to recruit terrorists to Syria and Iraq and coordinate attacks in Europe and beyond.  

With guidance from Russian engineers, Syria's Bashar al-Assad also used social media to disseminate disinformation and propaganda to tens of millions of people.  The use of bots that didn't exist ten years ago has added to the problem's scale.  

Arab Spring has for now given way to Arab Winter.  The Story of the Middle East is far from over.  The Middle East region has been held together floor centuries by strongmen backed by outside powers -Ottoman, European, American.  With little history of broadly shared power, lasting progress toward individual freedom, if it comes, will take many more decades.  

Mohamed Bouazizi's country, Tunisia, now has a government that, nevertheless imperfectly, must answer to voters.  For now, that's the most I can say for Mohamed's legacy.