Nowadays it seems like everyone is getting to the list of “terrorists” or “conspirers” or “a general threat” The most recent is Abu Trekka. Whether the convictions are true or not, is not my point. If it is true, wow, that’s terrible. If not true, well, it’s equally is terrible from the Government. More and more we are hearing messages from the Government condemning people for doing these “unacceptable” acts against the country. I don’t mean to say it’s not serious if Abu Trekka was actually funding the Muslim Brotherhood or not. If he was actually doing that, then shame on him, and what a disgrace!

I want to start off by wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope everyone can be with family and friends, and really take time to relax and be thankful among those most important to you. When I think about the birth of our Lord, I can’t help but wonder how far, us, as Christians, have wandered from the example Jesus set for us. The most glorious Being, the King of Kings, our Saviour, was born in a manger. How many times do we hear this same story, and yet it continues to shock me. The One who is our Leader, in all ways, was born in a tiny bed lying on hay. Which, by the way is what cows eat for food, thrown onto the ground left for animals to step on.

I want to congratulate all our readers with the new year. Wishing to be better than the previous year which was full of bad news everywhere in the world. I know that many people may be negative and say that we say the same thing every year. Also might say that every time we wish the next year to be better but it never become better. I want to tell those who think in this way that asl ong as you still have chance to live for the next year, its very good and amazing news. Look around yourself especially with what is happening around the world now days, you should be thankful that you still have chance to improve your life and make it better.

I have recently watched an interview of Dr. Abd El-Moneem Saeed on CBC Tv. He was trying to analyst Egyptian diplomacy, especially since after Egypt voted for the Russian and French resolution at the UN at the same time. Saeed tried to understand and interpret the confusion of Egyptian diplomacy by claiming that Egypt is lacking a strategy to deal with international issues. With my respect to Dr. Saeed, I completely differ with what he was trying to say, as I don’t think that the confusion in Egyptian diplomacy is because of a lacking strategy. I totally believe that you can’t have an independent diplomacy without being independent in your decisions.

Egyptians have been asking the same question for a long time now. This question is: why can't the lower class feel or see any improvements despite the economic reform that all governments have been proclaiming to adopt to improve poverty and the middle class. I can assure you, that Egyptians will never feel any imporvement either short term or long term if economic reforms are not adopted, and fair tax systems not imposed. It is widely known that the exact same taxes are collected from rich people, as they are collected from the poor and middle classes. However, this should not be the same percentage, because it is only making the poor more poor, and the middle class move towards being poor as well. Having said that, we can see that the Egyptian tax system is now based on an unfair tax system. We can see that the most heavily taxed people are the government employees and the public sector employees as well. At the same time, we can see that the richest people pay the same percentage as the poor people. Furthermore, they try to create their own ways to escape and report unreal facts about their profits so they can pay less taxes. In conclusion, I want to advise that the only way the government will see a real change in Egyptian life, they will have to adopt a different approach to the their tax system.

The terrorism attack that happened recently against the Church of St. Peter, located inside the Coptic Cathedral shows us, that without a doubt, the Copts have a history, and are a living history, of sacrifice. Martyrdom is something the Coptic people have gotten used to since the time Islam invaded Egypt. Before that, it was the Roman Empire who considered Christians as rebels. This terrorism attack not only shows the teachings of hatred in schools and mosques, and how it leads to disasters such as these tragedies, but also shows that unless Egypt takes serious steps to eliminate these insulting teachings towards other religions we will continue down this road. This attack aslso shows how the police is so careless about protecting the rights and freedoms any Egyptian Christian should be able to practice.

I have talked many times about the culture of hatred that Egyptians have. I don't believe that Egyptians are peaceful people, contrary to what the media is trying to proclaim. There are many things that have happened in the last 2 decades that has made Egyptians very violent and hatefull of everything.

The U.S. has come out with a report listing the safest Middle Eastern countries to visit for tourists. Among this list were Jordan, UAE, and our very own Egypt. What I want to focus on is this fog that is floating around Egypt clouding everyone from the downturn the country is actually encountering.

Before June 30th 2013, all political parties was trying to prove that they are existing and their voice was so loud in criticising and commenting in every event, however, after June 30th, I barely can hear their voice in the political life. There are many factors explain why the political parties are silent but these factors cannot be a reason to continue silent. One of these factors that the political parties don’t have the tools to make any real change as most of the parties are week and suffer from internal dispute. Some other factors related to the president Sisi himself, as they consider him the saviour after he could get rid of the Muslims Brotherhood and they believe that they can’t be opponent to the person who did this favor for them.

There are many things in life are basic needs and you can’t compromise them. Water, Electricity, and Medication are things we can’t tell any person to wait for long time until we solve the issues related to these basic things. We can’t ask any children he wants go to school to wait until the water come to wash his face and brush his teeth, otherwise, he will never go to school. The same for Medication, we can’t tell elder people to wait because the medicine they want is not available, otherwise, they will die before getting this medicine. I can’t imagine that Egypt with all their potential can’t solve simple issues like providing people with water, Medication and the same with Electricity.

In an unprecedented step the Central Bank of Egypt decided to float the Egyptian pound yesterday. This step lead the US Dollar reach about 15 Egyptian pound and more. The question we need to ask after this step Is it the right time to this step? From my simple knowledge, I can say that this decision has pros and cons; however, I need to explain some facts before ending up with conclusion. The first fact we need to know that Egypt imports more than exports. The second fact, Tourism industry suffer from long time and until the present time which is the main source of the foreign currency after the Suez canal. The third fact, the security and instability in Egypt is so high because of the political was between the current regime and Muslims Brotherhood.

It seems the crisis between Egypt and Suadi Arabia will not end soon especially after the last statement from the saudi diplomate who made fun of Sisi when he was talking about his freidge. This was not the first crisis to happen between Egypt and Saudi arabia Lately. In the same month another crisis happened when Egypt vote with the russian resolution which made Saudi Arabia angry becuase of that. The main problem of Saudi Arabia that they want Egypt to follow them as subordinate, however, Egypt will never be subordinate to Saudi Arabia but they are insiisting to deal with Egypt in that way.

Recently, youth leaders and ambassadors in Egypt had the pleasure of meeting with Sisi for a conference in Sharm El Sheikh. Topics of discussion included imprisoned youth under the Sisi administration, poverty and the looming threat of yet another revolution that seems closer than comfortable. Social media has been exploding with the idea of another revolution soon to materialize. My questions is, was this conference an attempt for Sisi to try to salvage the image he has with the youth? Does he actually care about the concerns that were brought up during the conference? Furthermore, with this so-called mass protest less than two weeks away, was this just a monumental waste of time since the protests are still going to happen anyways, with the leaders all being the youth of Egypt?

Egypt was knwon long time that it is one of the most countries produce sugar, however, the shortge in sugar supply lately shows the turndown happened in this industry. The main peoblem in this crisis from my view is that the government failed to even talk about this problem and explain the causes and the options to solve it.

Every time the media announce that President Sisi will go to visit a certain place, I see all cleaning starting to be the best place in the world at that time. Having said that, without these visits none of these villages will improve or have the minimum service that any village should have, furthermore, we will see garbage everywhere and careless everywhere as long as there is no announcement that Mr. President will visit that place soon.

Lately the former NDB member Ahmad Ezz who was one of the reason that 25th revolution sparked, wrote an article calling for being optimistic for the future. I was curious to read his article to explore what he will say and why especially at this time.

Most of the time we look at any crime only from one side. We always think that this person is crazy or bad by nature and at the same time we forget that the criminal person is a person like any other person except for the enviroment that he was living in. This intrdouction is important to understand what push the people to illegally try to immigrate to Italy. The crime is realted most of the time to the situation of the economy. I read a statement to one of the saved people that sank lateley and he was confirming that he will try million times to escape Egypt even he is going to die.

From long time and our Coptic church involved by chance or by force in the Egyptian political scene, however, is this path will continue and is it in the interest of the church to be involved in the political scene always? The reason I open this subject now because I can’t imagine that our Coptic church to announce that she sent messenger to prepare for Al Sisi visit to New York. Not only the Coptic Church will send a messenger to the states but also the Anglican Church announced that it will send a priest to prepare to Al-Sisi visit.

The Egyptian economy suffers more from debts due to the borrowing policies that the government and the president tout lately. More debt means next generation will not have good future and they will be burden by how to pay all of these debts back in the future. The borrowing policies weren’t just from the international bank but also from the local banks. I can assure that the only people will get benefit from this debts are the rich people not the poor people.

No doubt that the international visit is very important to any president and to any country seeks more development and more progress, however, the time of the visit is very important to be able to achieve what you aim at. Lately, President Sisi went to visit India which is something good in the long run, however, I can’t imagine that a president can go for a visit to India while the parents can’t find milk to their children. I believe that caring about what’s going inside Egypt should be our first priority not outside, especially in that critical time that Egypt suffer from many problems which affects the simple citizen.

Recently, The Coptic church addressed that they are along with the Anglican and Catholic Church agreed on the new law for building the churches, however, the main question we have to ask here was there a law for building a church and if there was a law before so what is the difference between that law and the previous law. Unfortunately, I can see a lot of propaganda about the new law and the media and responsible people will try to convince themselves and Coptic community that this law will solve the issue of building a new church and that will stop all the sectarian events that are happing almost every month.