ULife asked: What is a topic in the news that makes you happy?

In the past year we’ve watched as several dictators fell in the Middle East, where months of popular protests and uprisings finally culminated in the collapse of long-standing oppressive regimes. Because the struggle for democracy was so long and at-times violent in Egypt and Libya, most of the attention has been focused on them. I actually completely forgot that the so-called “Arab Spring” didn’t originate in Egypt, but in Tunisia.

In January of this year the North African nation became the first to overthrow its dictator, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, after a month-long struggle in which protestors used social media like YouTube and Facebook to organize and gather support. The success in Tunisia inspired the similar revolts in other authoritarian Arab countries.

This past Sunday, I was thrilled to be reminded of the tremendous accomplishment in Tunisia once again when I read that the country’s citizens would be voting in the country’s first democratic elections ever. After being ruled by one party and one man since independence in 1956, the Tunisian people on October 23 had their choice of 100 different parties and over a thousand candidates. I could only imagine the excitement that must have been in the air as I read descriptions of the lines of hundreds of people casting their vote for the first time in their lives.

While the election is not without its potential issues (confusion over whom to vote for out of the many options, the worry that an Islamist victory would undermine Tunisia’s traditional secularism), it went amazingly smoothly, and people have said that whatever the outcome, as long as the new assembly upholds their hard-won democratic freedom, they will respect the vote. It’s hard for us Americans, who maybe take our ability to elect our own leader every four years for granted, to really appreciate how monumental it is that the Tunisian elections went so well. I couldn’t help but share in a bit of the excitement myself as I remembered back to the election of Barack Obama in November 2008. That was also a historic moment as the U.S. welcomed its first black president; it was also my first time voting in a presidential election, and I was overjoyed that my first vote was cast in such an auspicious election. I know many of my friends of the same age felt that way, too.

Now imagine the scene in Tunisia, where first-time voters aren’t just young people; hardly anyone in the country has ever participated in an election. Hundreds of people are experiencing the pride and joy I felt three years ago, except it must be amplified by one hundred, because this isn’t just their first election, but their country’s as well, and it’s all because of the people’s initiative and determination. No matter the outcome of this election, it is a moment that is of great historical importance and national pride, and I am certain every Tunisian and probably every Arab will remember it for the rest of their lives.