But most analysts believe such a scenario is unlikely, at least for now, given the risks of triggering upheaval that could destabilise the Pakistani government, and even lead to a military takeover.
In the process he triggered upheavals in computing, music, telecoms and the news business that were painful for incumbent firms but welcomed by millions of consumers.Within the wider business world, a man who liked to see himself as a hippy, permanently in revolt against big companies, ended up being hailed by many of those corporate giants as one of the greatest chief executives of his time.
Most are Tunisians fleeing the economic problems that helped trigger the upheaval.
"There was always going to be something that triggered this upheaval," she said.
As we place ever more stress on the environment by undermining soil fertility, driving countless species to extinction and triggering climatic upheaval, voices such as those of Humberto Sánchez and Alameda should be on the world stage, not buried beneath the earth.
Bouazizi's self-immolation was an unlikely trigger of regional upheaval.
How would Bouazizi's self-immolation as a trigger for regional upheaval have been judged by these criteria on the eve of the Arab Spring?
He wanted to work, to live and to survive," he added, referring to the Tunisian vegetable seller whose suicide in December 2010 triggered the regional upheaval.
It was not to be.The upheaval triggered two weeks ago, when a tiny centrist party quit Mr Prodi's coalition, unseated the prime minister when he lost a vote of confidence in the Senate.
