One of my favorite parts of Jordan, Morocco, and elsewhere and a culture strength of the MENA region is the Arab cultural and lingustic emphasis on "we,” whereas in the US and Europe people more often refer to things in terms of “I.”"We" talk fills up a room and I rarely have felt lonely during my 2+ years in Morocco and during my current stay in Jordan. I can't say the same for life in New York. I love the city (or at least often) for its incessant action, energy, and crowds, but the issue lies in that so much of people's activities are done alone. Other people are your natural environment much like flora, fauna, and the landscape and if not attune, you begin to tune them out as such. Some of the side effects of urban density/suburban sprawl/US transitory living patterns are outlined in books like "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community," but I'm more interested how the linguistic emphasis on "we" historically in tribes in North Africa, the Levant, and the larger East affects current behavior.
Of note, if I had backed out of the above photo, you would notice that outside of this large gathering of men, few other people were swimming along the Beirut coast (setting aside the fact that there's few attractive public places to swim). In western culture, we look for isolated places where a small group of friends/family can find privacy. Just as with my experience along the coast in Morocco, Arab beach-goers congregate towards each other. This quality and its expansion into all areas of interaction is something for which I admire... epitomized by the two friends lying back, arm-in-arm in the water.
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