ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three broad contemporary issues that have a special relationship to leisure, work, and community involvement in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The three issues are personal well-being, community development, and democratic advance. Since well-being is a long-term state, it is also substantially affected by how a person's leisure and work careers and personal life course develop over the years. The fact that complex leisure and work offer a distinctive personal and social identity is central to personal development. Defining democracy in the terms provides a clear link to citizen participation, as conveyed through the words "by the people" and "for the people". A refusal to compromise on issues of political concern in one's country may be interpreted as an instance of selfishness, as exploitation of fellow countrymen for personal gain at the expense of the citizens.
