January 25th is just mere days away. Emotions are running high. I feel as though people are panicking for what fate awaits them in just a few days. I'm not sure if the air is tense with protestors brewing and ready to oust the current president, Sisi, or if the tension is coming from those who are anxious and desperately want peace in the land. Either way, the anxiety amongst all the people is almost palpable. It is as if there is some kind of force entering people's homes and creating this uneasiness all around. What I can say is, I hope that all that comes with the 25th is a memorial for all the lives that were lost, and a celebration for the new found steps made towards Egypt progressing in a positive way.

While we are close to completing the first month since the first session for the Egyptian parliament, we have to evaluate and think about what this parliament will do and what the will achieve for the next 4 years? We muust also ask ourselves the question: will this parliament be able to face the challenges that Egypt is currently facing? Will this Parliament be organized and be able to be beneficial for Egyptians? The first feature I can notice about this parliament is that it has no outstanding character or as we would say, it doesn’t have a leader or majority that can lead the vote with or against the bills that the parliament supposed to discuss in the coming months.

As we all know, just last Wednesday we all celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Midnight mass is always a time for celebration. Everyone comes excited for many reasons. Some of us dress up in our best clothes, some of us can't wait to take communion so we can eat some meat, all of us come ready to celebrate and event that happens once a year and is cherished in our hearts. Imagine you go to church praying, minding your own business, and suddenly out of nowhere or the president of your country comes to congratulate you on this special event. This is the second year in a row that President Sisi came to congratulate his Holiness Pope Tawadros ll jeering Christmas mass. He came and rallied up the congregation, and said a few nice words, while laughing and smiling with everyone. He even heard the congregation break out in cheers, rooting for him and showing their appreciation.

Every day I read about the carelessness that exists everywhere in Egypt. Whenever I hear the expression, “The regime hasn’t changed” I think, have we ever thought about reversing this statement so it becomes, “The people haven’t changed,” instead of the regime? I still see people throwing garbage all over the street, what does this have to with the regime? I still see people trying to pay and take bribes to finish what they want in a way convenient for them, regardless of the system. Is this related to the regime or to the people themselves?

In this coming New Year, we all take the time to send our best wishes to one another and congratulate them for a new upcoming year, hopefully filled with happiness and health for family and loved one everywhere. At the same time we celebrate the birth of Christ, which gives us a new hope for life, not only for our traditional life but also our spiritual life. The birth of Christ represents the new birth for all of us with our new nature. This nature should glorify God in all His grace that He gave to every one of us. I know giving thanks nowadays is not an easy thing, especially with what’s going on the world everywhere which many people are suffering from different things. Some people may be facing the war that goes on everywhere nowadays, some may be suffering from their health, and others from losing someone they love. Suffering should not push you to be hopeless; it should give you a new incentive towards life, and always look to the birth of Jesus as a new hope in your life. In conclusion, I want to wish all our readers a Happy New Years with a new hope. Asking God to help Christians in the Middle East, especially with what’s going against them every day.

Egypt has about a million faults. It has garbage everywhere. The streets are not safe. The political process is still a sight for sore eyes. Today, I want to focus on one thing that the country of Egypt doesn’t have, which is devastation. Yes there are many tragedies, kidnappings, killings, but not enough to declare the country of Egypt in a state of devastation. Syria does not have the same luxury at the moment; they are struggling between living under ISIS or the Regime, or with the Rebels. The holiday season is upon us. This is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus, to spend time with our families, cherish memories and moments that gives us the very meaning of life. It is also a time, where loneliness and depression is felt for those who have no one to celebrate with. I don’t mean to create this air of sadness, but I want us to take a moment to remember that we are blessed in this life.

With all the turmoil and suffering around us, we have always had strong hearts with hopeful spirits. The general consensus has been “Egypt will get better” “Give the Country time to rebuild” I believe that there has been a shift in this ideology, because honestly speaking there is a limit for everyone, and for every circumstance, and when that limit is reached, an ideology based on apathetic, indifferent attitudes is formed. I can’t speak for all of Egypt, but I can speak for myself when I say I have grown cold to the idea of positive thinking. It is so tiring to always remain hopeful in terrible situations. Or when tragedy strikes, to think “That’s ok, we are taking steps to fix the issue” We are always acting in a response to something bad happening. We then proceed to tell ourselves that we should remain strong and to believe in our country, our parliament, our people.

The many recent accidents that have happened in Egypt show us how “responsible” people, those who are in charge, are careless and don’t care about other peoples’ lives. One of these such accidents is the fire at the nightclub that left at least 20 people dead and many injured. Also, we can’t forget what happened in Alexandria recently due to the heavy rain and also how this careless tragedy left many people dead, while also destroying a lot of shops and stores in the city. However, without the interference of the Army to save to the city, Alexandria would be drowning right now.

Anyone trying to observe Turkey’s Inclinations, especially after it destroyed the Russian war airplane, will come to find that Turkey defends terrorism more than they defend democracy. I read a lot of comments from Turkey’s politicians and I have never read any comment saying, “Sorry for killing the Russian Soldiers” even if it wasn’t Turkey’s mistake. Turkey isn’t an enemy to Russia and Russia didn’t declare the war against Turkey because of this accident.

There are two events that have happened recently in Egypt. These two events are completely related, but at the same time, are contradicting. The first event was the first phase of the parliamentary elections in which the participation reached to barely 12%, and if we compare this percent with the parliamentary elections in 2011, we will find a big difference. This indicates to me that the Egyptians are not satisfied and don’t believe in the political process any more.

No normal human being in the world couldn't sympathsyis with france for what happened last day resulting in killing more than 127 people and left 200 people injured. Its a horrible and inhumanity accedient. I introduce my condolence and asking God to have mercy in their souls.

The West always likes to appear as experts in everything, even in matters they are clearly not. In the latest Russian airplane crash in Egypt, all of the UK, the US, and France started to suggest that the airplane was bombed from inside. They are trying to say that our Intelligence Agencies figured out this fact without waiting for the investigation’s outcome.

No one can deny the importance of the media in any society. However, this shouldn’t be taken as a reason to tolerate the media when they are going in the wrong direction. I don’t want to focus on the last episode introduced by Riham Saeed. I completely am against what she did, and I believe she should go to the court for her actions. Having said that, Riham Saeed is just an example of the turmoil we live in nowadays. Facing terrorism doesn’t mean hiding all the problems and mistakes that the executive authorities do everyday against its citizens. Everyday I read a new story about a prisoner dying due to their torture and abuse in the custody of the jail. If we go back to the 25th of January 2011 revolution, we will remember that parliamentary elections in 2010 and the increase in the torturing of prisoners were the reasons the revolution was sparked. I believe that we have a similar situation now as we had before.

If we step back and take a look, 2 countries were going through elections at the same time. We had just recently the Parliamentary elections in Egypt. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Canada, they were holding the voting and 11 week campaign for Prime Minister Elections. I want to take a moment and compare how unbelievably different these two nations participated in this democratic right.

Last week there was a lot of statements made by the Al-Nour Party proving that without a doubt, that they are a religious party, not a secular one. The Al-Nour party proclaimed that they would allow Copts to be candidates under their reign just because they want to respect the law. This means that in their own belief they don’t think that the Copts are citizens, or that they have the same rights. The Al-Nour Party confirmed that Copts are not considered citizens and they are just doing them a favor by putting them in their elections list. However, I can say that many Copts are the reason of giving Al-Nour party the chance to withdraw their rights and consider it as a favor.

I now read every day about the argument by the Al-Nour party, and also add to that, the clashes between the Minister of Culture and the Salafist. All of this pushes me to focus today about those exact events. If we go back to the revolution of June 30th, we can see that the Al-Nour party was a part of the political process at that time. We all remember the most famous picture at this time of the gathering between Pope Tawadros, the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, and the Salafist leader Remembering that day will lead us to understand why the State and the Ex-Defense Minister decided to contain the Salafists and put them in the political scene. I believe the Ex- Defense Minister was very smart to include the Salafists because at that time he wanted to show the world that the political power was included in the political environment and they were not excluded.

In my last article I spoke about the parliamentary elections. I had mentioned that ex NDP members and the Al-Nour party will mostly compose the next parliament. Today, however, I want to talk about the position of the Copts in the next parliamentary elections. I believe that after 2 revolutions, nothing has changed regarding the Copts. Meaning, these 2 revolutions have not resulted in a push for Egyptians to vote for a Coptic man rather than a Muslim. You may be curious and ask me why I am pessimistic about the future of the Copts in parliament.

While we are close to the parliament elections, we need to shed light on the importance of this upcoming election. There is no doubt that the ex-members of the NDP will try to get back into the political life. Also, we should confess that the businessmen will also try to be involved in this election at least to protect their interest in the next coming years.

I firmly believe that all great things come from a balance of constructive criticism and positive reinforcement. A lack of balance will put anything and anyone at risk of not developing their full potential, and stunt any type of hopeful growth. If I am someone who is trying my best to achieve a dream, or achieve growth, or achieve change, it only makes sense that positivity will encourage me to move forward, and negative criticism will most likely cause me to give up. Constructive criticism is beneficial when given in small amounts. I mean to say, for every 1 negative thought put forward, 2 positive thoughts should also be put forward to balance out. Consider a small child. Or even someone in secondary school. Constant words like "you are doing this wrong" "I can't believe you don't know this" "look at how badly you did this" "you are not smart" "you are not taking anything seriously"will really damage a person.

America has almost a million negatives, when I look at it as a negative. I can even be so bold as to say, so does any other Western country. Americans are for the most part, money hungry, power hungry, capitalists. America is a consumer based society, where the thirst for power seems to be never satiated. Having said that, however, there is one thing that we can see from looking at any Western country, and hope to achieve this one day, and this is devastation shock and the strength to rebuild. The events of 9/11 were horrendous. So tragic that hundreds lost their lives due to fanatics and their distorted actions. I’m ok with anyone believe in anything, but when it affects the people around you, then it’s time to reflect and adjust accordingly. The beliefs of these sick animals affected hundreds of people and changed their lives forever. Even look to Canada and the terror attack on Pa

Because I have experience working for the government for such a long time, I wanted to talk about the new Civil Law for the governmental employees today. Lately, a lot of governmental organizations declared that they will organize a demonstration against the law.